3 Ways To Record a Wurlitzer
The Wurlitzer Electric Piano (Wurly) is a classic piece used on many records today and yesterday, If you're lucky enough to have one at your disposal here are 3 different recording techniques you can try.
Direct Input (DI)
On the back of the Wurly is a 1/4" output jack. Simply run the output into a Instrument Pre Amp or -10 dB line input and you're ready to go. Simple, but effective.
Guitar Amp
Take a 1/ 4" Cable from the back of the Wurly and run it to a Guitar Amp the same way you would with an Electric Guitar. This creates a fantastic distorted sound, much meaner than the DI output. Try a Fender Twin Guitar Amp with a Shure SM-57 microphone.Mini Speaker
The Wurly has small speakers so you can hear yourself play in the room. I came across this technique when we were recording Alice Smith's debut "For Lovers Dreamers And Me". The Wurlitzer we were using had a serious buzz and so we mic'd the mini speaker. Its sounded very cool and lo-fi so we went with it.
After you've mastered the basic techniques its time to create your own Wurly sound. Adding guitar stomp boxes to the signal chain is a great place to start. With a little creativity the once soft and simple Wurly sound can create limitless possibilities.
An audio clip of the 3 recording techniques is available on my myspace page: www.myspace.com/latifmix
Latif has been mixing, engineering and producing records for the last 9 years. His website is http://www.latifmix.com
© 2008 Andrea Grant and Copious Amounts Press. All Rights Reserved.
