How much do you know about the making of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' and albu...

Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' was his biggest international hit and topped the American charts in 1986. The song was the second track on Gabriel's fifth solo studio album, 'So', which was produced by Daniel Lanois. Gabriel's world-music sensibilities and love of experimentation were melded with Lanois' ambient leanings to create the hit song. Kevin Killen took over as the album's engineer after David Bascombe, who'd recorded the basic tracks, left the project to work with Tears For Fears. Killen was asked to help finish the record and flew to the UK, where he was picked up at Heathrow Airport by Peter's assistant, David Stallbaumer, who informed him he'd be there until the following March. The Ashcombe facility was located within the long, rectangular cow shed of a converted farmhouse. A 56-input SSL 4000 E Series was complemented by a stock Studer A80 24-track machine and a modified Studio A80 with customised Colin Broad Audio cards. Outboard gear included an EMT echo plate, AMS 1580 digital delay, RMX 16, Delta Labs DL2, Lexicon 224, Quantec Room Simulator and Decca compressors, as well as Revox B77 quarter-inch and Ampex ATR half-inch tape machines.- The drum machine printed on all the reels for each song would be the timing benchmark to align things musically.

• Peter's console tech, Mike Large, found a preference to soft-lock over a multitrack edit without making the slave machine rewind, fast-forward or stop until it recognised the next complete timecode frame to sync to.
• The Virgin and Geffen execs visited the studio to preview six or seven of the album's tracks, all of which underwent rough mixes beforehand.
• The verdict on the tracks was completely positive.
• The lead vocal was recorded using a Neumann U47 microphone.
• The microphone had a really great, silky high end, but it didn't have as much bottom as Dan and Killen had expected.
• The tech Neil Perry removed the shield on a patch cord to mimic the pre-modified version of the microphone's response.
• Peter likes to sing in the control room and to not be totally isolated with headphones.
• Peter would usually take three, four, five passes to get a great end result for vocal performances.
• The experience was a life-changing one for Killen and he grew exponentially as a person and as an engineer.

Test your knowledge on the making of Peter Gabriel's hit song 'Sledgehammer' and his album 'So' with this quiz! Learn about the production techniques, recording equipment, and behind-the-scenes stories that contributed to the success of this iconic track. Keywords: Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer, 'So', production, recording, equipment, behind-the-scenes.