Beatles Sounding Recordings

  • Thread starter Thread starter crawdad
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I found this tonight and found it interesting:


I am often asked if any of the records I have made would have benefited by modern technology. I love technical wizardry, and I am enormously excited at the potential that is available today. Our tools are so much more sophisticated these days, and of course they can make life easier. But we have to remember that they are just tools nothing more and true art, true music comes from the heart and soul of the human being. So the answer to the question posed is: I believe my productions may have been easier to make if I had had today's technology. They may even have been quicker--they would probably have been a little different--but better? I seriously doubt it. Something like Sgt. Pepper may even have been not as good because different techniques would have altered its style. I cannot contemplate what a liberal use of sampling would have done to it. I would have lost a lot of those lovely human imperfections which add up to a roundness that clinical correctness fails to give.

From a George Martin commencement speech....
 
oh funk it..

you knew this couldn't go on without it - favorite beatles songs? either just songs themsevles...or...recordings...personally I am all about the songs...here are some of my favs..

I'm Only Sleeping
And Your Bird Can Sing (mmm, that harmony is amazing)
For No One

(big revolver fan here obviously)

A Day in the life
Yesterday
Here Comes the Sun
Blackbird

I'll stop there....so I don't end up with 35 favorites ;)

7 is a decent number.

My favorite Lennon song is "Oh Yoko"
 
Crawdad, thanks for sharing George Martin's quote! Those words should be an inspiration to us all.
-kent
 
For a lion's share of the Beatle stuff, a Vox AC30 is almost essential...

However you can duplicate that sound in the studio with amps that cost a fraction of what a Vox (or it's clones--Matchless, etc.) go for...

For example, if you ever see a Magnatone MP1, grab it...it's indistinguishable from a Vox on tape, although it's not all that loud if you were wanting to use it for stage work...
http://www.vibroworld.com/magnatone/MP1.html

Other keystones...a Rickenbacker 12-string screams "Beatles"...

A Mellotron or Chamberlin does too...I've got a Chamberlin, and sometimes it sounds *too* much like a Beatle-inspired track...it just oozes 60's...

Weird panning...stick all the vocals in the right channel, and the band in the left...

Compress the snot out of the drums...a Distressor works wonders for doing this one...

Gibson acoustics instead of Martins (yeah, I know, they used Martins too), preferably with dead strings...

Stick your mixed tracks though a 1/4" tape recorder and slam the meters and route it right back onto digital...works wonders...

Etc. etc......

Bruce
www.bruceharvie.com
 
What I heard on the weird panning issue is that the early stuff was all released in mono originally.It was (I think) Capitol Records that later took the master tapes and remixed them for the then new feature of stereo.Obviously,they didn't have much of a clue with all the strange panning decisions you hear on that early "stereo" stuff.George Martin was not involved in this remixing.
Tom
 
I was looking at studio photos of Beatles sessions and saw a bunch of shots that showed the drums with two mics--one for the kick, which looked like a LD condenser, and one overhead, which could have been either a SD condenser or maybe a dynamic. Don't know. I'm not up on my mic history.

If thats what they were doing, I think that technique should be used more often. I love the sound of the drums on the early records. "Ticket to Ride" especially comes to mind. I liked the drum sounds the least on the White Album. Sounds like they started using more mics and close micing due to having more tracks to play with.

Those early tracks do sound like they have a ton of compression. I especially notice it on the cymbals.

As for the weird panning choices, yeah. Thats when stereo was new deal. I think people who bought stereo records wanted proof when they played them on their new hi fi's. They sure got it with the early Beatles records. As weird as it may be, I still like a lot of it. These days, the placement in mixing is so automatic. Pan the toms, kick and snare in center, along with the bass and vocal, etc. Maybe its time we get a little weird again!
 
finding V276

Crawdad,

to find siemens V276 (or V276a) mic-pres, you should regularly check ebay. I think there is a pair on sale over at http://www.ebay.com at the very moment. There's quite a run for these units these days, so the auction might rise pretty high.

Here's a direct link to a german studio tech store who has one unit going for 180.00 Euros ($ 160.00 approx.): http://www.hestudiotechnik.de/deutsch/gebrauchte studiotechnik/outboard/outboard.htm

Also always worth checking is http://www.schmitronic.de - these guys have some really esoteric stuff, I don't know how good their quality checking is, though.

You might also check www.sonicworld.de/used_preamps_re.html (But they are a bit more expensive).

The above-mentioned sites are only partially translated - I hope you can make your way through.

Once again, I can't repeat often enough how happy I am with mine. But please bear in mind that they are solid state. Absolutely noiseless, clean and in-your-face. Seriously beats hell out of my Joemeek VC1Q-cs. Take this as a general recommendation.

Best of luck,


Michael
 
crawdad -

chad smith from red hot chili peppers uses that mic technique often.
 
Up until the later records, the standard Beatles mic setup was a single Coles 4038 OH, an AKG D19 about 20" over the snare, and an AKG D30 on the kick, and that's about it...compressed heavily...

The D19 is (was) a cheapo dynamic that has, since the Beatles connection, risen to stoopid prices on ebay. Grab one if you see on for cheap--they are rather nice on the snare...

I use a modified version of the above setup all the time, and love it...4038 OH, Beyer M201 1" above the snare, and an EV RE38 (man, is that an underrated mic) on the kick...no futzing around, bring up the faders and there's the drums 90% of the time exactly as I hoped they would be...

