Sound Engineer
These are the albums where I was the sound engineer. My Sound Engineer credits almost always refer to me as Barry Keene.
Before I became a “big shot Hollywood engineer,” I recorded demos for artists trying to get a recording contract. These artists included Linda Rondstadt, Jimmy Spheres, Jim Webb and several others.
Alice Cooper—Pretties for You
Alice Cooper—Easy Action
Frank Zappa—200 Motels
Frank Zappa—Live at the Filmore East
Frank called this the “white penzil-front album.”
Frank Zappa—Just Another Band From LA
I’m really proud of this recording. I recorded the band using just two microphones. Instead of using dozens of mics, I set the mix using the volume controls of the band’s instrument amplifiers. I told them if they needed to hear their instrument with more volume, they had to call in a roadie and have their amplifier moved higher or closer to them. The point was, if they turned up their amp, the album would be ruined. They trusted me completely. As a result, the album’s sound is their sound – not a studio mix.
I recorded direct to a Scully four track. Tracks 1 and 2 were two Neumann U67 mics just in front of the mid-points of stage left and right. Track 3 was a direct line-level feed of vocals only from the house sound system board. Track 4 was a Neumann KM86 mike turned around to face away from the stage and towards the audience (a “room sound mic”). During the 4:2 mix, I put track 4 (the room sound mono track) thru an Orban Parasound mono-to-stereo converter and mixed this in.
We then ran the whole show thru this system onto a 2-track. We did the 4:2 mix at Ike Turner’s “Bolic Sound” studio in Inglewood. That was some night. I’m sure all of us remember it well.This was mastered into the Just Another Band From LA album.
What really amazed me was how much Jim Pons (the bassist) liked his bass sound. He asked me, “How did you get such a grand bass sound when the closest mic was 25 feet away?” I told him air is the best mixer of sound. His bass sounded really good live, so it sounded really good on the record.
Piece of cake.
Easy as pie.
Frank was still recovering from his injuries from the mishap at the Rainbow Theater in London. With a broken leg, I was transporting him to the studio on a mattress I’d put in the back of my ’47 Chevy panel truck. On the way to the studio, windows wide open, Frank called out, “Ohm Lad! I smell tacos, Ohm Lad!” So I made a U-turn and took him back to a taco shack on Inglewood Blvd. for a nutritious snack. I told the window attendant that Frank Zappa was lying in the back of my truck, but she didn’t believe me. So I asked Frank if he’d like to meet some fans. He said, “Sure.” So I invited the restaurant crew out to the parking lot. When I opened the back door of my truck, Frank said hello to each of the restaurant crew members who were thrilled to meet him.
After his/our lunch, I moved him from the Chevy to his wheel chair and rolled him into the recording studio to supervise as I mixed Just Another Band From LA .
Frank Zappa—Overnight Sensation
The guy with the fire extinguisher is “Dunt”—the roadie. He entered my room via the balconies and sprayed me with a soda-acid fire extinguisher while I was playing a beautiful borrowed Martin guitar). I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the guitar. What the roadies did with the ripped-open grapefruit, you don't even want to know. Trust me.
Frank Zappa—Apostrophe
Frank allowed me to “experiment on him” extensively, in the studio. He was great for that — allowing people to try things. He would always say, “OK. Let’s try that and see what happens.” He was a sound engineer’s dream. I had a lot of fun working on the recording of this album.
When a band is on the road, eventually it “gets stuck” in an airport, waiting for a flight. The members of Frank’s band had a hobby for occasions like this. I guess you could call it “Paging Names.” The band would be sitting peacefully in their boarding gate chairs when suddenly the entire group would burst out laughing. Non-band travelers would look at us and try to figure out what was so funny—what the joke was.
What had happened is that one of the band members went to a “white courtesy telephone” and asked for a page of a totally bogus name. The challenge, of course, was to see who could get the “paging lady” to page the most outrageous name. There were only a few “Academy Award” winners. The names that “won,” and the resulting pages, were really something to hear. Maybe you had to be there. Here are some bland versions of the names we thought up—mostly on Greyhound bus rides from city to city.
Phil O’Dendron
Carey Yokie
Hal Apeño
Moe Notnous
Mack Adamia
Hugh Mecktant
Jim Naseum
Dan Druff
Al Abaster
Ann Chovey
Ben Dover
Hugh Midity
Sue Nami
Al Luminum
Ann Bichous
###