Tone Delve: Who Are You?

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Admin M@

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Fractal Audio Systems
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Have you ever listened to this? Like many isolated guitar tracks from famous classic rock songs, it's a far cry from what what you might have expected.


It sounds like it was recorded with a PA speaker connected to the amp, or direct through a load box of some kind with no speaker sim.
Here's a tone match showing the frequencies found across the track. Do you know anything more about this recording?

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Found this...pretty interesting read.

"For instance, when he did the main part with a Gibson Les Paul on 'Who Are You?', recorded in the control room by Glyn, using a Gelf preamp and some nice plate echo, everybody stopped and went 'Shit!'"

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-who-are-you-who

Goes on to say this:

"The whole thing was driven by Pete's angular rhythm guitar part, played through an ARP 2600 suitcase synth which had an auto-pan and a filter that was opening in time with the auto-pan."

What a killer tune...
 
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Wild. Not that much distortion, but so much power.

Nowadays the producer or some A&R guy would be like "can you play it that first way all the way through? Or we can just loop it..."
 
Maybe it's because the track is iconic, but I really love the tone. It's not huge or anything. But it's a tasty and unique fuzz tone. But the highlight is how awesome Townsend's licks are. That's a pretty simple chord structure and he makes it sound way more exciting and interesting with those licks. There's way more swing to it too when you hear it isolated like this.
 
These isolated tracks played a big part on me falling in love with mixing. Very much the same way I fell in love with cooking when I was a young cook working in my first scratch-kitchen; throwing one flavor in the pot when it tastes nothing like the final product but makes it complete is the magic stuff I love and this track/song is a perfect example of that.

It’s also been the source of much frustration when I’m not nailing a mix I’ve been working on for hours. :D
 
iaresee said:
Maybe it's because the track is iconic, but I really love the tone. It's not huge or anything. But it's a tasty and unique fuzz tone. But the highlight is how awesome Townsend's licks are. That's a pretty simple chord structure and he makes it sound way more exciting and interesting with those licks. There's way more swing to it too when you hear it isolated like this.
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Thanks for the Track. For me Pete is one of the best Rhythm guitarplayer and off course Composer. In general the Who records were always superb with really good songs. I‘ve seen them many times since the beginning and the were a famous live-act too.
 
Awesome Arp Guitar tone Matt! Those Townsend parts are great. If you've got that swing and groove, you can play with just about any tone and it'll sound cool.
 
I didn’t listen yet, but I bet it sounds nothing like amp in the room everyone been griping about forever. In the mix is where it’s at.
 
That's too cool. I can even picture Townsend's spasdic playing just listening to this! I can really appreciate his talent/feel/vibe a LOT more after listening to this.
Fun fact: Pete Townsend's favorite pop song is S.O.S. by Abba. I loved that song as a kid (well, still do.)
 
Man, that is a killer isolated track! The tone reinforces the dynamics of the part really well. I would never pick that tone myself, but it is an iconic sound and an integral component of the song.
 
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