@@mopar546 you could actually call up dial-a-disc back in the 80s which was run by the Post Office where you could listen to the latest hit records down the phone.
@@IzthatafaC Naw man not that I knew of. Hell we were corded to the wall and there wasnt area calling back then and theyd hang your tail on long distance. Now we can call anywhere in the US for the same price.
True :) Conversely, Jeff Lynne tried (with ELO at least) to make things sound old already, so they would not sound older in a few years and therefore last longer with fans.
OVER-produced. Sorry. Pyromania was a great record, and very well-produced, but on Hysteria (and everything else he did with these guys) Mutt Lange just overdid every thing. Completely sterilized the sound. It sounds like they only used a Scholz Rockman for the guitars, a cheesy synth for bass, and programmed Simmons drums.
@Nonya Bizness Shrilly? Hmmmmm. I guess that they still sound lush to me. But, there was a huge (although most people wouldn't notice it if they aren't musicians) change in sonic quality from a record to a CD. Some of the bottom end was lost in the transition to CD's. Anything analog is going to sound better compared to digital, IMO. Analog is just a warmer sound to my ears.
@Nonya Bizness We all have different ears, lol. Agreed that Mindcrime doesn't sound good to me either. Again, I love "Pyromania", but "Hysteria" went too far IMO. Everything sounds so processed and fake on that record to me. AC/DC damn sure would have never let Lange get away with that. That's why after "For Those About To Rock", they wanted a more stripped down and raw album with "Flick of the Switch". Malcolm Young felt that "For Those..." was TOO produced.
@@JokersWild70 Nothing was lost when CDs came along. Vinyl just tapers off as you rise in frequency, so it was just sound like the lows are louder. Turning down the treble is the same as boosting the bass.
What makes this an all-time great album is that you play it today and it sounds like it was recorded last week. Mutt was one a few guys with enough vision and skill that he could drop an album that changes an entire industry. His work speaks for itself.
I agree as I’m old enough to remember when this came out in 1983. It was a lot different from we were listening to at the time on MTV. For me, it was almost like Nirvana 10 years later in that overnight they change the sound.
This is less of a cheesy reaction video, and more of an engineer's production breakdown. Which is most definitely the type of thing that I like to watch on my lunch break. Interesting and informative!!!
Totally agree. I usually speed through “reaction” videos of songs I love to see people react but this was really interesting and educational. Real sound crafting is such an art that decades later this is still an interesting break down of it.
Couldn't agree more! NOT what I was expecting. Not @ all! I'm going to check out more of his videos. Funny thing is I'm a horn player & THOUGHT I knew music. Key word being thought!
Pyromania was THE album of my 8th grade graduation!! My best friend and I would ditch school, hide in an alley and play the shit out of my Pyromania cassette!! My generic Sears brand Walkman had 2 headphone jacks so we could actually listen together at the same time and that made me just the fucking coolest!!
When Pyromania came out in 1983 I was in 8th grade also. One of my favorite albums of all time. I remember listening to it three, four times a day. It brings back great memories. The videos on MTV, the Union Jack shirts, Rick Allen playing with both arms. God, I wish I could just go back in time. Amazing to read comments on this forum from people with similar experiences.
fack this comment is cute af lol! 😍😂🤭 heh gotcha beat little sister...my junior year of high school we were rockin' this out in the So. Jersey woods at night during our infamous Oakcrest winter bonfire keggers! 🍻🔊🎶😂 Miss those days...so long ago now...miss those friends 😞 and those cutie gals.. (like yahself lol😍🤭) 💔 😞
you can actually hear Mutt Lange's trademark layered-whispered choirs also on songs by the Cars ("magic") and Huey Lewis and the news ("do you believe in love")
I hate to say it (not a country fan here) but his stuff with Shania Twain is really good too. It's Canadian/South African Country/pop magic.. Also High N Dry sounds so much like an AC/DC album to me.
@@densealloy His Shania records are heaven's butter. I could not agree more...also take a listen to Breathless by the Corrs....GREAT song that SHOULDVE been recorded by Shania...Honey I'm Home by Shania could've been recorded by Def Leppard. He's a producer's producer.
I remember MTV used to have Friday Night Video Fights where they played two different videos by different artists and had people call in to pick a winner. They had to retire Photograph because it never lost.
I was lucky enough to see Def Leppard's Pyromania tour that summer in 1983 in Hartford CT at the Hartford Civic Center. Fantastic show. I became a big fan the first time I listened to High n'Dry. I still have the ticket stub!
I once met Nigel Green, one of the engineers who worked with Mutt. When I asked him how many tracks were used for background vocals, his answer was, "Sixteen channels for the left, sixteen channels for the right, and sung with lots of attitude."
When Mutt recorded Bryan Adams' "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" he used 48 tracks to the left and 48 to the right on the backing vocals alone. Absolutely incredible.
This is hands down by far , truly the best 80s pop/rock song. I've heard it a million times and it never gets old. Too bad Joe can't sing like he once did because I would love to see them live in concert.
He’s not far off what he was in the 80s especially compared to guys like Vince Neil and Axl Rose who sound like ass now. Pretty much everyone would say Def Leppard still puts on fantastic concerts to this day
"Photograph" just might be my favorite rock song of all time. Coming from a production/ engineering background now, and obviously as a fan as a kid of both Leppard and Mutt, there's a bunch of things that I can now put into a more specific detail in what really knocked me out about the song back then. The major thing is that the song just keeps ascending.....there's always another gear that it goes to. Just when you think it's already great, it hits another plateau. In the first verse, it builds up the tension by having only the main guitar riff playing mostly up the centre channel, with no bass. Then when the bass kicks in, it does it at the exact time where the stereo tracked guitars kick in and then alternate by playing the E both in the higher octave for the riffs, and then the low muted E to give it some real heft, where the riffs have this call and response thing going to 'em. Also, the pre-choruses (I call them pre-choruses, not a bridge) are important, because the space between the notes gives more tension even as the song builds, and then it sets up the chorus to be absolutely fucking massive. What has always been the key to the chorus is what Dennis mentions--the clean guitar front and centre, but it's the arrangement of that line (I've long felt it was Steve's idea.....he was more a textural player and the open ringing melancholy string playing was one of his signatures). Phil has mentioned that they'd used something like a Telecaster for that clean line, to really cut through the mix and to give it that bell like chime. Also, what I like about the song is that it's just two verses, and the rest has to build it up, so coming out of the guitar solo (which brings the song back down again with Phil's tremolo dive and yet again no bass guitar!), it goes back into the pre-chorus, and then sets the song up to ride out a bunch of choruses, which gives the band the chance to set up that huge guitar solo to ride it out to the end. I've always thought the fade out with Phil's solo really gives it this huge, ascending feeling, even though the song is fading out and "slipping away", even though we know what's on the rest of the recording would have sounded great going out with a bang. It makes you want to play the song again and again, and is a strong case for the fadeout. Absolutely brilliant. I've long felt that DL's secret weapon is the pre-chorus. Most of their pre-choruses (especially on the Pyromania and Hysteria albums) would be most other bands' choruses, but somehow they always hit that higher high. Also--and I am a big Steve Clark fan--but will have to concede that Phil's style suits this song better (there's live footage of Steve playing the leads in earlier versions of this, pre-release), with the tremolo bar accents, which moves the band a little more into the 80's style, whereas Steve has that style that is absolutely critical for something like "Diehard The Hunter" or "Too Late For Love", which are darker and heavier. For me, this is the first real defining moment for Phil in adding his particular style to the band.
