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The Motown Sound

Inside the recording and production techniques behind the

`60s Hit Factory

Apart from their sheer brilliance, the magic ingredient in all the classic hits of The Supremes, The Four Tops,
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye - not to mention The Isley Brothers, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Martha
Reeves and the Vandellas, The Jackson 5 and many more - is the unmistakable sound of Tamla Motown. Last
year, the legendary record company from Detroit re-released all of their Motown Chartbuster series on CD.
This month, in response to a barrage of readers' queries, The Mix looks at how Motown developed their
distinctive, chart-busting style.
The studio
The original Motown studio (now the Motown Historical Museum) was established in the basement of a house at
2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan in 1959. The first recordings were made on a 2-track machine
and mixed to mono, but the company soon upgraded to a 3-track machine.
Generally, on the finished multitrack tape, track 1 was used for the rhythm section instruments and track 2 was
dedicated to strings, woodwind and horns, which left the third track free for vocals. To get the multitrack to this
stage, engineer Laurence Horn developed a working system whereby submixes were made as the work
progressed by bouncing tracks from one 3-track machine to another. Initially the rhythm section would be
recorded on three tracks, then mixed down using the available effects and processing to one track on another
reel.
On this reel, brass and woodwind parts would be overdubbed on the two spare tracks, then mixed down to one
track of a third reel with the rhythm track also being transferred across to one track.
Next, strings were recorded onto track three of this third reel, then bounced down, mixed with the brass and
woodwind, to one track of another yet another reel (we're up to four now). Again, the rhythm track would be
transferred too, leaving one track free for recording backing vocals. The final bounce was undertaken while adding
the lead vocals, and these were combined with the backing vocals onto track three of the final multitrack reel.
This was in the days before stereo became commonplace, so where nowadays there would be a stereo speaker
set-up for monitoring and desk panpots for track placement, there was instead a three-speaker system - one for
each of the three tracks. Submixing in this way meant that crucial decisions that could not really be undone had to
be made all through the process. Today's professional multi-channel set-ups enable all such decisions to be left
until the final mix.
The final mono mix in this case was achieved by balancing the three tracks, and if any of the submixed
instruments needed to be brought out a little, this was done with the use of EQ. In fact, for its time, the Motown
studio was particularly well-equipped with outboard units, including several Pultecs, much use was made of
limiters such as Fairchilds and LA2As, and the best microphones were also available, among these were
Neumann 67s and 47s and RCA 44s and 77s.
By the autumn of 1964 the studio had its stereo monitoring in place and had moved up to an 8-track machine.
Motown built and installed this themselves, under head of engineering Mike McLean, because no 8-tracks were
commercially available when they wanted one.
However, by 1965, Motown's phenomenal success had made them the world's largest independent record
company, allowing them to expand and invest in a pair of Ampex 8-track machines. Later on, the company bought
out Golden World studios, across town in Detroit, and turned it into Motown studio B, which was regularly used for
string and horn overdubs. The original studio became known as studio A.
The actual recording area of studio A, known to all and sundry as The Snakepit, was very small considering the

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number of musicians crammed into it at any one time, but it had a sound of its own that was very important to
Motown - so important, in fact, that the company allegedly considered dismantling the room and taking it with
them when they eventually left Detroit for the sunnier climes of Los Angeles in the early '70s. The room had a
wooden floor, and isolation booths, which usually housed the Hammond organ, vibes and percussion instruments,
had been built along one wall.
A 4ft Steinway grand piano sat to one side of the room with the drum kit further along from it, behind a baffle. The
drum kit and its position was an essential part of the Motown sound, and legend has it that it was nailed to the
floor.
Guitar and bass amplifiers were too loud for the Snakepit (the sound would have bled onto other mics), so all the
basic guitar and bass parts were recorded direct, though occasional overdubs were done with an amp.
Under the control room window was a direct input box with five inputs, each with its own gain knob and VU meter,
to be used by the guitarists and bass player so each musician could set his own level. Turning up the gain drove
the valves in the control room desk harder, adding a little harmonic distortion.
This process was utilised by bass player James Jamerson, and it contributed to his distinctive sound. The
musicians monitored their sound not through headphones, but through a speaker sitting next to the input panel.
The players
Although other studios were used by Motown, with demos and occasional masters recorded in Los Angeles and
New York, it was the work done in Detroit that shaped the Motown sound during their golden era from 1964 to
1969, and much of that has to do with the core of studio musicians who worked on the material.
Collectively known as the Funk Brothers, the studio band was headed by keyboard player Earl Van Dyke, who
shared piano and organ chores with Johnny Griffith. Although other players such as Uriel Jones and Richard
'Pistol' Allen sometimes occupied the drum stool, it was drummer Benny Benjamin, along with bass player James
Jamerson, who were the driving force behind most of the hits.
James Jamerson, a legend among bass players, was simply known to many at that time as 'the guy who plays on
Motown records,' as none of the musicians were credited on album sleeves until 1971.
Nevertheless, strong prominent basslines became a dominant feature of the Motown sound from the moment the
studio went 8-track (and could dedicate a whole track to the bass), and Jamerson's playing influenced a
generation of musicians around the world. For the record, James Jamerson used a Fender Precision bass with a
foam mute pressed against the flatwound strings, which he only changed if they broke. It was recorded direct and
processed with a Fairchild limiter and Pultec EQ.
It's not generally apparent from listening to the recordings, but there were usually three guitarists, and sometimes
more, playing on the tracks. In the early-to- mid-'60s period, Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddy Willis were the
three main players. These three would divide an arrangement's guitar parts between them, with the assignment of
parts determined by both the style and the frequency range.
Often one guitarist played on the low part of the neck, one on the high, and one in the middle, to keep the parts
from clashing. On a typical track one player would play backbeats (usually three or four note chords on the two
and the four with the snare), one would play a single note line or fills, and the third player would play a rhythm
part.
In the late '60s, guitarist Dennis Coffey joined the fold, bringing with him wah wah pedals, fuzzboxes and other
toys which were put to good use on Norman Whitfield's psychedelic soul productions for the Temptations. Another
guitarist who came onboard around this time was Wah Wah Watson, who also worked on Temptations tracks and
contributed the guitar to 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'. Some of the road guitarists who backed the artists on tour
also got to record - Cornelius Grant from the Temptations and Marvin Tarplin, Smokey Robinson's right-hand
man, feature on some classic tracks.
One integral part of the Motown sound was percussion, and this was usually provided by Eddie 'Bongo' Brown,
Jack Ashford and Jack Brokensha, with the latter two doubling on vibes on some tracks. Percussion at Motown
was defined as any thing that could be hit, ranging from the conventional tambourines to the pieces of two-by-four
fixed together with springs that were stamped on to create the backbeat in the Supremes' 'Baby Love'.
As previously mentioned, some Motown recordings were being made in Los Angeles from the mid '60s onwards.
Tapes were flown back to Detroit for overdubs, but as the decade progressed, more and more work was done in

