Famed recording engineer and record producer Kyle Lehning started his recording career at the age of 18 in Nashville. His career trajectory saw him go on to work with a virtual Who’s Who of the American country music scene, from legends such as Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers and George Jones to Randy Travis, Anne Murray and Bobby Bare. He also worked with a number of pop and rock artists, such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and England Dan & John Ford Coley. During the ’90s he even did a stint as President of Asylum Records Nashville. Here, he recalls a memorable creative moment that helped one of his countless hits stand out.
Intense Modulation
“One of my favourite sounds of my career was made during the making of the England Dan & John Ford Coley hit, ‘Love Is The Answer’, which was written by Todd Rundgren, and appears on the pop‑rock duo’s 1979 album, Dr Heckle And Mr Jive. When we had finished tracking and most of the overdubs were completed, Steve Forman, a celebrated Los Angeles percussionist, came in to add some sounds. Besides tambourine we came up with a suspended cymbal roll in a few spots. The fun part was running it through the Marshall Time Modulator. It was 1978 and this effect box was fairly new. It could do some very intense phasing and other kinds of whacky sounds. It was so intense that I had fairly recently managed to blow out the voice coils in a pair of UREI 604Es.
Kyle Lehning: These days an effect like that could be programmed a number of ways with various plug‑ins but back then, it was a combination of skill and luck.
“We came up with some spots we felt would work and started to record. Getting the intensity of the roll and the timing of the phasing right was a process of trial and error. A lot of error. These days an effect like that could be programmed a number of ways with various plug‑ins but back then, it was a combination of skill and luck. Skill from Steve, and luck from me manipulating the knobs. I’m not sure I ever really knew what knob did what, but after a couple of hours of twisting we had the track. It was recorded in mono, but when the record was mixed, by the great Bill Schnee, we decided to stereo‑ise it by using a Harmonizer. The sound shows up very subtly on the intro. It comes in strong on the bridge and right before the outro and once again, subtly, in the fade. Hearing that record and that particular sound on the radio always brings a smile to me.”