Royce Williams could you please finally explain why the fade out exists? During live performance, all artists using this have to create a definite end to the live performance.
@@coreymoraes8235 Sorry for the late reply. The fade out exists in record production for various reasons. One is when either the producer or band feel that a song should be "slipping away" from an audience, kind of like in a movie where there's a fade out from a scene or at the end, where a sense of a lack of an actual definite ending could create a sense of tension during the course of a complete album. It can also create a sense of purposeful unresolvement: the lack of a real ending might create the sense where the listener needs to listen to the song again. It's sort of the same reason why most pop hits are 3-4 minutes long instead of long, drawn out songs.....in the pop music realm, people are more likely to listen to shorter songs many more times over than a longer song but less times. A fade creates another dimension to that......the song that you already like is ending sooner than you wanted to, so you want to listen to it again. If a song could be considered a chapter or a scene in a movie, a producer or band (or mixing engineer sometimes) could suggest a faded song into maybe a slower song or something like that. Considering that the next song on Pyromania is "Stagefright", where it opens with a live introduction, I guess maybe Mutt or the band thought it could possibly seem like a dramatic way to resolve one song and then lead into another; almost like where the band goes offstage and then comes back on for an encore. Mutt is great at these types of things; the psychological reasoning and the perfection behind the art of the pop hit, so if he fades something out, it's for good reason. Or a much shorter reasoning: the band or producer didn't really much like the way that a song ended and feels that the fade is a better way to end the song, ha ha. We see this with unedited songs from various artists and bands in deluxe reissues. Sometimes there's extended jams or whatever it may be, or other sections or parts of songs that don't really move the song along in any real big way. Earlier in the recording of the album, it may have seemed like a good idea, but in sequencing an album with flow and content, maybe it doesn't fit. In some cases, it could be a radio airplay thing, so instead of having edited versions and whatnot, they just use the faded version.
When I became a music producer myself about 17 years ago, the one comparison I place everything I've worked on, regardless of style or genre, is this to this album. Some of the things that Mutt Lange said about making a recording perfect to the vision and not settling for less on any aspect because people will be listening to it over and over really stuck with me. As far as Pyromania, it still holds up sonically and its arrangements...the guitar tone on the record is to me, anyway, the most perfect and my favorite of any rock record ever recorded. I was in love with this album since the day it came out when I was 13 and it still sounds as incredible today as it did back then.
Def leppard always sounded futuristic when playing their album hysteria, I dunno if it was meant but they always sounded way ahead of their time sound wise ....Fantastic ! :-)
Take a listen to their song “Hysteria “ the song is an engineering masterpiece. Even the guitar chords are layered one string at a time in some spots. It’s possibly one of Mutt’s best works- and a timeless Def Leppard song that many consider their best.
Pyromania was great. Hysteria was EPIC !! Not a bad song on either album. But Hysteria seems to be where the band, and Mutt, took things to the next level
Another thing that amazes me..... when you hear the tracks, as a musician, you think ' Awesome ! But good luck doing it live!' But, obviously, they DO pull it off, VERY WELL, show after show !
now that I think of it... I think Mutt also put the backing vocals into the Fairlight and just flew them in by hitting a key on the keyboard. That way, every single chorus is perfect and the listener will never be the wiser. I believe the backing vocals are on YT isolated.
That is true. I've downloaded all the isolated parts. The chorus is the same identical sampled perfect choir each time. Mutt was very innovative, as that was highly unusual at for the time period!
Legend of a song that contains my favorite line at the end, "I wanna touch you. AhhhhhhAHHHHHHHHH ahhh ahhhh...!!!" and so forth. The emotion in his voice when singing that line...man, always gets me.
Just so you know all the guitar things you were picking out you liked are all credited to Steve Clark he knew how to write and compose music very well.
Wow, just kids, then! This band is laced with tragedy. Amazing what drummer Rick Allen did to re-train himself to play after losing an arm. Even more amazing the other members of the group had the good faith to keep him in the dog-eat-dog business of a signed, multi-million dollar band. Lost Steve Clark to alcohol, replaced him with Vivian Campbell who has now been in the band longer than Clark. Just a bunch of good people in this group. Mutt may have been another member of the band behind the scenes, but there's a reason he did that. Genuine talent, and not afraid of lots of hard work. Well done, Def Leppard.
I know! I kind of can't believe that, even when researching it later on, he failed to notice or read anywhere that Rick Allen has only one arm to play with, jeez!
Mutt Lang really nailed it with Pyromania. You could tell that there was a lot of sound production behind the album, while High N' Dry had a more organic sound. Pyromania is one of my favorite albums from the 80's.
Phil Collen said rhythm guitar parts were not only dubbed but recorded with a Les Paul, an SG and a Telecaster in different ranges so you hear 6 layers as one. that's why it sounds HUGE
This is just a fantastic album. I think this was Joe Elliot at his finest. I dont think he was ever better. Some less popular songs on Pyromania that I just love. Die Hard the Hunter is great. I was in 8th grade when this came out and I wore it out on a Sony Walkman walking to and from school each day.
I agree. I heard Die hard the hunter quite a lot because it was the B side to one of their singles. I believe on Photograph single. Great all around album.
I'm really liking this engineer's reviews. He's been there, and his comments are so relevant!! The video is one of the best of our time too! This was the 80's..
I remember hearing a recorded interview with Pet Shop Boys around the time of their second album in 1987, there was a funny moment when Chris Lowe was talking about the programmer they brought in to work with them on their drum tracks, and he casually let slip "He'd just come from working on the Def Leppard album..." and then he froze with almost audible horror and said something like "Oh...should we SAY that??" out of fear of outing Def Leppard for using programmed drums. It was a highly controversial thing for a hard rock band to do.
Spot on analysis...Mutt was ahead of his time...perhaps a bit too much so (aka before pro tools) but he was a perfectionist and the arrangements brought the key elements to the fore (guitars and Joe's voice) to make these songs seem huge sonically. Great thing is that both Pyro and Hysteria stand the test of time although Pyro has a bit more of a "dated" sound. However, Photograph, along with all of their hit songs, sound amazing live. While certain drum sounds can't be "replicated" live, when you see it in person you realize just how much more impactful the song is when Rick Allen is playing the drums "live." IOW, while he may have programmed sounds in his kit, he's playing them live and bringing the kit to life with a "real" sound that meshes beautifully with Sav's bass playing. Long story short, Def Leppard is so much greater than the sum of their parts when you hear them live in an arena.
I personally love the way the studio songs have such high production value and sounds great. But then their live show sounds pretty different but still great in its own way.
Amazing song!! I vividly remember in the early 80's when both MTV and this song were dominating!! I was in my buddy's basement watching MTV and this video/song came on - wow!!! Remember it like it was yesterday. A magical time in my youth!!
B-Man 123 very weird band in the sense that they are nobody’s number 1 all time, live and breathe by them, they are my cult band, gotta see them every time out they are on tour, and have to have every piece of music they ever produced, band. (Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Aerosmith, Phish, Kiss to name a few examples). Yet they have been around for all these years and I have to meet anyone that can’t stand them. With the above examples, sure there’s people that would say “no” to a free ticket, with a great view to one of their shows. However Def Leopard though, it would be pretty tough to find someone that would say “no” to that same standard.
