The latest installment in our ever-evolving Premium Collection series features the inimitable sounds of drumming greats Joe Vitale and Joe Vitale Jr. Creators of some of our favorite Loops & Samples titles—including Junkyard Rhythms, Latin Percussion, and Organ Donor—the Vitale’s took some time out of their heavy touring and recording schedules to illuminate the recording processes behind this immaculate library.

The two of you have been working together for quite some time. How do your personal and professional relationships intersect?

Senior: Since he's in the same field as I am, I'm looking at what he does twofold. First being Dad—overseeing him as if I were a doctor and he were an intern, watching how he does things. Of course he's past internship—he's a professional. But I still look after it. I also look at it as an older guy with a little more experience. People helped me when I was young. They helped me straighten out bad habits, especially in playing. And remember, Joe Junior is a young guy. He's in the digital world and I'm from the analog world. One reason the relationship works is because I need him as much as he needs me. He teaches me about digital, and I can do the same thing for him in the analog world. We share each other's experiences and knowledge.

Junior: When I started out, I had one of those little Tascam 488 analog tape recorders, and that's what I learned on. Not to the degree that Dad was doing stuff, but I learned the old school method as well as the new ways, so when I work on my projects today I draw from both worlds. I think it's a good marriage between the two because it helps keep things true. There are certain things you lose if you don't use every tool. I like having both worlds available.

What has been the hardest thing for you to acclimate to in the analog world? Conversely, what frustrates you most about digital recording?

Junior: I think the hardest thing to get around is the background hiss you get with analog. I like it because it adds warmth to stuff, but I also like things to sound clean as well as warm. It's about getting a balance and keeping a great track as warm and clean as possible.

With digital, the problem I run into most is that it's more complex than analog. I find analog to be a bit more fun, even though I'm used to using the DAW. It's nice when you can just arm a track, hit record, and go, versus having to set up folders and everything. I'm used to that, but I still like being able to do analog.

The other thing is having unlimited tracks versus a set number. I try to keep my track count down when I'm recording even though I still go overboard at times. I think that when you use fewer tracks you have to think in a certain way. You put your best performances and your best ideas down when you're only running eight, 16, or 24 tracks.

Senior: The analog world is a lot more forgiving than the digital world. There's so much perfection with digital. Man, listen to the double-tracked vocals on some of the old records we made. Joe Walsh would go in there and double his voice, and if he was close to it, we'd go, "That sounds fantastic!" Because it did. Today, most producers would apply a digital tuner to those tracks. But you really didn't notice the imperfections in the context of the full mix. You wouldn't hear that they were slightly rubbing, but in the digital world it's a tighter window. 'Perfection' now has a different meaning. Rock-and-roll isn't always perfect, but it's supposed to feel good. We've just got to keep the digital guys in that feelgood state of mind.

As far as track count goes, we made some of the earlier Joe Walsh records on a 16-track machine. Tell a young kid with a digital recorder that you only have 16 tracks and if you need more you're going to have to erase something, bounce, or go the George Martin route and use two machines to dump down. I don't know what we would have done with those records years ago if we had unlimited tracks. I don't know that they'd be as good. It really makes you think and create great parts. Stephen Stills always said, "Start by what drives the record," and when you pick out what's driving the record, it's usually four or five things: Great guitar parts, good bass lines, great pockets from the drums, great vocals and harmonies, and that's it. For a lot of this stuff you don't need a whole lot of tracks.

This is what I do. It's not necessarily my idea, but if I've got 32 faders in front of me with information on every one, I start shutting faders off. If it takes away from the song, that means you need that channel. Sometimes I start pulling stuff and I don't hear the difference, so I lose it. That's the theory I make records with, but I do like the idea of what the computer offers in multiple tracks because we also lost a lot of magic at times when we thought, "Well, let's go for it. We can do better than that." And you go over that track and it's gone. That was bad. Nowadays with unlimited tracks it's really great to be able to keep what you've done and try to beat it or alter it, but you always have the other tracks to go back to. We didn't have that luxury back then.

Can you think of any records you made that would have benefited from having more tracks? Any specific instances where that magic was lost?

Senior: [Joe Walsh's] Barnstorm record was 16 tracks. We couldn't afford six or eight tracks for drums, are you kidding? We had drums on four tracks. Everybody did. It would go kick, snare, left, right. The left and right were a mix of the toms, cymbals, and hi-hat. Now that's really dangerous, but we only had 16 tracks to work with. Barnstorm became a classic record, but it would have been nice to have had the availability of more tracks because we could have stretched the drums out. There were also a couple of guitar parts that Joe had to mold together because we had to dump 'em down. On some big power rhythm tracks, he had about six tracks of power chords—the big old windmill Les Paul power chords—and they had to dump 'em to two because we didn't have room for vocals. It's not that it made the record worse, but it would have been nice if we hadn't had to do that. Once you dump and erase 'em, they're gone. They go to bias heaven, as we say.

Daylight Again from Crosby, Stills and Nash—they needed 16 tracks just for vocals, but I'll tell you what, it trained us to pre-mix. We took 12 tracks of CSN vocals and dumped 'em to three. Never to two because Nash and the engineer wanted left, right, and center placement—really great for big stacks of vocals. For some reason, three tracks have a little more torque on 'em. But again, it would have been nice to have had 12 tracks stretched out in an automated mix. That's another thing. Back then we didn't have automation, which is one of the most important improvements in the modern studio. Mixing by hand you had to be an octopus. We'd have about six or seven guys at the board. I'd be sitting there on the mute buttons and I'd have one move to make because Bill Szymczyk, our producer back then, only had two hands. If you have 12 tracks of vocals, you've got to automate.

Tell me a bit about touring with the Eagles.

Senior: You'll have to wait for my book (Laughs). I'm writing a book about 35 years with about ten major Hall of Fame acts, and it's filled with incredible stories and pictures. People have been trying to talk me into doing this for a long time, and I've already started it. But briefly, touring with the Eagles was a fantastic experience. I did the [Peter] Frampton Comes Alive world tour. I saw all the big houses, but the Eagles—they were on a whole other level.

If you’re interested in reading the rest of this interview, you’ll find it in the Vital Drums: The Vitale Collection liner notes.