Magic (Don't Take That Magic Away)

[nobby]

This is my earliest surviving track, recorded, I think while I was in my early 20s.

Magic (Don't Take That Magic Away)

Laura Kaye - Vocals

Jonathan "nobby" Boose - Songwriter, "Producer" Steinway baby grand, Yamaha electric grand, Hammond B3, 12 string acoustic guitar

Steve Boose - Bass Guitar

Bob Dedominico - Drums

I think we recorded the drums at one studio and I wasn't happy with the way things were going so I took it to another studio recommended by an acquaintance who was touring with Billy Joel as his synth player at the time, where we overdubbed everything else.

After not listening to it for a long time, I noticed something peculiar (but not in a bad way) about the piano solo, then I remembered that we recorded it twice, with the Steinway and the Yamaha, then during mixing decided to use them both and hard pan them.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7wdy6g63sxkgb ... 1.wav?dl=0

[Tim Halligan]

Nice one!

Cheers,
Tim

[Gronk]

Yeah, very noice, nobby.
Was this a band?

[meloco_go]

Nice, very powerful voice! The drums sounded a bit thin in comparison. But the vibe is nice.

[nobby]

Nice, very powerful voice! The drums sounded a bit thin in comparison. But the vibe is nice.

I think that was one of the problems at the first studio. I only remember the drums originally sounded dull and the engineer at the second studio used a bit of Aural Exciter on the drums to give them more life.

[nobby]

Yeah, very noice, nobby.
Was this a band?

It was a one-off.

I had been trying to get a Rock band together. None of us could sing at the time, or we would have gone power trio a la Hendrix or Cream. Or if we could find a singer, a 4 piece somewhat between Who and Led Zeppelin. (I had been playing guitar for about 10 years at the time)

But I was running out of money and thought I had an idea for what I felt might be a hit single.

I had no idea how to shop it or who to shop it to, plus Magic sounded a bit too much like a finished record to shop to an established singer. I had no useful connections and was clueless as to the business end of music, not that I'm exactly an expert now.

I had originally intended Magic to have a male vocal, but the engineer, Dave Greenberg , said that he had a female singer that his studio worked with whom he felt could do a really good job, and based on his enthusiasm -- I can still see his face light up as I recall this -- I hired her for the session.

She came in with the vocal arrangement you hear. Dave thought one part of it didn't sound that good, but I overrode him, because I loved it.

The entire vocal session was done in 4 hours. I paid her more or less what was union scale at the time, and although I was almost out of money I gave her a hundred dollar tip (which was a lot of money back then) because I was just blown away with the job she did.

I got involved with other projects and the tape languished for so long that by the time I got around to mixing it, it was shedding oxide and needed to be baked and transferered to a new tape. (456 is not known for logevity -- we transferred it to GP9)

That was quite expensive because the only studio we could find in the region to do the job -- it had to have two 24 track machines in the same room and a convection oven -- was BMG in Manhattan, and they charged top dollar. Nice view from the 30th floor, right across the hall from Puff Daddy's office at the time. They had machines for every known tape format, for archiving.

Back at Rock & Reel Studios (long defunct) we mixed it down to ADAT and CD.

All I have now is the .wav file of the CD, which sounded amemic -- kind of halfway between what I wanted it to sound like and a clock radio.

So I fiddled around with it using Isotope Ozone and Slate compressors to give it more girth and weight. I may have it professionally mastered at some point. But it's a huge improvement IMO.

[upstairs]

Catchy song

[nobby]

Thanks, Ser -- that was the goal!

[unitymusic]

This is really cool. I don't even know what my "earliest surviving track" would be, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as good.

[Cirrus]

Nice, and yes, the drums sound a little thin but I actually quite like that - leaves lots of space in the low mids for the piano. And a lovely vocal!