@@hofa_en I’m interested in hearing your production / engineering work. And was wondering if you might do reviews / reaction videos per request? P.S. The more I listen to Def Leppard, I feel that they’re an absolute staple in the Pop Rock world. Their songs and production is stellar.
@@pullthereins We're always collecting new ideas for reaction videos! If you've got an idea, feel free to let us know :) Can't promise, but will forward it to Dennis for sure! Take care & best wishes from Germany
Awesome video! Something of note that I found out when trying to cover this song is that this is pitched down a quarter of a semi tone because they had an air conditioner that would make the bass go out of tune because of the temperature from it kicking on and off. So to get the guitars to be perfectly in tune as Mutt wanted, all throughout the album they’re changing the speed of the tape to match each other‘s Instruments. Check out Def Leppard’s website they’ve got it on the page about the making of pyromania
Hehe, I can relate :) I had to play half of an album in back in 91 because we noticed the bass didn't match the guitars. Same thing: Air conditioners...
Very cool video. I was 13 when this song came out. This was a HUGE album. It’s sales will corroborate this. Great production. Mutt Lange was a complete perfectionist and a BEAST. This album and song is a perfect example of this. Great breakdown and analysis. Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you.👍
That noise with the flanger at the beginning of the song was an accident. When Clarke recorded the rhythm guitar, he hit a string and kept playing, but instead of doing a new track Mutt Lange kept it; it acts almost like an intro to what's coming.
What make me love Def Leppard is how much produced are the albums, yet their live renditions are even better. They strip out the artefacts and gimmicks, and kind of find some trickery to even reproduce the guitar parts like Hysteria ( 10 tracks of layered guitars ) to sound perfect. Photograph live at this period is awesome. The Drum is over the top, had as F... , and the chorus tight as hell. This band is a true gem actually.
The story is that the "synthesizer" in the pre-chorus is actually guitar chords with each string recorded individually and then faded in by Mutt Lange.
I think you are correct: I read an interview long ago in Guitar magazine with Phil Collen or whoever, and I was blown away to learn that everything that sounds like a synth on that album was actually guitar.
There was keyboard synthesizer on pyromania. They got Thomas Dolby who did famous song blinded me with science, to come in and add a little bit to their record.
No that’s definitely a synth. Type in “Def Leppard Photograph SSL” and watch the video. The guy isolated all the tracks and remixes the song. It’s a synth
Jimmy Page claims to have developed the reverse reverb effect in 1967 for the Yardbirds. But the effect was actually first recorded popularly by Lee Mallory in 1966 during the solo section of "That's the Way it's Gonna Be."
These are great videos that you are doing. In 83 I was in jr. high school. I played this cassette many times over. I always wished I could do this with my life. Thank you for these....
5 років тому
I was nine when this song came out. My babysitter and her girl friend were watching me and my brothers. They were all freaking out and cooing over the guys. I saw what I needed to see! Girls love this stuff!
I'm a big fan of (Professor) Rick Beato, who analyzes these classic rock songs note by note, instrument by instrument and does a brilliant job doing it. But for this gentleman to look at these tunes from an engineering/mixing perspective, really makes me appreciate my favorite hits even more.
Thomas Dolby playing the synths on this album he was so talented, a lot of people dont know he played on some big hip hop records from Whodini in the 80s as well when they were recording in England. Mutt went from this masterpiece to The Cars Heartbeat City which was another sonic masterpiece with BIG hits..
As a guitar player, I had long suspected there was something up with this track because it was a few cents off of A440. That fill always sounded way too punchy to me to be from a real kit, but I just chalked it up to Mutt being a genius and making it sound that way through EQ. Really loved this video!
If you don't know who this is, this Dennis Ward bass player for Pink Cream 69, Unisonic, lead singer for Khymera, among other projects. This man is a great musician and incredible singer as well as a great producer. The man knows what he is doing and talking about.
I remember I was about 19 years old when this album came out and reading about engineers explaining that until this day this song so difficult to play live
Def Leppard is my all time favorite band. My “childhood” band. I learned more about Def Leppard in this 15 minute video than I’ve learned in 32 years. 😂
Mutt Lange was genius. This is one of those songs that was just laid out to flow in perfection. Especially the crescendo when Joe holds that note right in the middle and the music drops out. Timeless
Tis true. He did some ACDC albums as well. I use to read the CD covers mainly to learn lyrics and I remember seeing his name bc it was so unusual. The only thing I didn't care for was his now ex wife's music. Shania Twain was horrible.
This is cool. And Yeah. Phil Collen has stated that some of the Def Leppard songs were just meant to be studio tracks that they never dreamed they would have to play live. The songs would get popular and they would be shitting themselves, wondering how they would pull it off live when loads of tricks were done in the studio by Mutt.
Saw a documentary with DL. They said Mutt was a relentless drill sergeant and they never worked with him again. But they had to admit his unforgiving perfectionism made them a super tight live act.
What a pop hook! Conventional wisdom is that the drums (kick, snare, toms) are a drum machine but the cymbals were recorded live in a room on a separate take. In hindsight, this use of programmed drums helped them down the road when Rick Allen was playing on his one arm electronic kit. Because there were few if any fills on these songs, he was able to continue to play them faithfully when he had to cover snare with his left foot on subsequent live performances.
I must admit I hate reaction videos. I watched one of these because it was Mr. Ward... wow. This is so different and unique. It is like watching a football game with a pro coach explaining every play. I just love these videos. Please keep them coming.
Another popular use of reverse reverb was in the movie Poltergeist. It's a cool effect that makes it seem like the voice is coming from some weird dimension and congealing into the live one. You can't just put the reverbed result of the live BEFORE the live. You have to reverse it in the creation of the verb so that the last verbed thing is actually the FIRST thing of the live so it fades INTO the start of the main sound. It takes a few minutes even in a DAW to get that finished up. nice vid.
I love Def Leppard, I love "Pyromania" and I love "Photograph" But OMG I can´t believe that after 37 years it comes to me that the drums in that song are all samples! So I guess the drums in the entire album are also samples!
That is true. I've listened to a lot of interviews with the band as they reflected on the recording process with Mutt. Pyromania, and Hysteria were both done that way. Rick Allen losing his arm was not the same kind of tragedy it might have been for a drummer in a different band. DL were perfectly suited to have Rick transition to playing a completely electronic kit. While doing it with one arm was certainly an impressive task, the electronics made it possible!!
I'm not a musician but hear things that amaze me and wonder how the musicians do it. You answered my drum amazements of this song. The reverse reverb trick and that fill always killed me, always air drumming what wasn't really possible. 🤣
SO damn good. That song was put together like a dream. Did you know Def Leppard re-recorded their next album because of some copywright/licensing lawsuit and they did it perfectly... 30 years later?
This was goddamn fascinating; so much going on. Thank you. I remember too when this album came out; though I was young, fifth or sixth grade. Have you done Rush yet? Three musicians sounding like twenty.
Also, when this band went out live, they delivered! It’s funny, they actually started off opening up for Billy Squire then they “roared to the rock n roll forefront” and headlined the rest of that Pyromania tour. That’s fact!
I believe Rick had his accident New year's Eve of 1983. They did a little studio work while he was recovering and recorded on and off for the 3 ish year period until it was finalized and released in 1987.
There are a BUNCH of Def Leopard tracks available online. If you listen to these isolated tracks, almost all of their songs are programmed drums. A mean, a lot of them are! It’s always fun listening to different multitracks.
