Recording Gaffs!

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:02 am

I once was recording a band live in the studio & we tried several takes. On listening back to the 'killer' take, we could here a mobile phone in one of the gaps. They thought it was great & decided to run with the take anyway. I couldn't lose it, as it was on an instrument tail, but I did enough that you could here it only on headphones. The embarrasing thing was though....I think the mobile was mine!!!

I also have an album (Radiohead?) where on a quiet acoustic guitar section, if you where headphones, you can actually here a door opening....great stuff.

The first couple of tracks from Jets 'Get Ready' album has crazily loud cymbals. This is probably an unexpected side effect of the mastering process & a dull mix to start with. It could be that the producer liked cymbals, but they were so loud, that I can't help but think that someone, somewhere along the line thought that well known engineering expression.....Oh bugger!

Anyone heard any more.....

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:39 am

I've heard some "not related" talks on a couple of Russian 80s recordings, like, the guitarist and the bassist discussing future "beer party"...

I've also read somewhere that on some 60s records, some "not related" sounds (of putting guitar down, or drum sticks falling) can be heard by the end of the track, if one listens carefully...

shinynewtoy · Post by **shinynewtoy** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:04 pm

...and there's always Noel Redding playing the wrong part on the outro to "Fire"...

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:16 pm

On the Beatles "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", right after John Lennon does his last scream on the song, you can hear others in the studio in the background(like McCartney perhaps) agreeing with Lennon's genuine and heartfelt scream. Its subtle, but its there.

On a home recording I did years ago on my cassette 4 track, you can hear an airplane flying overhead just at the perfect point in the song with the lyrics. Now it will have to be there for the finished version of course!

rob · Post by **rob** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:39 pm

I remember hearing one time about someone filming a wedding on a camcorder. Upstairs from where the wedding was taking place, there was a room full of football fans watchig a game. As soon as the bride and groom exchanged vows, there was a touchdown. The camcorder recorded the cheering right after the married couple said "I do".

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:04 pm

Er, my second solo on 'Sleight Of Hand': http://www.myspace.com/thefoglifters

I totally blow one note, but keep on going. It was musical, so we kept it.

These things happen when you record a dozen songs in 3 days. Sorry, the solo's played on an old Tele, but the rest of the electrics are my Ric 1997SPC/VB.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:50 pm

I can think of a few, right off the top of my head, Combination by Aerosmith has a door opening right as the song is starting, of course, the chair as the piano note is tailing off on A Day in the Life, or one of my favorites, on Physical Graffiti from Zeppelin, there's a "Jet" as they are going to start a take...also love the end of "In My Time of Dying", where Plant is supposed to hit the last line ("Gonna make it my dying, dying, dying...(cough) and that's where they end the song, with the producer saying "That's gonna be the one, isn't it?"
I think they cut this from the CD. I was mad.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:16 pm

On one particular Tubes album (sorry, can't remember which one right now), there are notes included describing little peculiarities of each track...one of them says something along the lines of 'the odd noise at the end of the second chorus is the sound of a 'cello player, fast asleep, falling off of his plastic chair'...when I first read this, I immediately turned to the list of players and there he was: David Speltz, my genius hyper-nerd college Calculus teacher, who at that time was also the cellist in the Hollywood String Quartet...I might have known...

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:33 pm

Well obviously the moral of that story Dane, is that they should not have sat him on a plastic chair. Those things are dangerous. LOL

string_along · Post by **string_along** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:37 pm

(Saturday Night Live): GIVE ME MORE COWBELL!

red_rob · Post by **red_rob** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:18 am

In the stones' satisfaction, I'm pretty sure you can hear a clumsy click a few times as whoever was playing the famous lead riff for the chorus, flicks what seems to be the the pickup switch.

I can't get no {CLUNK! duh de der de der} SATISFACTION {duh de der de der der} etc.

In the Beatles "it's only love" you can hear John laugh at his own slightly silly lyric "Just the sight of you makes nighttime bright,Very bright {slight snigger}."

Or have I imagined all these...?

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:39 am

Beginning of You Keep Me Hanging On, Vanilla Fudge, the drummer hits a cymbal or his sticks together or something like that.

Stones with a clumsy lick? Come on now. How about the crash landing of The Spider and the Fly? haha! I think they all played a different chord.

red_rob · Post by **red_rob** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:41 am

I love that Vanilla Fudge track!

"and there aint nuthin I can do about it"

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:41 am

I was lstening to an early album by the Shadows not long ago....gaffs, where do you start. Absolutely blatent bum notes...but you know, it still sounded good!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:03 pm

The click on "Satisfaction" is the button on the Maestro Fuzztone pedal. Keith (Brian?) misses the first note, hits the button instead, and jumps right in. My old band worked hard at getting that click just right, right down to miking the fuzzbox exterior.