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LA until Motown finally relocated there in the early '70s. Some of the West Coast musicians (a group known as the
'Wrecking Crew,' who had been Phil Spector's studio musicians) played on the Motown material, which has led to
some controversy as to who actually played on some of the hits.
James Jamerson is the subject of a book that contains transcriptions of his most famous basslines and tributes
from some of the world's most renowned bass players, but Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye claims that some of
the basslines attributed to Jamerson were actually played by her. James Jamerson died in 1983 so can't
comment, and Motown remains silent, so for the time being, the controversy remains unresolved.
The production process
The analogy between Detroit's automobile assembly plants and the way that Motown records were put together
has probably been overstated, but there was a fairly consistent linear process from newly-written song to finished
vinyl single, with distinct stages along the way, including quality-control appraisal.
Motown employed several different writing and production teams, as well as individual producers, to work with the
artists. Throughout their careers some of the acts were associated with one particular producer or production
team. The Temptations, for example, were produced by Smokey Robinson until 1966, when they teamed up with
Norman Whitfield, who they worked with until the mid '70s.
Probably the best-known of all the Motown writing and production teams were Holland, Dozier, Holland, who were
responsible for a multitude of hits including, among others, ten US No.1's for the Supremes over a three-year
period.
The producers would work closely with the studio musicians to shake down a song's arrangement, with varying
degrees of input coming from the musicians. Music was usually written out for the musicians to read, and while
some producers liked to have total control over what was played, others, realising that a team effort would get the
best results, gave the musicians a chance to exercise their own creativity and come up with parts.
From around 1964, the Motown studio was running at full capacity 24 hours a day, which included 22 working
hours with two hours' maintenance between eight and ten in the morning. A lot of the time, the day was split into
three-hour sessions, with three or four songs recorded in each session, many of them being first or second takes.
There were exceptions to this, however, - it has been documented that Smokey Robinson did over 40 takes of
'Tears of a Clown' before he was satisfied with the results.
Once the strings, brass and vocals had been overdubbed on a track, several engineers were given the chance to
mix it, and each did several mixes which Motown's mastering department cut as acetates.
The acetates were then listened to by a quality control panel who chose the best mix and then got the engineer
who had done it to do some more mixes of the track, this time incorporating changes suggested by the panel. The
best of these mixes was selected as the master, and it was not unusual for 20 mixes to have been done.
The mixes were also checked by the technical staff for apparent and relative loudness. As a comparison, they
used the top five chart records of the week, which they had also analysed technically. The result was that Motown
were able to put out the loudest records on radio, and their product was aimed squarely at the medium.
When transistors started replacing valves, the transistor radio, in both its portable and in-car form, enjoyed a
massive boom in the early '60s, and Motown were not slow to realise that this was how people were first getting to
hear records. Consequently, Motown records were mixed to sound good on the transistor radio, which is why they
can sound quite toppy.
Anatomy of a sound
The Motown sound is the result of a unique mixture of personalities and a defined period in time that is long-gone.
To try to recreate that sound would be nigh-on impossible and a pointless exercise in pastiche. But there is an
immense amount to be learned from listening to Motown records, which used some studio techniques that are
every bit as relevant today.
One such technique was used by Motown to help keep the vocal clear and present in the mix without it being too
loud and thereby drawing attention away from the rhythmic backing. Rather than just compressing the lead vocal
to get it to sit in the track, the Motown mix engineers wanted it to sound exciting, so they split the vocal into two
desk channels to get a blend of one natural and one compressed vocal.
The first vocal was perhaps treated with a little EQ but was pretty much the natural sound, and was set at the

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correct level in the mix with some reverb added. The second vocal was very heavily compressed and a lot of top
end EQ (somewhere in the frequency range from 5kHz to 8kHz) was added to it. This second vocal was then
added to the mix in just the right amount to make the overall vocal sound dynamic and exciting, and ensure it
wasn't masked by the rest of the track.
In the field of arranging. there were many other specific musical concepts used at Motown. Earl Van Dyke chose
his chord voicings carefully so that they didn't have the same top note as the vocal melody, thus staying out of the
vocalists' way; players kept out of the bass player's register to allow it to come through clearly, lines were
thickened up by having two instruments playing together in unison or octaves and the backbeat was often
emphasised with a guitar chop, tambourine or handclap added to the snare on the two and four.
The music made at Motown was powerful, exciting, and inspirational. Check it out.

Trevor Curwen The Mix 09/99

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