Back when the drummer had his both arms... This song is timeless. Def Leppard is still performing they still sound pretty good live, watched a couple of performances recently and is just great.
Man about eight years ago there was a Def Leppard video that was either this song or Rock of Ages and in the comments section this other user and I got into an epic internet fight regarding this topic. He was talking about how badass it was Rick Allen lost his arm yet was still a drummer and I said the drums were programmed and it set off a fight that went on between us in that thread for a few years until UA-cam purged all the old videos. I kinda miss that dude. He was in extreme denial but it was fun to rile him up every so often. Glad to get some kind of confirmation about this matter.
I've always wondered if the drums on Pyromania were programmed due to their unusual sound, especially when compared to how Rick Allen's drums sounded on High N Dry. Now I can't unhear it!
Exactly.... and that probably carried on past Hysteria. I remember reading some article about Rick Allen complaining that he never gets to play on albums since Pyromania.
@@UTU49 Yes definitely... plenty of live videos both bootlegged and post-engineered. Rick was a talented drummer. Interestingly just a few hours ago I was watching the VH1 Journey behind the music where they went through the same thing during that period, and Steve Smith talked about how he and Ross Vallory basically got booted out of the band for not being able to replicate the electronic rhythms with real instruments when it came time to lay them down.
Pyromania was a good record... but High 'N'' Dry is DL best effort for hard rock fans. Steve Clark and Pete Willis were a killer guitar duo and that record was a masterpiece.
Pyromania is such an amazing album that more videos and releases should of been on it. Coming under fire imo was the best song off it. Billies got a gun wasnt 2nd but should of had a video and a release.
I loved High N Dry. I was so disappointed when Pyromania came out. As kids, we all thought it was “over produced”. Clearly what we liked was not what the masses liked because this blasted thing was inescapable during that time period. Lol.
Joe Elliott said that the Hysteria sessions were "very hard indeed" and that they nearly walked out several times because of Mutt Lange's perfectionism,but the end result was a superbly crafted rock album for the 80's that still sounds detailed and fresh today.
Or they wanted their music to sound like a live performance, rather than an overly produced sterile recording. This was the beginning of the end for raw sounding music.
Big fan of your first 3 albums with PC 69. Also loved the '98 album Electrified . One of best hard rock/metal albums of the whole decade. Thanks for keeping the metal alive when it was kind of dead here in the states. Introduced your music to other people and most really enjoyed it ! You should do something from your catalog in the past like "Take those Tears " , "Signs of Danger " ,"Shame " , "Sugar for Love", or one of the many others. Your music always sounded great on full blast when i still had long hair trying to recreate the 80's when it was the 90's ! Just wanted to thank you for the great times. Really meant a lot to me ! Your music will always stand the test of time .
I never dreamed in '83 while listening to Def Leppard that I would still be listening to and watching this on my phone 37 years later!
Amen brother. We are lucky enough to be alive in this time frame to do this. Rock On
none of us could have.Christ,in 1983 we were all buying cassettes and vinyl. shit,even syfy writers didn't come up with something like a smartphone.
Christ is Lord
@@mopar546 you could actually call up dial-a-disc back in the 80s which was run by the Post Office where you could listen to the latest hit records down the phone.
@@IzthatafaC Naw man not that I knew of. Hell we were corded to the wall and there wasnt area calling back then and theyd hang your tail on long distance. Now we can call anywhere in the US for the same price.
Mutt Lange once said, be careful what you record today, so it doesn't sound old tomorrow. Mutt is a genius.
SixSentSoldiers he is a genius and he got Shania Twain when she was young, hot and relevant.
@@benvasilinda9729 - He sure did. But that's an example of even steak every day gets old.
True :) Conversely, Jeff Lynne tried (with ELO at least) to make things sound old already, so they would not sound older in a few years and therefore last longer with fans.
I'm not sure your definition of genius is accurate
I don't believe @@ibelieveicansoar can soar. Where's this precision in language that they expect of others?
I still think Def Leppard albums are some of the most perfectly produced albums ever.
PREACH!!!!
OVER-produced. Sorry. Pyromania was a great record, and very well-produced, but on Hysteria (and everything else he did with these guys) Mutt Lange just overdid every thing. Completely sterilized the sound. It sounds like they only used a Scholz Rockman for the guitars, a cheesy synth for bass, and programmed Simmons drums.
@Nonya Bizness Shrilly? Hmmmmm. I guess that they still sound lush to me. But, there was a huge (although most people wouldn't notice it if they aren't musicians) change in sonic quality from a record to a CD. Some of the bottom end was lost in the transition to CD's. Anything analog is going to sound better compared to digital, IMO. Analog is just a warmer sound to my ears.
@Nonya Bizness We all have different ears, lol. Agreed that Mindcrime doesn't sound good to me either. Again, I love "Pyromania", but "Hysteria" went too far IMO. Everything sounds so processed and fake on that record to me. AC/DC damn sure would have never let Lange get away with that. That's why after "For Those About To Rock", they wanted a more stripped down and raw album with "Flick of the Switch". Malcolm Young felt that "For Those..." was TOO produced.
@@JokersWild70 Nothing was lost when CDs came along. Vinyl just tapers off as you rise in frequency, so it was just sound like the lows are louder. Turning down the treble is the same as boosting the bass.
What makes this an all-time great album is that you play it today and it sounds like it was recorded last week. Mutt was one a few guys with enough vision and skill that he could drop an album that changes an entire industry. His work speaks for itself.
I agree as I’m old enough to remember when this came out in 1983. It was a lot different from we were listening to at the time on MTV. For me, it was almost like Nirvana 10 years later in that overnight they change the sound.
This is less of a cheesy reaction video, and more of an engineer's production breakdown. Which is most definitely the type of thing that I like to watch on my lunch break. Interesting and informative!!!
Pull The Reins
Well said.👍
Get back to work.. Ha
@@UncleRandy73 HaHaHa #Never
Totally agree. I usually speed through “reaction” videos of songs I love to see people react but this was really interesting and educational. Real sound crafting is such an art that decades later this is still an interesting break down of it.
Couldn't agree more! NOT what I was expecting. Not @ all! I'm going to check out more of his videos. Funny thing is I'm a horn player & THOUGHT I knew music. Key word being thought!
Pyromania was THE album of my 8th grade graduation!! My best friend and I would ditch school, hide in an alley and play the shit out of my Pyromania cassette!! My generic Sears brand Walkman had 2 headphone jacks so we could actually listen together at the same time and that made me just the fucking coolest!!
When Pyromania came out in 1983 I was in 8th grade also. One of my favorite albums of all time. I remember listening to it three, four times a day. It brings back great memories. The videos on MTV, the Union Jack shirts, Rick Allen playing with both arms. God, I wish I could just go back in time. Amazing to read comments on this forum from people with similar experiences.
@@SJUCityBoy
DITTO
That's awesome
fack this comment is cute af lol! 😍😂🤭
heh gotcha beat little sister...my junior year of high school we were rockin' this out in the So. Jersey woods at night during our infamous Oakcrest winter bonfire keggers! 🍻🔊🎶😂
Miss those days...so long ago now...miss those friends 😞 and those cutie gals.. (like yahself lol😍🤭) 💔 😞
I actually came to a realization a while ago. All these bands I'm a 'fan' of. Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, AC/DC....turns out I'm just a Mutt Lange fan 😂
you can actually hear Mutt Lange's trademark layered-whispered choirs also on songs by the Cars ("magic") and Huey Lewis and the news ("do you believe in love")
I found the same thing out about myself and Jimmy Iovine from watching the HBO documentary The Defiant Ones.
