Hip Hop Be Bop

19th Fleet was the production duo of Kevin Calhoun (R.I.P.) and Matt Noble and this track was a result of their experimentation with sampling, synthesizers and drum machines.

The duo worked on a lot of hits of the time, helping to birth the Latin freestyle sound with tracks like Leather & Lace’s Tender Heart with Matt being the in-house producer for 25 West and all related labels. They helped produce classics such as Dynamic Duo’s Knights of the Turntables, Sha-Quan Don’t Fess, B Beat Girls For The Same Man, etc.

I’m not really clued-up on the technical side of things or on the old equipment but for those of you that are, here are a few details of how the track was made, courtesy of Matt.

I am doing all of the Low Pitched Speech things and Kevin is doing the High ones.

Both were sampled and pitch shifted, using an Ensoniq Mirage Sampler.

 

The music was sequenced using a Roland MSQ-700 Sequencer and the synths that we used were the Ensoniq,Casio CZ 101 and Roland Juno 106.

I think we programmed with a Yamaha RX-15 Drum Machine and triggered 808 Samples in the Ensoniq.

The”Dive Bomb” sounds were done by Kevin using the whammy bar on his Stratocaster.

It was recorded to a Scully16 Track 2″ analog tape machine and mixed down through a Trident 65 Console to a 1/4″ Revox Tape Machine.

I think we did it in about 3 hours.