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Viewing topic "Baba O’Riley (teenage wasteland)"

     
Posted on: December 04, 2007 @ 05:09 PM
MichaelJHuman
Total Posts:  369
Joined  09-04-2007
status: Enthusiast

What would you say makes those chord hits sound so cool on the intro to The Who’s Baba O’Riley?

Sounds like a piano, with possibly a guitar playing the same chord.

I am unsure about the arp.  It sounds kinda like guitar, but I read something about the arpeggio originating from an ARP.  I was curious as to what was used to record it on the Who’s Next album.

  [ Ignore ]  

Posted on: December 04, 2007 @ 05:56 PM
DavePolich
Total Posts:  6820
Joined  07-27-2002
status: Guru

Re: Baba O’Riley (teenage wasteland)

Google “recording Baba O’Riley” or “recording Who’s Next” and you’ll get many references. After reading through most of them, the information you’ll end up with is:

1. The synthesizer arpeggio stuff was done either on an ARP 2600, a Putney VCS3, or a Lowrey organ filtered through a VCS3. Personally I believe it was an ARP.

2. The “violin” solo at the end is actually a viola. Keith Moon came up with the idea of inserting it at the end and turning the song from a hard rock smasher to a celtic two-step.

If you listen to the track, the opening chords are highly compressed piano. As to what piano, no one seems to know, but running the recorded audio track through a compressor and squashing the crap out of it was a favorite recording technique that the Who often used.

  [ Ignore ]  

Posted on: December 04, 2007 @ 07:08 PM
MichaelJHuman
Total Posts:  369
Joined  09-04-2007
status: Enthusiast

Re: Baba O’Riley (teenage wasteland)

No guitar playing over the piano then I guess?  I will have to try compressing some pianos on the XS to see how they sound.


  [ Ignore ]  

Posted on: December 04, 2007 @ 08:47 PM
Joshy
Total Posts:  1823
Joined  08-05-2007
status: Guru

Re: Baba O’Riley (teenage wasteland)

There’s already a compressed piano in the XS that may be just what you’re looking for, but I don’t know the name of the voice.  As for the synth sound, Dave Polich’s Vintage Keys XS offers a version of the sound that sounds dead on.  Listen to Dave’s demos in the MotifMart.

  [ Ignore ]  

Posted on: December 05, 2007 @ 07:14 PM
DavePolich
Total Posts:  6820
Joined  07-27-2002
status: Guru

Re: Baba O’Riley (teenage wasteland)

“No guitar playing over the piano then I guess? I will have to try compressing some pianos on the XS to see how they sound.”

There is guitar playing the same chords as the piano - the piano chords come in first all by themselves, then the guitar joins in later.

The Motif XS has a great VCM compressor effect, and one of the presets “60sDrumKit” can be used as an insert effect on a piano to get the type of compressed sound you hear on the Who track.

  [ Ignore ]