I hate to say it (not a country fan here) but his stuff with Shania Twain is really good too. It's Canadian/South African Country/pop magic.. Also High N Dry sounds so much like an AC/DC album to me.
yessir! i can relate.
@@densealloy His Shania records are heaven's butter. I could not agree more...also take a listen to Breathless by the Corrs....GREAT song that SHOULDVE been recorded by Shania...Honey I'm Home by Shania could've been recorded by Def Leppard. He's a producer's producer.
I remember MTV used to have Friday Night Video Fights where they played two different videos by different artists and had people call in to pick a winner. They had to retire Photograph because it never lost.
Must have out it up against some shit songs. Not a super bad ass song.
Late 80s was nothing but ballads anyway
@@briancrawford69 It's one of the all time greatest rock songs. What's an example of a super bad ass song, brian?
@@trollingisasport This song was from '83.
@@s.miller2648 many other songs. Shit pour some sugar on me is better than this
Photograph never gets old!
Nope!!
It is, I think their greatest song.
saw Def a few weeks ago in Hamilton! First time
I was lucky enough to see Def Leppard's Pyromania tour that summer in 1983 in Hartford CT at the Hartford Civic Center. Fantastic show. I became a big fan the first time I listened to High n'Dry. I still have the ticket stub!
@@Killsnapz - me too, same tour, still have the ticket stub - London Ontario Canada '83! My very first concert ever. Saw them 3 more times since.
I once met Nigel Green, one of the engineers who worked with Mutt. When I asked him how many tracks were used for background vocals, his answer was, "Sixteen channels for the left, sixteen channels for the right, and sung with lots of attitude."
When Mutt recorded Bryan Adams' "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" he used 48 tracks to the left and 48 to the right on the backing vocals alone. Absolutely incredible.
@@JasonSway why 48 channels though? It's not a complicated piece.
This is hands down by far , truly the best 80s pop/rock song. I've heard it a million times and it never gets old. Too bad Joe can't sing like he once did because I would love to see them live in concert.
*Pop Metal
He’s not far off what he was in the 80s especially compared to guys like Vince Neil and Axl Rose who sound like ass now. Pretty much everyone would say Def Leppard still puts on fantastic concerts to this day
"Photograph" just might be my favorite rock song of all time. Coming from a production/ engineering background now, and obviously as a fan as a kid of both Leppard and Mutt, there's a bunch of things that I can now put into a more specific detail in what really knocked me out about the song back then. The major thing is that the song just keeps ascending.....there's always another gear that it goes to. Just when you think it's already great, it hits another plateau. In the first verse, it builds up the tension by having only the main guitar riff playing mostly up the centre channel, with no bass. Then when the bass kicks in, it does it at the exact time where the stereo tracked guitars kick in and then alternate by playing the E both in the higher octave for the riffs, and then the low muted E to give it some real heft, where the riffs have this call and response thing going to 'em. Also, the pre-choruses (I call them pre-choruses, not a bridge) are important, because the space between the notes gives more tension even as the song builds, and then it sets up the chorus to be absolutely fucking massive.
What has always been the key to the chorus is what Dennis mentions--the clean guitar front and centre, but it's the arrangement of that line (I've long felt it was Steve's idea.....he was more a textural player and the open ringing melancholy string playing was one of his signatures). Phil has mentioned that they'd used something like a Telecaster for that clean line, to really cut through the mix and to give it that bell like chime. Also, what I like about the song is that it's just two verses, and the rest has to build it up, so coming out of the guitar solo (which brings the song back down again with Phil's tremolo dive and yet again no bass guitar!), it goes back into the pre-chorus, and then sets the song up to ride out a bunch of choruses, which gives the band the chance to set up that huge guitar solo to ride it out to the end. I've always thought the fade out with Phil's solo really gives it this huge, ascending feeling, even though the song is fading out and "slipping away", even though we know what's on the rest of the recording would have sounded great going out with a bang. It makes you want to play the song again and again, and is a strong case for the fadeout. Absolutely brilliant.
I've long felt that DL's secret weapon is the pre-chorus. Most of their pre-choruses (especially on the Pyromania and Hysteria albums) would be most other bands' choruses, but somehow they always hit that higher high. Also--and I am a big Steve Clark fan--but will have to concede that Phil's style suits this song better (there's live footage of Steve playing the leads in earlier versions of this, pre-release), with the tremolo bar accents, which moves the band a little more into the 80's style, whereas Steve has that style that is absolutely critical for something like "Diehard The Hunter" or "Too Late For Love", which are darker and heavier. For me, this is the first real defining moment for Phil in adding his particular style to the band.
you should be doing these ..reading your analysis was better than the video
@@hardsignal Thanks, man!
Royce Williams Excellent...
Royce Williams could you please finally explain why the fade out exists? During live performance, all artists using this have to create a definite end to the live performance.
@@coreymoraes8235 Sorry for the late reply. The fade out exists in record production for various reasons. One is when either the producer or band feel that a song should be "slipping away" from an audience, kind of like in a movie where there's a fade out from a scene or at the end, where a sense of a lack of an actual definite ending could create a sense of tension during the course of a complete album. It can also create a sense of purposeful unresolvement: the lack of a real ending might create the sense where the listener needs to listen to the song again. It's sort of the same reason why most pop hits are 3-4 minutes long instead of long, drawn out songs.....in the pop music realm, people are more likely to listen to shorter songs many more times over than a longer song but less times. A fade creates another dimension to that......the song that you already like is ending sooner than you wanted to, so you want to listen to it again.
If a song could be considered a chapter or a scene in a movie, a producer or band (or mixing engineer sometimes) could suggest a faded song into maybe a slower song or something like that. Considering that the next song on Pyromania is "Stagefright", where it opens with a live introduction, I guess maybe Mutt or the band thought it could possibly seem like a dramatic way to resolve one song and then lead into another; almost like where the band goes offstage and then comes back on for an encore. Mutt is great at these types of things; the psychological reasoning and the perfection behind the art of the pop hit, so if he fades something out, it's for good reason.
Or a much shorter reasoning: the band or producer didn't really much like the way that a song ended and feels that the fade is a better way to end the song, ha ha. We see this with unedited songs from various artists and bands in deluxe reissues. Sometimes there's extended jams or whatever it may be, or other sections or parts of songs that don't really move the song along in any real big way. Earlier in the recording of the album, it may have seemed like a good idea, but in sequencing an album with flow and content, maybe it doesn't fit. In some cases, it could be a radio airplay thing, so instead of having edited versions and whatnot, they just use the faded version.
The year 1983 was all Def Leppard. Great sounding guitars on tat record..This song still holds up today.
Pete Willis not Phil Collen
He said in the video he was in high school in ‘83. Maybe you’re the one that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Ian McCurdy I think that Pete Willis and Steve Clark had such an amazing vibe as songwriters, that was completely gone after the pyromania record.
TheReubenKincaid I was more of a Shout at the Devil kind of a guy
Journey was huge in 1983 too.
