Motown drum sound

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BrettB

BrettB

Well-known member
I allready posted this on the drum forum but nobody replied. And my main question is about mixing, so I better ask itr here anyway:

I recentely recorded a funk/soul kinda song in a good studio with good material, and I would like to make the drums sound like those old motown records.

During recording I used a good pitched Ludwig drum, with a snare that is tuned quite low with lots of snare rattle, and for a room mic I used the Neuman Tube Mic (I think it was a TLM 174?) so I have a good basic sound to start with.

For the rest I used standard drum micing (two of those ols sennheisers on toms, senheizer snare muic, baby bottle on hihat, two small AKG condensors as overheads).

any other suggestions regarding mixing,EQ'ing or reverberating these drums to get that old sound?
 
One thing to remember about the old Motown drum sound is that it was recorded on 3 or 4 track tape. The tape in itself added some natural coloration to the sound. You might want to think about using a plug-in like Magneto to warm up the tracks.

Also, check out the DVD "Standing in the Shadow of Motown" there is some good information there about how the studio was set up. Not much engineering info, but still good to watch. I was amazed at how small the studio was, yet still was a great sounding room.
 
THe real problem you are going to have is that all of those old Motown records had two or three drummers, all of them ALMOST doubleing each others parts. Other than that, they are mostly recorded with room mics, so you need to use a lot of the ambient sound.

And of course, you can not recreate the Motown sound without the Funk Brothers (the musicians who played on the Detroit era stuff), so if you really want to sound like Motown, you have to hire them. Go rent the movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." It might give you some ideas, and it will give you some inspiration.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I'd have to agree with Light on this one, for the most part.

The Motown sound . . . and this includes everything, not just drums . . . has a lot to do with the room they recorded in. By today's standards, it would probably be considered an accoustical nightmare. :D John Sayers and/or Ethan Winer would probably have had a heart attack. The place looked a lot like an old classroom.

Provided your studio had similar accoustics, then I would just basically rely heavily on the room mics. If not, then you might consider re-amping or something similar. It's quite possible that the accoustics in the studio you used may have been too good in a twist of irony. If you're just looking for an old-school sound in general and not necessarily Motown, you could always try a spring reverb.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the funk brothers basically had an entire percussion section. The tamborine, in particular, was kind of an unsung hero :D -- if you listen to a lot of their stuff you'll realize just how prevelant of a role the tambo played.

If you were to ask this question on the Gearslutz forum, you'd obviously be more likely to get a more qualified answer due to certain people who are known to hang out there.
 
Have a look at:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/olmo/olmo.php

My recommendations would be to use less mikes on the kit, use a tube pre, go to tape.

Room acoutics are critical, you may want to try adding a few baffles around the kit if you are in a large room, without hearing your situation it's hard to tell what you're fighting acoutically. Adding a good amount of room to the sound as mentioned above.

Of course, the drums used and heads (probably coated heads are best) are a big part of the sound as well as the musicians.
 
This is extreme, but alot of the Motown stuff had the drums panned hard left or right. Check out "How Sweet it Is", or "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", by Marvin Gaye, just to give you a few examples.
 
thx for all the info and thegreat article!

I haven't got acces to a tape, but I do have acces to several tube tech compressors, and I worked with a tube Neumann as a room mic. I will really try to work with your suggestions.

About the hard panning: I thought about it, but I'm not sure yet. It is a risky thing, but it does feel very late 60's....

I'll keep you posted
Brett
 
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