“Any Major Dude” cover production rundown

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Serendipity Records

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Sooo I’m covering this lil oddity of a tune from Steely Dan.

I’m about half-way through the tracking phase. I’m playing all instruments, apart from the drums which my friend will handle. As it stands, this is the lineup:

Lead vocals (no backing) -- AKG D125
Wurli -- keyboard, direct
Piano -- keyboard, direct
Congas (unconfirmed due to unavailability of said instrument)
Bass -- direct, amp sim
Drums -- pending. My usual OH mics (SM81s) are unavailable at the moment... going for a bit of a dirty drum sound anyways so I will experiment a bit with miking.

This will be the first time I produce a full-band recording without any MIDI. As usual, the arrangement takes the original for a spin -- for once though, the chord structure is unchanged apart from a coupla twists in the bridge/solo. For the doubters... I got a more than half-decent keyboard during Christmas. Extremely realistic, particularly the acoustic piano sounds.

Production is in Harrison Mixbus, with IK Multimedia plugins.

Hope to have some clips sometime shortly. Keep an eye and an ear out ;)
 
Ambitious aren't you (y) Great song and nice Rhodes track. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with...Rock on!

I got to see em live in 74 in Glendale, CA at the Sopwith Camel. Michael Mcdonald on piano (not rhodes) I don't remember noticing it but it is said it is not Fagan but the drummer ( Royce Jones) singing any dude in this version ( which is damn cool) Killer bootleg recording of the set
 
TAE said:
Ambitious aren't you (y) Great song and nice Rhodes track. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with...Rock on!

I got to see em live in 74 in Glendale, CA at the Sopwith Camel. Michael Mcdonald on piano (not rhodes) I don't remember noticing it but it is said it is not Fagan but the drummer ( Royce Jones) singing any dude in this version ( which is damn cool) Killer bootleg recording of the set
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Dude.... thanks for sharing that. Hadn't heard it. That is some good stuff! :thumbs up:
 
TAE said:
Ambitious aren't you (y) Great song and nice Rhodes track. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with...Rock on!

I got to see em live in 74 in Glendale, CA at the Sopwith Camel. Michael Mcdonald on piano (not rhodes) I don't remember noticing it but it is said it is not Fagan but the drummer ( Royce Jones) singing any dude in this version ( which is damn cool) Killer bootleg recording of the set
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That’s not Any Major Dude - it’s Boshivtta - and on this version it’s Fagan mixed with Jones - Fagan is on top.
 
Papanate said:
Duh! I thought it was just the one song - and your right it’s Jones singing it - I wonder why?
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Fagen disliked singing lead and was not technically THE lead vocalist until later that year. As I understand, it came down to Fagen or Michael McDonald as permanent lead vocalist (Fagen’s preferrence -- imagine that!!), but Michael opted to join the Doobies instead.

@TAE I’m extremely jealous. Also an insane version of Rikki on that bootleg. Pretzel Logic is the Dan’s first definitive discography album in my opinion -- maybe controversial, but hey. They were beginning to push boundaries, and I have a preference for their later albums anyways.

Also “Any Major Dude” is in F instead of D in this bootleg. Interesting.
 
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Serendipity Records said:
Fagen disliked singing lead and was not technically THE lead vocalist until later that year. As I understand, it came down to Fagen or Michael McDonald as permanent lead vocalist (Fagen’s preferrence -- imagine that!!), but Michael opted to join the Doobies instead.

@TAE I’m extremely jealous. Also an insane version of Rikki on that bootleg. Pretzel Logic is the Dan’s first definitive discography album in my opinion -- maybe controversial, but hey. They were beginning to push boundaries, and I have a preference for their later albums anyways.

Also “Any Major Dude” is in F instead of D in this bootleg. Interesting.
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I was a fan from the beginning of Can't buy a thrill. Reeling in the years, Dirty work Love em and hit home with where I was in life and love at the time...
 
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Well, here it is, mostly finished.



I really like the vocal apart from a little falsetto-to-chest-voice crack in the last chorus bit—quite unfortunate, might have to re-track either those few seconds or the whole thing :(

This was my first time experimenting with automation on non-fader parameters, mainly on compressors.

Thoughts?
 
Slouching Raymond said:
Vocal is pretty good.
I find the electric piano almost stuck to my ears.
I would reduce its stereo width, and move it a bit further away.
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Just curious—headphones, or monitors? I’ve been struggling to get a good balance on the wurli between both systems.
 
Fixed the noticeable vocal crack at the end with another take from the same 3AM session, which had a less annoying vocal crack.

Absolute victory is a myth
 
For steely danner's I had no idea who Michael Omartian was until I watched this interview...I hate him in a jealous kind if way...amazing player and very interesting cat...a week later I am at my daughters and I see a book by Stormy Omartian...yep his wife Guess she is a well Christian book author that my daughter is a big fan.

The insight in to Fagan in this interview is very informative

 
TAE said:
For steely danner's I had no idea who Michael Omartian was until I watched this interview...I hate him in a jealous kind if way...amazing player and very interesting cat...a week later I am at my daughters and I see a book by Stormy Omartian...yep his wife Guess she is a well Christian book author that my daughter is a big fan.

The insight in to Fagan in this interview is very informative

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Love Omartian, including his work beyond the Dan. A true “great” of the studio musician era.
 
Worked on the drums sound a bit... to be fair, the original mic’ing job was not great. In this version I have un-muffled the singular room/overhead mic, among other very slight adjustments.

 
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