I still get goosebumps whenever I hear the chorus even after listening to Def Leppard since being a very young child
When I became a music producer myself about 17 years ago, the one comparison I place everything I've worked on, regardless of style or genre, is this to this album. Some of the things that Mutt Lange said about making a recording perfect to the vision and not settling for less on any aspect because people will be listening to it over and over really stuck with me. As far as Pyromania, it still holds up sonically and its arrangements...the guitar tone on the record is to me, anyway, the most perfect and my favorite of any rock record ever recorded. I was in love with this album since the day it came out when I was 13 and it still sounds as incredible today as it did back then.
They always had such a big, clean, sound, vocally and musically even with all those layers stacked.
Def leppard always sounded futuristic when playing their album hysteria, I dunno if it was meant but they always sounded way ahead of their time sound wise ....Fantastic ! :-)
Take a listen to their song “Hysteria “ the song is an engineering masterpiece. Even the guitar chords are layered one string at a time in some spots. It’s possibly one of Mutt’s best works- and a timeless Def Leppard song that many consider their best.
Agreed! Pure musical happiness in my ears. Never gets old.
Agreed! Some of his best work is with Def Leppard. Then Mutt went on to help Shania Twain and then married her!
Pyromania was great. Hysteria was EPIC !! Not a bad song on either album. But Hysteria seems to be where the band, and Mutt, took things to the next level
Another thing that amazes me..... when you hear the tracks, as a musician, you think ' Awesome ! But good luck doing it live!'
But, obviously, they DO pull it off, VERY WELL, show after show !
Agree 100%. It's like Aja by SD, flawless.
now that I think of it... I think Mutt also put the backing vocals into the Fairlight and just flew them in by hitting a key on the keyboard. That way, every single chorus is perfect and the listener will never be the wiser. I believe the backing vocals are on YT isolated.
That is true. I've downloaded all the isolated parts. The chorus is the same identical sampled perfect choir each time. Mutt was very innovative, as that was highly unusual at for the time period!
Legend of a song that contains my favorite line at the end, "I wanna touch you. AhhhhhhAHHHHHHHHH
ahhh ahhhh...!!!" and so forth.
The emotion in his voice when singing that line...man, always gets me.
Just so you know all the guitar things you were picking out you liked are all credited to Steve Clark he knew how to write and compose music very well.
Steve Clark never got the credit he deserves mostly due to the fact they died at a young age
steve clark came up with guitar parts, tha band wrote the songs except for wasted. Mutt was great at identifying great Clark Ideas.
Wow, just kids, then!
This band is laced with tragedy.
Amazing what drummer Rick Allen did to re-train himself to play after losing an arm.
Even more amazing the other members of the group had the good faith to keep him in the dog-eat-dog business of a signed, multi-million dollar band.
Lost Steve Clark to alcohol, replaced him with Vivian Campbell who has now been in the band longer than Clark.
Just a bunch of good people in this group.
Mutt may have been another member of the band behind the scenes, but there's a reason he did that.
Genuine talent, and not afraid of lots of hard work.
Well done, Def Leppard.
You forgot Vivian Campbell's fight with Leukemia....
I know! I kind of can't believe that, even when researching it later on, he failed to notice or read anywhere that Rick Allen has only one arm to play with, jeez!
@@meredith5196 Lost his arm AFTER this record was recorded. I had the same thought, but that's not why they used programming.
Definitely well said.
Great music never dies... it lives on for a brand new audience.
Mutt Lang really nailed it with Pyromania. You could tell that there was a lot of sound production behind the album, while High N' Dry had a more organic sound. Pyromania is one of my favorite albums from the 80's.
Phil Collen said rhythm guitar parts were not only dubbed but recorded with a Les Paul, an SG and a Telecaster in different ranges so you hear 6 layers as one. that's why it sounds HUGE
How did I NOT know about this channel lol. This is so much cooler than the "vocalist reacts" videos lol. Awesome job.
yeah those "vocal coach" ones suck lol.
This is just a fantastic album. I think this was Joe Elliot at his finest. I dont think he was ever better. Some less popular songs on Pyromania that I just love. Die Hard the Hunter is great. I was in 8th grade when this came out and I wore it out on a Sony Walkman walking to and from school each day.
I agree. I heard Die hard the hunter quite a lot because it was the B side to one of their singles. I believe on Photograph single. Great all around album.
Dont forget stagefright
And Coming Under Fire
My favorite album of all time...not a bad song on it, and several classics.
Joe Elliot most underrated rock vocalist to me
7th grade! And did the same :)
Thank you for being part of my "learn something new everyday" routine.
Analyzing Def Leppard Photograph Drums = Analyzing the Zapruder Film lol
I'm really liking this engineer's reviews. He's been there, and his comments are so relevant!! The video is one of the best of our time too! This was the 80's..
I'm a musician and this is a nicely explained and entertaining video. A song I always loved and now have gotten enlightened in different ways on it..
I remember hearing a recorded interview with Pet Shop Boys around the time of their second album in 1987, there was a funny moment when Chris Lowe was talking about the programmer they brought in to work with them on their drum tracks, and he casually let slip "He'd just come from working on the Def Leppard album..." and then he froze with almost audible horror and said something like "Oh...should we SAY that??" out of fear of outing Def Leppard for using programmed drums. It was a highly controversial thing for a hard rock band to do.
Spot on analysis...Mutt was ahead of his time...perhaps a bit too much so (aka before pro tools) but he was a perfectionist and the arrangements brought the key elements to the fore (guitars and Joe's voice) to make these songs seem huge sonically. Great thing is that both Pyro and Hysteria stand the test of time although Pyro has a bit more of a "dated" sound. However, Photograph, along with all of their hit songs, sound amazing live. While certain drum sounds can't be "replicated" live, when you see it in person you realize just how much more impactful the song is when Rick Allen is playing the drums "live." IOW, while he may have programmed sounds in his kit, he's playing them live and bringing the kit to life with a "real" sound that meshes beautifully with Sav's bass playing. Long story short, Def Leppard is so much greater than the sum of their parts when you hear them live in an arena.
I personally love the way the studio songs have such high production value and sounds great. But then their live show sounds pretty different but still great in its own way.
You really know what you're doing, thanks for breaking this down for someone who loves music but doesn't understand the missing part. Fascinating.
Amazing song!! I vividly remember in the early 80's when both MTV and this song were dominating!! I was in my buddy's basement watching MTV and this video/song came on - wow!!! Remember it like it was yesterday. A magical time in my youth!!
B-Man 123 very weird band in the sense that they are nobody’s number 1 all time, live and breathe by them, they are my cult band, gotta see them every time out they are on tour, and have to have every piece of music they ever produced, band. (Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Aerosmith, Phish, Kiss to name a few examples).
Yet they have been around for all these years and I have to meet anyone that can’t stand them. With the above examples, sure there’s people that would say “no” to a free ticket, with a great view to one of their shows. However Def Leopard though, it would be pretty tough to find someone that would say “no” to that same standard.
How could any musician / producer / engineer not Subscribe to this channel. There’s so much attention to detail.
Excellent work!!!
Thanks a lot for your feedback! Very happy to hear that! Stay tuned on this channel as there's a lot more to come :)
Best wishes from Germany
@@hofa_en I’m interested in hearing your production / engineering work. And was wondering if you might do reviews / reaction videos per request?
P.S. The more I listen to Def Leppard, I feel that they’re an absolute staple in the Pop Rock world. Their songs and production is stellar.
