Students in my Audio Recording Techniques III (Spring 2025) course at the University of Oregon had ten weeks to recreate a recorded song of their choice. They voted on reverse engineering The Doobie Brothers “What a Fool Believes” from their 1978 album, Minute by Minute. The record was the 8th studio album by the Doobie Brothers, and the song was written by frontman Michael McDonald and hit songwriter Kenny Loggins. The goal of the term was to get the song as close as they could to the original recording. They arranged, recorded, overdubbed, mixed, mastered, and played nearly all parts! Piano was a foundation layer as well as live-tracking two drum kits in the same room! Everything else was overdubbed on top. Live bass, guitar, aux percussion, MIDI-recorded synths, among other tracks. Huge thank you to Jake J. for his vocal work. Synth sounds used Arturia V Collection. Enjoy!