Bob Dylan in the studio, 1961

A

AGCurry

New member
Anyone see Scorsese's work on the early Dylan on PBS last night?

There was a photo of him in the studio when he was recording his first album. For anyone who asks the common question, "How do I record an acoustic-guitar-playing singer?", it's a great picture.

For his voice, an RCA 77 about a foot away, at about 45-degrees from vertical (bottom of the mic closer to him); for guitar, it looked like some kind of Neumann, about a foot away from the neck joint, in the vertical axis.

Of course, I don't know what pattern the 77 was set on. But whether it was cardioid or figure-of-eight, it's a great picture of how to get some separation between voice and guitar.
 
AGCurry said:
Anyone see Scorsese's work on the early Dylan on PBS last night?

There was a photo of him in the studio when he was recording his first album. For anyone who asks the common question, "How do I record an acoustic-guitar-playing singer?", it's a great picture.

For his voice, an RCA 77 about a foot away, at about 45-degrees from vertical (bottom of the mic closer to him); for guitar, it looked like some kind of Neumann, about a foot away from the neck joint, in the vertical axis.

Of course, I don't know what pattern the 77 was set on. But whether it was cardioid or figure-of-eight, it's a great picture of how to get some separation between voice and guitar.
Click to expand...
Figure 8 on the RCA 77DX, with the null pointed at the guitar.
 
That was a killer documentary. Brought back a lot of memories.

At the end they mentioned he did not tour again for 8 years. I saw him on that revival tour in St. Louis and he was quite remarkable if not slightly egotistical. Incredible show however.

His drummer for that tour is now an extra in Hollywood. You see him on a lot of shows and he used to be a regular on Tool Time. I actually met him once in a grocery store in Sim Valley, CA. I thought it was cool that I had run into this bit part actor, I had no idea he had been Dylan's drummer.

His guitar player, Robbie Robertson went on as a founding member in The Band.

Dylan himself, what a voice, what a poet.
 
I really can't add anything to this post besides that was a freakin' awesome documentary! I wish they had more stuff like that available!
 
I didn't catch the studio photo on the documentary but I began to wonder if it's really from 1961. Dylan's first album (Bob Dylan) has a release date of 1962 and the sound is very primitive in terms of the mic bleed issue. The vocals and guitar are panned hard right/left and the bleed through is significant. In fact, he probably should have called the first album "Blood on the Tracks." My guess is that he had a better setup for the next several albums, including the RCA and the Neumann mics mentioned above. 1961-2, however, was probably more like this:

http://www.n-b-u.de/dylan_studio_1962.jpg
 
dwillis45 said:
I didn't catch the studio photo on the documentary but I began to wonder if it's really from 1961. Dylan's first album (Bob Dylan) has a release date of 1962 and the sound is very primitive in terms of the mic bleed issue. The vocals and guitar are panned hard right/left and the bleed through is significant. In fact, he probably should have called the first album "Blood on the Tracks." My guess is that he had a better setup for the next several albums, including the RCA and the Neumann mics mentioned above. 1961-2, however, was probably more like this:

http://www.n-b-u.de/dylan_studio_1962.jpg
Click to expand...

That was definitely not from the segment they showed. Unfortunately I can't remember the song he was singing into the RCA :confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top