@@pullthereins We're always collecting new ideas for reaction videos! If you've got an idea, feel free to let us know :)
Can't promise, but will forward it to Dennis for sure!
Take care & best wishes from Germany
Awesome video! Something of note that I found out when trying to cover this song is that this is pitched down a quarter of a semi tone because they had an air conditioner that would make the bass go out of tune because of the temperature from it kicking on and off. So to get the guitars to be perfectly in tune as Mutt wanted, all throughout the album they’re changing the speed of the tape to match each other‘s Instruments.
Check out Def Leppard’s website they’ve got it on the page about the making of pyromania
Hehe, I can relate :) I had to play half of an album in back in 91 because we noticed the bass didn't match the guitars. Same thing: Air conditioners...
Very cool video.
I was 13 when this song came out.
This was a HUGE album.
It’s sales will corroborate this.
Great production.
Mutt Lange was a complete perfectionist and a BEAST.
This album and song is a perfect example of this.
Great breakdown and analysis.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video.
Thank you.👍
That song is perfect, man. And beautiful
You are amazing! I’m really enjoying these videos. Learning. Thank you so much for sharing! 💪🏼🤘🏼
That noise with the flanger at the beginning of the song was an accident. When Clarke recorded the rhythm guitar, he hit a string and kept playing, but instead of doing a new track Mutt Lange kept it; it acts almost like an intro to what's coming.
It's the key to setting the stage to a great song! Even if by accident.
Nice!
Similar thing occurred with welcome to the jungle, slash was testing the delay pedal before starting the opening riff.
What make me love Def Leppard is how much produced are the albums, yet their live renditions are even better. They strip out the artefacts and gimmicks, and kind of find some trickery to even reproduce the guitar parts like Hysteria ( 10 tracks of layered guitars ) to sound perfect.
Photograph live at this period is awesome. The Drum is over the top, had as F... , and the chorus tight as hell.
This band is a true gem actually.
The story is that the "synthesizer" in the pre-chorus is actually guitar chords with each string recorded individually and then faded in by Mutt Lange.
I think you are correct: I read an interview long ago in Guitar magazine with Phil Collen or whoever, and I was blown away to learn that everything that sounds like a synth on that album was actually guitar.
There was keyboard synthesizer on pyromania. They got Thomas Dolby who did famous song blinded me with science, to come in and add a little bit to their record.
No that’s definitely a synth. Type in “Def Leppard Photograph SSL” and watch the video. The guy isolated all the tracks and remixes the song. It’s a synth
Jimmy Page claims to have developed the reverse reverb effect in 1967 for the Yardbirds. But the effect was actually first recorded popularly by Lee Mallory in 1966 during the solo section of "That's the Way it's Gonna Be."
I love love love LOVE this. Grew up with this song. Heard everything described. Was transformed by them. Mutt is maybe a genius.
You’ve solved several questions I’ve had pertaining to not only Def Leopard but other bands produced by Mutt Lang. Amazing, thank you.
In a documentary it was said that the drums were indeed programmed by Mutt.
Still gives me goosebumps....wow
These are great videos that you are doing. In 83 I was in jr. high school. I played this cassette many times over. I always wished I could do this with my life. Thank you for these....
I was nine when this song came out. My babysitter and her girl friend were watching me and my brothers. They were all freaking out and cooing over the guys. I saw what I needed to see! Girls love this stuff!
I just stumbled across this channel and I really enjoyed it! Thanks for making me a bit smarter today!
I'm a big fan of (Professor) Rick Beato, who analyzes these classic rock songs note by note, instrument by instrument and does a brilliant job doing it. But for this gentleman to look at these tunes from an engineering/mixing perspective, really makes me appreciate my favorite hits even more.
Thomas Dolby playing the synths on this album he was so talented, a lot of people dont know he played on some big hip hop records from Whodini in the 80s as well when they were recording in England. Mutt went from this masterpiece to The Cars Heartbeat City which was another sonic masterpiece with BIG hits..
As a guitar player, I had long suspected there was something up with this track because it was a few cents off of A440. That fill always sounded way too punchy to me to be from a real kit, but I just chalked it up to Mutt being a genius and making it sound that way through EQ. Really loved this video!
I remember when this came out! Changed everything musically for me!
I’m 70 and just learned to appreciate what a fantastic song this is.
I'd love you to do the same for Gods of War from Hysteria. You just know they spent a LOT of time on that one in the studio!
My favorite track off that album.
Featuring soindbites of Reagan and Thatcher with Army chants of Muddy Fucker in the background.
@@jeffdecker7077 same
Hysteria was recorded one string at a time
@@fernando_713 just parts were, not the whole thing
If you don't know who this is, this Dennis Ward bass player for Pink Cream 69, Unisonic, lead singer for Khymera, among other projects. This man is a great musician and incredible singer as well as a great producer. The man knows what he is doing and talking about.
I remember I was about 19 years old when this album came out and reading about engineers explaining that until this day this song so difficult to play live
zildjianZcustom i would assume it’s because of the vocals
The bass tone is amazing. It just growls.
More Def Leppard please. The song Hysteria would be great. Thanks
Def Leppard is my all time favorite band. My “childhood” band. I learned more about Def Leppard in this 15 minute video than I’ve learned in 32 years. 😂
Ive got three of those DT555 guitars and one was played by Phil himself!!!! great sound!!!!!
Mutt Lange was genius. This is one of those songs that was just laid out to flow in perfection. Especially the crescendo when Joe holds that note right in the middle and the music drops out. Timeless
Mutt Lange: genius!!!
Midas!
Tis true. He did some ACDC albums as well. I use to read the CD covers mainly to learn lyrics and I remember seeing his name bc it was so unusual. The only thing I didn't care for was his now ex wife's music. Shania Twain was horrible.
This is cool. And Yeah. Phil Collen has stated that some of the Def Leppard songs were just meant to be studio tracks that they never dreamed they would have to play live. The songs would get popular and they would be shitting themselves, wondering how they would pull it off live when loads of tricks were done in the studio by Mutt.
Saw a documentary with DL. They said Mutt was a relentless drill sergeant and they never worked with him again. But they had to admit his unforgiving perfectionism made them a super tight live act.
What a pop hook! Conventional wisdom is that the drums (kick, snare, toms) are a drum machine but the cymbals were recorded live in a room on a separate take. In hindsight, this use of programmed drums helped them down the road when Rick Allen was playing on his one arm electronic kit. Because there were few if any fills on these songs, he was able to continue to play them faithfully when he had to cover snare with his left foot on subsequent live performances.
I must admit I hate reaction videos. I watched one of these because it was Mr. Ward... wow. This is so different and unique. It is like watching a football game with a pro coach explaining every play. I just love these videos. Please keep them coming.
I agree most videos are so obviously fake "Wow, I'm Impressed" reactions.
Another popular use of reverse reverb was in the movie Poltergeist. It's a cool effect that makes it seem like the voice is coming from some weird dimension and congealing into the live one. You can't just put the reverbed result of the live BEFORE the live. You have to reverse it in the creation of the verb so that the last verbed thing is actually the FIRST thing of the live so it fades INTO the start of the main sound. It takes a few minutes even in a DAW to get that finished up. nice vid.
Pagey was known for that...a rather brilliant engineer actually too! 🎸🎼🎛️🎚️🎶
I’ve been saying for years that I thought the drums on pyromania sounded like a drum machine. Thank you!!!!
i think they are triggered drums
Great insight as always !!!! I particularly like watching the way you tilt your head as if saying "what the?".
