Great article for country music recorders..

I didn't read the article yet but I haven't been impressed with any pop country albums. Some of the bluegrass and alt country is cool but the general stuff coming out of Nashville sucks. Same ol' musicians, same ol' arrangements, same ol' sound. The only difference is the singers and it's getting harder to even tell them apart.

There are a few standouts. The most interesting sounding country albums that I've heard in awhile is Johnny Cash's last few albums and that's probably due to Rick Rubin.
 
I agree with you but this article is more on recording technique. Some of the techniques mentioned have been handed down for years in Nashville.

Getting that Same ol' same is from using the same musicians and getting singers that sound alike. It is a shame that every album that comes out of Nashville has the same studio musicians on them.. A real shame.. I agree.
 
Except for layering 8 vocal tracks, seems pretty standard. I've done a few country albums and the techniques described are mostly what I would call standard issue. I would add a couple tips:
Fiddle and slide quitar can be death to mix. I quickly learned that slide players have their moments... but there's a lot of crap that you don't hear because they have their volume lowered with the volume pedal. Even though it's hard to detect, if you can cut that stuff out with volume envelopes, it really opens up the mix.
I record three good passes each for fiddle or slide parts so I can choose the best parts of each pass.
I have also learned to be absolutely sure you like the way the fiddle sounds going to tape--you can pretty much forget fixing it with eq.
I was surprised to find my Rode NT1 was great for mandolin, I don't use that mic much anymore... but it's hyped high end really improved the sound.
I found the Oktava 319 was good for fiddle, it's mellow high end took some of the "edge" off.

Hope this helps someone...
 
speaking of articles, does anyone know of any artist specific articles on the internet about how a particular album was done? i know of some tori amos ones, but thats about it.
 
I have noticed there is a common theme among most top studios for recording these days. Pop and Country follow roughly this pattern.

Preamps for vocals:
API
Neve or Neve like preamps

Compressors for main vocals
1176
Distressor
LA2A

EQ : Pultec, Massenburg

Mics: U87, U47, U67, C12, Elam 251. Slight variations here.

The mix is generally summed on either a Neve console or one of the SSLs to utilize its compression sound.

This article pretty much follows the same general theme This pretty much sums up todays sound other than key mastering facilities which also do their grind and polish.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top