Sonobeat Recording Company began more than modestly, without facilities or equipment of its own. In its first year of operation -- 1967 -- it borrowed two Ampex 354 quarter inch two-track recorders and microphones from KAZZ-FM, where Sonobeat founders Bill Josey Sr. and Rim Kelley (Bill Josey Jr.) worked, and rented Austin-area night clubs to use as makeshift recording studios. KAZZ's chief engineer, Bill Curtis, designed and built a battery-powered 6-channel mixer for Sonobeat, which was first used to record jazz combo The Lee Arlano Trio at the Club Seville in downtown Austin.

The first few Sonobeat recordings were not particularly challenging; the Lee Arlano Trio sessions required only six microphones -- two covering the piano, three covering the drums, and one for the bass. There were no vocals to overdub, so the Arlano tracks -- two singles and an album -- were each recorded in a single take through the homemade mixer directly to the two-track Ampex and, therefore, the resulting stereo mix could not be remixed or rebalanced.

Recording Sonobeat's first single release, A Picture of Me by the Sweetarts, a five piece rock band, was more difficult than the Arlano Trio since there were more instruments to mike as well as vocals. Sonobeat prefered to record the basic instrumental tracks and vocals in separate sessions. This required using both of KAZZ's Ampex two-track recorders. First, the basic instrumental track was recorded with six microphones covering drums, lead and rhythm guitars, and bass. Then, two channels of the 6-channel mixer were used as inputs for the stereo output of one Ampex, and the remaining four channels were used for vocal and percussion overdubs. The resulting mix was recorded to the second two-track Ampex and, once recorded, was "locked" and could not be remixed. This was the basic recording configuration Sonobeat used during 1967 and the first half of 1968.

Sonobeat recorded its fourth single, Lavender Hill Express's Visions and Trying to Live a Life, in autumn 1967. The two songs were an upbeat rocker and a slow ballad, respectively. Inspired by then-current top 40 hits such as Monday, Monday, (You're My) Soul and Inspiration, and All You Need Is Love -- Sonobeat producer Rim Kelley wanted to add an orchestral backing to the LHE tracks, but the cost of an orchestra was too much for Sonobeat to undertake. However, a string accompaniment was within Sonobeat's modest budget for the single.

The basic instrumental tracks for Visions and Trying to Live a Life were recorded during mid-October 1967 at the Swingers Club in Austin. The sessions were held during the day, when the club was closed, so no audience was present. In order to minimize sound reflection, the band set up on a carpeted section of the club floor. The Joseys, who had mounted one of KAZZ-FM's Ampex 354 recorders in a 2" x 4" wood frame for portability, set up the recorder and 6-channel homemade mixer about 20 feet from the band's equipment. The left and right output channels of the mixer were plugged into the Ampex line inputs, and Rim, who engineered the session, monitored the mix through headphones plugged in to the Ampex.

The instrumental tracks featured Rusty Wier on drums, Leonard Arnold on lead guitar, Layton DePenning on rhythm guitar, Jess Yaryan on bass guitar, and Johnny Schwertner on keyboard. For Visions, one AKG tube condenser microphone was placed on a stand slightly in front of and above the kit. The front skin of the kick was removed, and the kick was filled with blankets, into which an ElectroVoice 665 dynamic mike was buried. The drums were miked slightly differently for Trying to Live a Life, in order to get some stereo separation. The lead, rhythm, and bass guitar speaker boxes were close miked for both tracks, also using ElectroVoice 665s, but the output from Johnny Schwertner's Farfisa transistor organ was plugged directly into the mixer. No vocals were recorded during the instrumental session. A "live" stereo mix -- one that could not be remixed or rebalanced later -- was recorded to the Ampex, creating a first generation master. The following sound bites are taken from the original instrumental master .

The Joseys engaged Richard Green to arrange and conduct a string quartet for the first overdub session and gave Richard an open-reel reference dub of the basic instrumental tracks. About four weeks later, when Richard had completed the string arrangement, the Joseys scheduled an overdub session for which Richard engaged musicians from the Austin Symphony Orchestra. The session was recorded at the KAZZ-FM studios in downtown Austin. The Joseys brought in a rented harpsichord, which was set up in KAZZ's reception room and professionally tuned just before the session. The reception room was barely large enough for harpsichord and string quartet -- two violins, a viola, and a cello. Producer/engineer Rim Kelley used the KAZZ production room, which also housed KAZZ's two Ampex 354 recorders mounted in racks, as the "control room" for the session. Using a technique that's come to be known as "bouncing down", Rim played back the basic instrumental tracks from one Ampex 354 through two channels of the 6-channel mixer and used the remaining four channels to record the string quartet with three mikes and harpsichord with a fourth mike. The output from the mixer -- basic instrumental tracks plus strings and harpsichord -- was fed to a stereo hi-fi amplifier that drove five sets of headphones -- one for conductor Richard Green and one for each member of the quartet. For no apparent reason, the left and right channels of the original instrumental tracks were reversed in the overdub. The resulting tape was a second generation master that would serve as the instrumental backing for the vocal overdub session. Here are sound bites from the string-sweeten tracks .

In the second overdub session, held on November 26, 1967, the band recorded the vocals. Again, Rim used two channels of the 6-channel mixer to feed in the instrumental backing, now sweetened with strings and harpsichord. Three of the remaining four channels of the mixer were used to mike the vocals and reverb with KAZZ's ElectroVoice 665s. This final session also was conducted at the KAZZ-FM studios, but was recorded after business hours in order to use the long hallway outside the KAZZ studios on the 10th floor of the Perry-Brooks Building in downtown Austin. Rim set up the singers' mikes in the hallway just outside the KAZZ office door, running the cables into the production room. Why use the hallway? It provided a deep, natural reverb, which was captured by placing a microphone at the far end, some 50 feet from the singers' mikes. A stereo hi-fi amp connected to the mixer output fed headphones for the vocalists. The vocals were "live" mixed with the instrumental tracks to create the final stereo master -- now a third generation tape -- for the Lavender Hill Express's first Sonobeat single. This master tape was sent to Houston Records, which cut the lacquer master, manufactured the metal pressing plates (matrices), and pressed the vinyl 45 RPM stereo discs. Here are sound bites from the final masters .

Unfortunately, analog recording equipment in the '60s was far from perfect. Each overdub session lost a generation of quality, resulting in a loss of high frequencies and increased tape hiss, so that the basic instrumental tracks sound muddier in the final mix than in the original recordings. The introduction of multi-track recorders, such as the 4-track Scully 280 that Sonobeat purchased in mid-1968 and the 8-track Studer A80 used to record the Beatles' Abbey Road album made the "overdub" process significantly easier, reduced tape hiss, and preserved sonic fidelity that was lost by "bouncing" tracks from one recorder to another. Today, creating Visions and Trying to Live a Life would be far easier using digital mixing consoles and PCs, which didn't exist in the '60s.

Recording Visions and Trying to Live a Life was a modest but important milestone for Sonobeat. It demonstrated that the fledgling record company could produce relatively sophisticated recordings on a shoestring budget, using unlikely "studios" and marginal equipment. But, more importantly, it reinforced the fact that small-town rock 'n' roll recordings could transcend the typical garage sound of the '60s and compete with national releases from the big record companies.

Visions, composed by Layton DePenning, and Trying to Live a Life, composed by Johnny Schwertner, remain two of producer Rim Kelley's favorite Sonobeat recordings, not so much because they gave Sonobeat an opportunity to push the envelope but because they're terrific tunes, well performed by both band and string ensemble.