How did they create that sound on "Mercy Mercy Me"?

On 03 Apr 2011, "Don P." > wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> I just happen to have a copy of the 16-track. Let's take a look
> (Listen?). There's 4 tracks of drums/percussion. Track 1 is the
> kick, track 2 is the rest of the kit, track 3 is congas, track 4
> is woodblock (with some alternate celeste in it).
>
> Track 3 has a nice hi conga slap in it that corresponds to the
> snare. Stick that thru a plate and there's your sound.

I have that, too, but I don't think the conga track is what's making
the "racquetball"/ping sound. I can hear the conga track buried inside
the final mix - the ping sounds like a discreet track, and isn't
included in the 16-track version that's going around.

On 2011-04-03 said:
<snip>
>> (Listen?). There's 4 tracks of drums/percussion. Track 1 is the
>> kick, track 2 is the rest of the kit, track 3 is congas, track 4
>> is woodblock (with some alternate celeste in it).
>> Track 3 has a nice hi conga slap in it that corresponds to the
>> snare. Stick that thru a plate and there's your sound.
>I have that, too, but I don't think the conga track is what's making
>the "racquetball"/ping sound. I can hear the conga track buried
>inside the final mix - the ping sounds like a discreet track, and
>isn't included in the 16-track version that's going around.

Maybe because it was created on the fly at mixdown. I can
see this one easy enough.

Conga drum, slapped on beat 2 & 4 as snare. send signal to
a gate, or human act as "gate" on the console while mixing,
capture that near the rim conga hit via a nice verb, etc.
And, unless you were at the sessions you don't know if 16
was all the tracks recorded, or there weren't more <g>.

Just $0.02 worth from the peanut gallery here.



Richard webb,

replace anything before at with elspider
ON site audio in the southland: see www.gatasound.com

Nil > scribbled:

> On 03 Apr 2011, "Don P." > wrote in
> rec.audio.pro:
>
>> I just happen to have a copy of the 16-track. Let's take a look
>> (Listen?). There's 4 tracks of drums/percussion. Track 1 is the
>> kick, track 2 is the rest of the kit, track 3 is congas, track 4
>> is woodblock (with some alternate celeste in it).
>>
>> Track 3 has a nice hi conga slap in it that corresponds to the
>> snare. Stick that thru a plate and there's your sound.
>
> I have that, too, but I don't think the conga track is what's making
> the "racquetball"/ping sound. I can hear the conga track buried inside
> the final mix - the ping sounds like a discreet track, and isn't
> included in the 16-track version that's going around.

I went back and listened to both the multitrack and the final mix. I can
get close to what they did in the mix if I pan the conga track hard left,
EQ it really badly to bring out the high slap, and send it thru a plate.
Gotta keep turning the reverb send up and down on the conga slap to keep
the whole track from swimming, so they were most likely gating the reverb
send to only let the "ping" get through.

I thought it might have also been the woodblock, so I tried that, but its
pitch is higher than the ping, and it's not there in the beginning.

Mind you, my reverb return is stereo, and their plate is mono. (goes back
to return pan pots)

That sounds about right. Pan the reverb return slightly to the right.

The other problem is my plate reverb isn't a plate, but is a Behringer V-
Verb Pro (a.k.a. REV2496) plate. Tried it through a Lexicon "plate", but
that was really bright.

Or someone could have been playing something live during the mix. That
would have been easier than trying to isolate the single hit from the
track. Who knows?

On 03 Apr 2011, "Don P." > wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> I went back and listened to both the multitrack and the final mix.
> I can get close to what they did in the mix if I pan the conga
> track hard left, EQ it really badly to bring out the high slap,
> and send it thru a plate. Gotta keep turning the reverb send up
> and down on the conga slap to keep the whole track from swimming,
> so they were most likely gating the reverb send to only let the
> "ping" get through.

Thing is, though, that the conga track is quite busy - I think there
are at least two conga players playing simultaneously. I think it would
be difficult or impossible to EQ the track so that you couldn't hear
the other drum beats but the ones on 2 and 4, which are so forward in
the final mix. I think you'd still hear traces of the the other conga
hits, especially with that big bright reverb.

Maybe it is a high-pitched conga, since they obviously had them there
at the session. It could have added later.

