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How It Was Recorded

A Tribe Called Quest · Album, 1990

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

6 sourced items across 2 sectionsReported6

This is an album-level record: the sources describe how the album as a whole was recorded, not one song. Where a detail belongs to a single song, the row says so.

Songs this record stands for: Can I Kick It?. We found nothing specific to this song, so this album record is the closest account we have.

What the sources do and do not say

Only the Mix Classic Tracks piece (Bob Power on the album sessions) was usable; it says little about this song's own chain. All rows are album-level. The Tape Op Chris Shaw interview mentions the song only as a live MTV Unplugged performance and says nothing about its recording. The AKG maker for C414 is inferred as the only maker of that model.

MC vocals

2 items

Q-Tip and Phife Dawg

Microphone

  • The real chain

    AKG C414

    Reported

    Bob Power says he generally chose C414 microphones for the MCs' vocals on the album sessions. (recalled with uncertainty)

    Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

    Get the sound · our suggestion

    No plugin suggested. Microphone-modelling plugins only work with their own matched hardware microphone, so there is no plugin to link. Placement and the room matter more than the model.

Input chain

Samples, sequencing and production

4 items

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Q-Tip, Bob Power

Instrument

Input chain

  • The real chain

    Atari 1040

    Reported

    Power believes the sequencing software (Notator/Creator) ran on an Atari 1040 at that point.

    Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

    Get the sound · our suggestion

    No plugin suggested. A sequencer, computer or synchroniser. It controls other equipment and makes no sound of its own. Any DAW does this job.

Mix effects

  • The real chain

    Burwen Noise Eliminator

    Reported

    Hi-fi noise reduction unit that Power sometimes ran samples with heavy surface noise through.

    Source: Mix, accessed 15 Nov 2026

    Get the sound · our suggestion

    Covers this kind of unit

    Waves X-Noise

    noise reduction

    Single-ended noise reduction that lowers steady hiss on a finished recording, the same job this unit did; it is not a model of this unit.

    Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Sources

  1. Classic Tracks: A Tribe Called Quest, “Can I Kick It?”, Mix, 2018-01-12. Accessed 15 Nov 2026.

What the ratings mean

Verified

Stated by the engineer, producer or artist, or by the manufacturer.

Reported

Stated by a reputable secondary source.

Inferred

An educated suggestion, not a documented fact.

Disclosure: plugin links currently go straight to the maker and earn us nothing. If that changes, affiliate links will be marked here. Suggestions are chosen on fit, never on commission, and are kept separate from the recording facts. More.