A few weeks ago I posted the isolated vocal tracks from Heart’s classic hit “Barracuda,” which received a tremendous response. Today you’ll hear the isolated band tracks from the same song. The song, off their Little Queen album, was a big hit for Heart in 1977, and it’s still an classic rock radio staple. Here’s what to listen for.
1. The interplay between the guitars. If you want to learn how to produce and mix two guitars playing together, this is a great example. The interplay between Roger Fisher and Howard Leese’s guitars works for two reasons: when they’re playing the same riffs or chords, the sound of the guitars are different, and sometimes they’re either playing in different registers or counter to one another. You hear these examples throughout the song.
2. The effects on the track. There’s very little in the way of effects at first except for a very small bit of slap delay on the left cleaner guitar, a touch of reverb on the drums, and a slow flange on the main guitar. That changes on the solo and again on the outro, where different parts have varying degrees of reverb and delay to change the sound and push them back in the mix
3. This was a song built for playing live. The only apparent overdub on the front half of the song is the guitar solo, where the right flanged guitar drops out, just like what would happen during a concert. Even on the more layered outro, it sounds like the song was captured on a gig, just with better acoustics and more effects.