Wu-tang 36 chambers sound

[soupe de salade]

Hello

I'm quite impressed by the overall lo-fi / raw sound of the tracks on the
Wu-Tang Clan album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)". The album is from
1993, i guess they could have get a more "polished" sound but it was
definitely a choice.

i wonder how they achieved to make it sounding this way. some voices have a
lot of natural reverb like they were recorded in the guy's appartment...
every samples sounds quite alive. i don't care about which samplers were
used, but more about the recording process. any info about it ? like
microphone used, were it was recorded... if there were any tricks used...

here's the staff who worked on that album (found on allmusic.com)

Mike Theodore - Supervisor, Production Supervisor
Chris Gehringer - Mastering
Ol' Dirty ******* - Vocals, Producer
Method Man - Vocals, Producer
Raekwon - Vocals
Prince Rakeem - Arranger, Programming, Producer, Mixing
Carlos Bess - Engineer
Fourth Disciple - Scratching
Jacqueline Murphy - Artwork, Art Direction
Ghostface Killah
Dennis Coles - Executive Producer
Robert Diggs - Executive Producer
John Gibbons - Supervisor, Production Supervisor
Richard Bravo - Set Design, Design, Set Design
Mitchell Diggs - Executive Producer, Supervisor, Production Supervisor
Oli Grant - Executive Producer, Supervisor, Production Supervisor
Amy Wenzler - Design
Daniel Hastings - Photography
Michael McDonald - Supervisor, Production Supervisor
Tracey Waples - Executive Producer
U-God - Vocals
Ethan Ryman - Engineer
Mike McDonald - Production Supervisor

thanks
soupe

[JR]

Even though you say you are not interested in what samplers they
used...that IS what made the sound. SP1200 or Ensoniq EPS (the original
14 bit machine, not the 16 bit EPS 16). The truncation of the samplers
of the sound to 12 bit, and the filters in them made the sound gritty
and punchy. I used an EPS for years on Hip Hop records of that era and
every engineer was amazed at how this inexpensive (at the time) sampler
sounded. (FYI- Timbaland and the Neptunes still use an EPS sampler as
their sampler of choice) The big studios all had S1000's and S1100's,
but neither had the punch or grit of an EPS...Mics...use a low quality
condenser Mic....At most a AKG 414, a C1000 would probably be
ideal....Or better yet get a Groove Tube MD5sc...they were about $300
bucks new, you should be able to find one for maybe $50 or $100 bucks.
This mic has some grit to it...Use a Joe Meek Pre amp on it and you got
a great inexpensive chain with grit and attitude. Now record that onto
an DA88, and mix on an SSL 4000....They may not have had too much
digital stuff then, so a Fostex G/E 16, or a Tascam MS-16...Then mix on
an SSL 4000.

JR


In article >,
"soupe de salade" > wrote:

> Hello
>
> I'm quite impressed by the overall lo-fi / raw sound of the tracks on the
> Wu-Tang Clan album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)". The album is from
> 1993, i guess they could have get a more "polished" sound but it was
> definitely a choice.
>
> i wonder how they achieved to make it sounding this way. some voices have a
> lot of natural reverb like they were recorded in the guy's appartment...
> every samples sounds quite alive. i don't care about which samplers were
> used, but more about the recording process. any info about it ? like
> microphone used, were it was recorded... if there were any tricks used...
>