Visit to a Recording Studio
By Allan Parachini
1970

This is a rare article published in 1970 (source unknown), shortly before "Hot Fun in the Summertime" was released (August 23, 1969) and became an instant classic. It was donated to the web site by David Kapralik, the group's manager. Enjoy. New York (UPI): It was just after 7 p.m. when Sly & the Family Stone -- or most of it, anyway -- slipped into Columbia Records' Studio B on 52nd street in New York. It had been a rough day for Sly, leader of the musical group. He hadn't slept in two days and the truck in which his equipment is carted around had been towed away by the police because it had been illegally parked. But here he was, ready to record "Hot Fun in the Summer Time," the group's next single release. It was the umpteenth time Sly Stone (nee Sylvester Stewart) had made the studio pilgrimage and it's the same thing every time -- a lot of work, very little sleep and in the end uncertainty -- will the disc sell or not? To the audiences that have seen Sly work live -- or any other group for that matter -- a ringside seat at a recording session would be the most boring thing since violin lessons in grade school. Studio B is typical of recording studios. It's two rooms, really. There's the large studio, filled with 20 microphones, special baffling equipment and curtains everywhere to cut down unwanted resonance. Then there's the control room. A huge sound console sits in the middle of a covey of swivel chairs, the largest one occupied by the recording engineer -- in this case 32-year-old Don Puluse. Puluse has been Sly's engineer since the Family Stone started recording. Puluse in the control room is like another member of the group. "Take the baffle off your drum, Greg," he calls to drummer Greg Errico. "No, I guess it sounds better with it on; put it back on, Greg." Errico good-naturedly complies. "OK, Sly," says Puluse over the studio's intercom, "Larry's (Graham) bass doesn't sound like a bass. Turn his amp down a little. Okay." And so it goes until Sly is ready to record the first part of "Hot Fun in the Summer Time." The recording itself is done in several stages. There's an eight-track tape recorder in the control room and one instrument or vocal part is assigned to each track -- to be recorded separately. First, Sly, Greg, Larry and guitarist Freddie Stone (Sly's brother) record the piano, drum, guitar and bass accompinament. After more than 50 attempts, Sly and the three others go through the four basic parts of the song to their satisfaction. They are then ready for a process called "sel-syncing." That's a technical word that engineers can't really explain to laymen but it involves playing back the four tracks (from the four instruments) just recorded while Sly and the others add the organ and trumpet parts, then finally Sly's vocal track. At any time, the additional parts can be scrapped without harm to the basic, four-part accompaniment. By this time, though, it is early morning and Sly decides to put off completion of the single for another session in San Francisco. The completed portion of the tape will be flown to the Coast where, when everything is recorded, the eight tracks will be mixed into one, the last step before the recording is cut and pressed into those little plastic doughnut discs. There has, of course, been no wild audience reaction during any part of the recording session. Recording, in many respects, is 100 per cent drudgery. There are a few laughs but basically it's the same three minutes of music, repeated perhaps 100 times. But Sly doesn't mind the hard work involved. "It doesn't matter, it doesn't," he panted a few nights later after completing an explosive onstage show. "As long as we're all playing together, that's all that counts."