Punching out the Kinks.
“Dave Davies was an extremely good guitarist, and I liked his aggressive style, so I tried to capture what he did quite literally. He had this tiny amplifier that developed a buzz every now and then, and he’d have to kick it a few times to quiet it down. I’d record that amp with two mics: one close and the other about three feet away. These two channels would be submixed to a monaural track, as we didn’t have a lot of tracks to play with in those days.
During the mix, I’d split that mono guitar track to two channels on the console. One channel would remain unprocessed, but the other was heavily limited with a tube compressor. Then I’d mix the limited track just underneath the natural track to punch up the sound of the guitar. Now you could really hear the compressor working, but the pumping and breathing were part and parcel of the guitar sound. I can’t explain it to this day, but the tube limiting really made the guitars sound louder - they jumped right out of the mix.”
Comments by Shel Talmy, Guitar Player magazine March 1998.