> Or someone could have been playing something live during the mix.
> That would have been easier than trying to isolate the single hit
> from the track. Who knows?

That's what I'm thinking.

On Apr 3, 4:34*pm, "Don P." > wrote:

> I thought it might have also been the woodblock, so I tried that, but its
> pitch is higher than the ping, and it's not there in the beginning.


Wood blocks come in various pitches.

On Apr 3, 5:42*pm, brassplyer > wrote:
> On Apr 3, 4:34*pm, "Don P." > wrote:
>
> > I thought it might have also been the woodblock, so I tried that, but its
> > pitch is higher than the ping, and it's not there in the beginning.
>
> Wood blocks come in various pitches.

Either a conga tuned very high or a bongo - definitely something with
a head on it. If you've ever played hand percussion in a studio
environment, I think you'd agree immediately that this is a drum, and
not a wood block, temple block, cowbell or other. Another poster was
quite right - there is more than 1 Marvin Gaye with this very creative
"substution of a snare on the 2 and 4" used.

Went nuts for it when I first heard it in my late teens...like Voyage
to the Bottom of the Sea meets Motown.

I'm a drummer/percussionist, and am having a devil of a time
answering your question. After listening several times, I really
can't say! Pretty clever, really. I tend to agree with other
posters that it could be a heavily processed conga or bongo slap.
Or it could be another kind of drum, maybe a dumbek. But that
is honestly just a guess -- it could be a household item.

brassplyer > wrote:
: On Marvin Gaye's cut "Mercy Mercy Me" there's this repetitive echoing
: "ponk" that sort of sounds like a sonar ping or something. Anyone know
: how that sound was created? Seems I may have heard it on other songs
: as well.

On Sun, 3 Apr 2011 05:20:01 -0700 (PDT), brassplyer
> wrote:

>On Apr 3, 7:21*am, alex > wrote:
>
>> do you mean the one acting as "snare" drum in the pattern?
>
>
>Here, that haunting, echoing "ponk" sound. I've heard it described as
>sounding like a racquetball caroming off a wall. Doesn't sound at all
>like a snare.
>
>
>http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/...Mercy_pong.mp3

That's a cow bell. Sounds like it's miked with filtering and struck
with a yarn mallet rather then a wood stick.
Dave

> wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 3 Apr 2011 05:20:01 -0700 (PDT), brassplyer
> > wrote:
>
>>On Apr 3, 7:21 am, alex > wrote:
>>
>>> do you mean the one acting as "snare" drum in the pattern?
>>
>>
>>Here, that haunting, echoing "ponk" sound. I've heard it described as
>>sounding like a racquetball caroming off a wall. Doesn't sound at all
>>like a snare.
>>
>>
>>http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/...Mercy_pong.mp3
>
> That's a cow bell. Sounds like it's miked with filtering and struck
> with a yarn mallet rather then a wood stick.
> Dave

That's what I've been thinking. I had a producer client that used to use a
cloth glove. He stuck his gloved hand inside the cow bell to dampen the ring
or just pinched the edge depending on the effect he wanted.

Steve King

On Wed, 6 Apr 2011 18:43:03 -0500, "Steve King"
> wrote:

> wrote in message
.. .
>> On Sun, 3 Apr 2011 05:20:01 -0700 (PDT), brassplyer
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>On Apr 3, 7:21 am, alex > wrote:
>>>
>>>> do you mean the one acting as "snare" drum in the pattern?
>>>
>>>
>>>Here, that haunting, echoing "ponk" sound. I've heard it described as
>>>sounding like a racquetball caroming off a wall. Doesn't sound at all
>>>like a snare.
>>>
>>>
>>>http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/...Mercy_pong.mp3
>>
>> That's a cow bell. Sounds like it's miked with filtering and struck
>> with a yarn mallet rather then a wood stick.
>> Dave
>
>That's what I've been thinking. I had a producer client that used to use a
>cloth glove. He stuck his gloved hand inside the cow bell to dampen the ring
>or just pinched the edge depending on the effect he wanted.
>
>Steve King

I have listened to a couple of more times. It might also be a special
studio rig created by some tinkerer. I might be a cowbell bolted in
some way to a temple block. It does have a sort of woody sound to it
also, as well as the attack and decay of a cowbell stuck with a yarn
mallet. It's a very famous disco era sample however they did it.
Dave