Bruce
www.bruceharvie.com
 
Beatles Sounds

Hi all! I became a member of a Beatles fan club a few years back, and when some members who were musicians found out I was into home recording, we all decided to make a cd of Beatles remakes - just for fun...

It was probably fun for them, as each came in to record their parts for between a few days and a couple of weeks. For me, for the last 4 years, it's been fun, very frustrating, and a great learning experience.

I've listened to the originals of the 13 songs we're doing hundreds of times over the speakers and in headphones, and even after 50 or so listens I still hear things I didn't notice before. There are really obvious edits that you just get used to, lots of things like previous guitar tracks and vocals bleeding through from previous takes, back vocals singing the wrong words, etc etc.

- Each night for 4 days I came home from work and spent all evening clapping into my mic and saying "shoot me...", trying to get the perfect balance and clap sound for Come Together.

- Ever notice the "warbly woo's" at the end of While My Guitar Gently Weeps? That's what I call them. On that day of recording someone brought in an old doubler effect. It's what give's the lead guitar it's warbly sound. I guess Paul was fooling around with it and recorded himself singing through it at the end of the song, making a ghostly "wooooo-oooo" sound. I recreated it with my Roland delay.

- Oh that jet sound from Back in the USSR... it doesn't exist anywhere... did you know Paul created the landing by whistling into the mic? I sampled the cd, and time stretched it, and other things... took about a week.

- Fade out of USSR, right channel, kid cries out something like "am-wah!" or "mamma!" or something. Had to do one just like it...

- That bass sound in Gently Weeps... is it a bassey guitar? Bass doubled with guitar? Bass split through clean and fuzzy channels? I'm going insane!!

Beatles recordings seem so simple, yet they're so complex, and sonically interesting.

I'm getting reasonably close to the original sounds, even though I don't have a E@#@#E or a d223rwee or a rewef209ueo or a ........ ;- )
 
Thanks to this thread and the contibutors, I keep learning new things! I'd never heard of the Coles 4038 before, but I looked it up. Whoa--its like $1200 bucks. A ribbon mic, no less. Crawdad wants one, but cannot really afford one.

Mig27--The Siemens/Telefunken preamps that I've seen on Ebay run at 220v. Beyond that, I assume they are not set up with ins, outs, volume controls, etc. Or am I way off on my thinking? If I could get one working I could afford that! How did you get yours set up? I can do electronic wiring and soldering, but its strictly monkey see-monkey do with me. Any ideas?

Schenkerguy--A whole CD of Beatles remakes? That sounds like a blast! I would love to hear it when you finish it all. I'll pay you for a copy...

How did they get those vocals so in your face yet so smooth? I know alot of it is double tracking, but I'm guessing some limiting and compression too. Wasn't the Fairchild compressor part of the act back then?
 
I think the key here is to remember that, since this is for a corporate client, you need only produce a mere facsimile of that Beatles sound. I'll even bet that a "beatley" songwriting will go a long way to selling them than a "beatley" production.

Be smart, use George Martin's techniques (from "All you need is Ears") as much as you can, without bankrupting yourself buying gear, and get a good songwriter involved who has the ability to write according to specific guidelines and you'll do fine.

Just my $.02

Griff
 
crawdad said:


How did they get those vocals so in your face yet so smooth? I know alot of it is double tracking, but I'm guessing some limiting and compression too. Wasn't the Fairchild compressor part of the act back then?
Click to expand...

I know how they did it, and you can get the same open vocal with around $350-400, using the same process that George Martin used.
 
Quote: schenkerguy

"Hi all! I became a member of a Beatles fan club a few years back, and when some members who were musicians found out I was into home recording, we all decided to make a cd of Beatles remakes - just for fun"

===========

HOLY DEJA VU, BATMAN!!!

There was a Canadian PREQUEL to DAVEMANIA!!!
 
hooking up siemens V276

crawsdad,

first, the V276 runs with 24V DC, not 220V AC (that's for the tube versions V76, V72, etc.)
you'll just need a proper power supply (regulated, low ripple).

hooking up the siemens V276 is not that difficult.
here's the pin out:

bridge 1,2,3 and 4 => hook up 0V from PSU
bridge 10 and 12
input: 6+, 8- (symetrical) shield on 7
output: 24+, 26- (symetrical) shield on 25
PSU +24V => 30

the shields of input an output also will have to be hooked up to the bridged pins 1,2,3 and 4.

besides that, the V276 features a stepped gain control from 0 to 76 dB, selectable high pass filter (40, 80 and 140Hz) and a gain trim pot for finetuning the recording level (+/- 5dB).

in summary, everything you need.

best.


michael
 
Home Recording Mag. had and artical all about the Beatles recordings. It was VERY good and it had indepth gear lists. I think it was in the last year.


Alex
 
Can someone verify that direct to board technique on Revolution. I read somewhere that John's guitar, a gibson semi hollow, was plugged into a small fender amp which was cranked to 10. The engineers did not want to record the sound because it was so distorted and there was quite a row in the studio over wether they would let him record such an awful sound.

I think that was either in George Martins book or maybe a rolling stone article.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Love that sound by the way.
 
Okay, that was an Epiphone Semi Hollow body not a Gibson. Still wondering about that distorted sound though......
 
So no ones goanna ask Scriabian what he's talkin about?!?!


Ok.....what chu takin about, Willis?!?!!?!




heylow
 
Kinda sensed he was selling something so I did not ask.
 
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