Very cool man
I love Def Leppard, I love "Pyromania" and I love "Photograph" But OMG I can´t believe that after 37 years it comes to me that the drums in that song are all samples! So I guess the drums in the entire album are also samples!
That is true. I've listened to a lot of interviews with the band as they reflected on the recording process with Mutt. Pyromania, and Hysteria were both done that way. Rick Allen losing his arm was not the same kind of tragedy it might have been for a drummer in a different band. DL were perfectly suited to have Rick transition to playing a completely electronic kit. While doing it with one arm was certainly an impressive task, the electronics made it possible!!
I'm not a musician but hear things that amaze me and wonder how the musicians do it. You answered my drum amazements of this song. The reverse reverb trick and that fill always killed me, always air drumming what wasn't really possible. 🤣
Always thought the production on this album and Hysteria was top notch.
SO damn good. That song was put together like a dream. Did you know Def Leppard re-recorded their next album because of some copywright/licensing lawsuit and they did it perfectly... 30 years later?
Pyromania was my first album. Still love it to this day.
Mine too! My older brother bought it for my 10th birthday 😊
Sacrosby103 That puts you about the same age. I just turned 10 when I got it.
@@OldManTenno my favorite on Pyromania was always Too Late for Love
Black Sabbath Live at Last from the Kmart discount bin for me. But it made me realize Dads Bob Denver and kenny Rodgers were lousy.
This guy, Dennis Ward, I like him; he seems very cool.
This guy Baron. He doesnt use alot of words but I agree with him.
Touch Too Much by ACDC - you can hear Mutt Lange's vocal influence at play.
One of my faves of theirs
@rj zander Yes
Holy crap! Dennis Ward of Pink Cream 69! Love your music, sir!
Scorpions used pre-recorded drums as-well... you just can’t get away from that “Cakewalk” sound
The reverse snare is genious, thanks for the info on this!
This was goddamn fascinating; so much going on. Thank you. I remember too when this album came out; though I was young, fifth or sixth grade.
Have you done Rush yet? Three musicians sounding like twenty.
He did Red Barchetta and it's a pretty technical video.
Also, when this band went out live, they delivered! It’s funny, they actually started off opening up for Billy Squire then they “roared to the rock n roll forefront” and headlined the rest of that Pyromania tour. That’s fact!
I would look into Animal, it took them 3 years to record and has some really cool layers
In that time the Drummer Rick Allen lost his right arm in a terrible car accident.
It took 4 not 3 Years to finally Complete.
I believe Rick had his accident New year's Eve of 1983. They did a little studio work while he was recovering and recorded on and off for the 3 ish year period until it was finalized and released in 1987.
@@mrmjb1960 left arm.
Maybe their best song.
There are a BUNCH of Def Leopard tracks available online. If you listen to these isolated tracks, almost all of their songs are programmed drums. A mean, a lot of them are! It’s always fun listening to different multitracks.
Back when the drummer had his both arms... This song is timeless.
Def Leppard is still performing they still sound pretty good live, watched a couple of performances recently and is just great.
Goddam right buddy!
They Rock but Joe's voice sounds nothing like the 80s anymore..
You have a great ear. One of my fave tunes, the melody is so smooth and flows with Joes high notes. The song sparkles!✨✨✨
The production value on this entire album was unfreakinbelievable... just "crisp", like Boston's first album.
Boston's first was a demo
@@coolhandchris5960 Best sounding demo ever made.
Tom scholz is a smart dude,check him out
Man about eight years ago there was a Def Leppard video that was either this song or Rock of Ages and in the comments section this other user and I got into an epic internet fight regarding this topic. He was talking about how badass it was Rick Allen lost his arm yet was still a drummer and I said the drums were programmed and it set off a fight that went on between us in that thread for a few years until UA-cam purged all the old videos. I kinda miss that dude. He was in extreme denial but it was fun to rile him up every so often. Glad to get some kind of confirmation about this matter.
Billy's Got a Gun & Too Late For Love.... Def Leppard at their musical zenith!!🤘🤘
Too Late For Love is underrated, Comin' Under Fire was also great. What an album...
Best thing about this reaction video compared to so many is the actual lessons and learning I am getting from it. Awesome job HOFA. Keep it up.
I've always loved Def Leppard and I have to say their the best at playing live in concert.
I've always wondered if the drums on Pyromania were programmed due to their unusual sound, especially when compared to how Rick Allen's drums sounded on High N Dry. Now I can't unhear it!
Exactly.... and that probably carried on past Hysteria. I remember reading some article about Rick Allen complaining that he never gets to play on albums since Pyromania.
@@giantsean How did they play that live? Do you know if they did conventional drumming for live performances?
@@UTU49 Yes definitely... plenty of live videos both bootlegged and post-engineered. Rick was a talented drummer. Interestingly just a few hours ago I was watching the VH1 Journey behind the music where they went through the same thing during that period, and Steve Smith talked about how he and Ross Vallory basically got booted out of the band for not being able to replicate the electronic rhythms with real instruments
when it came time to lay them down.
Pyromania was a good record... but High 'N'' Dry is DL best effort for hard rock fans. Steve Clark and Pete Willis were a killer guitar duo and that record was a masterpiece.
yeah, the hard edge guitars and solos beat anything on pyromania and hysteria
Pyromania is the best Def Leppard album.
Pyromania is such an amazing album that more videos and releases should of been on it. Coming under fire imo was the best song off it. Billies got a gun wasnt 2nd but should of had a video and a release.
I loved High N Dry. I was so disappointed when Pyromania came out. As kids, we all thought it was “over produced”. Clearly what we liked was not what the masses liked because this blasted thing was inescapable during that time period. Lol.
Have to agree..... H n D waas their best "rock" album!
Yes a drum machine. Cymbals and toms were played in after. It was a way to make the drums bigger. I belive Joe Elliot said it was Lynn Drums
Joe Elliott said that the Hysteria sessions were "very hard indeed" and that they nearly walked out several times because of Mutt Lange's perfectionism,but the end result was a superbly crafted rock album for the 80's that still sounds detailed and fresh today.
That must mean they were just ass holes to work with
Or they wanted their music to sound like a live performance, rather than an overly produced sterile recording. This was the beginning of the end for raw sounding music.
Mutt never worked with a better band, and Def Leppard never worked with a better producer. Pyromania and Hysteria are both masterpieces, full stop.
They spent weeks on getting everything on the record just right but they filmed the videos for 4 songs in 1 day.
I liked that album way more than this one
That was a monster hit back in the day. So was their album. Many hit songs on it😂
Big fan of your first 3 albums with PC 69. Also loved the '98 album Electrified . One of best hard rock/metal albums of the whole decade. Thanks for keeping the metal alive when it was kind of dead here in the states. Introduced your music to other people and most really enjoyed it ! You should do something from your catalog in the past like "Take those Tears " , "Signs of Danger " ,"Shame " , "Sugar for Love", or one of the many others. Your music always sounded great on full blast when i still had long hair trying to recreate the 80's when it was the 90's ! Just wanted to thank you for the great times. Really meant a lot to me ! Your music will always stand the test of time .
Thanks for the kind words :) We'll see if I get the time for this!
Who is PC ?
@@bonniebianco5918 Pink Cream 69. Fantastic ROCK band from Europe.