PHILLY SOUND STUDIO HOW TO

The results were an amazing raw proto-house track that’s hard to believe was made in the mid ’70’s.Įven some of the remixes that used basic techniques achieved remarkable results. This kind of mix was incredibly hard to accomplish live, so Francois aimed to imitate the inimitable by recreating Walter’s mixing style using a reel-to-reel. One of Walter’s trademarks was the way he’d loop two copies of the conga break in Rare Earth’s “Happy Song,” a segment little more than 30 seconds long. Gibbons’ calling card was his knack for blending and cutting drum parts until the music was an abstract, percussive wall of sound. He could not only blend seamlessly, a remarkable skill considering the basic DJ equipment of the era, but he could also cut between records as well as any of the early hip hop DJs. Walter’s mixing talent was off the charts. He landed a gig playing drums in Galaxy 21 while DJ Walter Gibbons spun a unique and uncompromising form of percussion-heavy disco. François had arrived from France as a wide-eyed and enthusiastic musician searching for a break in The Big Apple. John’s early mixes may have been basic, but in their own small way they were revolutionary.Īnother early remix pioneer who came through Sunshine Sound was François Kevorkian.

However, it’s certainly one of the first examples of a disco DJ making records, instead of merely just playing them. It’s hard to say if John’s mix of “Date with the Rain” was the first DIY mix pressed to record. A flick through the local New York phone book led him to Sunshine Sound in Manhattan, where he could get his music pressed to acetate. There was only one problem: the clubs John worked in didn’t have a tape player. That inspired me to take other short records and try to figure out what I could do.”

PHILLY SOUND STUDIO HOW TO

I always thought, ‘God, I wish I could make this longer.’ How I came about doing I’ll never know, but I got a cassette player and I somehow figured out how to hit the pause button just right so I could start recording something else and I made this five-and-a-half minute version. In 1974 John began experimenting with a cassette recorder to try and elongate Eddie Kendrick’s “Date with the Rain.” As John tells it, “It was a great record but only two minutes and 32 seconds long. One of these latter DJs was John Morales, then a teenage disc jockey working out of his father’s New Jersey bar.

Others began to experiment with home recording set-ups in order to achieve the same result. Some, like the ground-breaking hip hop DJ Kool Herc, worked out how to extend records by mixing between two copies. But Tom wasn’t the only person frustrated by the short length of most dance singles in the’70s. Many know the story of Tom Moulton, who originated the extended disco remix. Frank soon found an entirely new type of customer, however: As DJ culture evolved in New York, Sunshine Sound began cutting music for bedroom producers, and his unassuming office became the epicenter of an entirely new and little understood sub-culture. Many labels used Frank for this service: after all, back in the mid ’70s, there were few other ways of showcasing a newly recorded song. They wear out after a few plays and are typically made as one-offs. Acetates are heavy, lacquered discs that can be played on a record player. One of the services Frank offered was acetate pressing.

Philly sound studio