Need some trained ears, and Brains here, plz

  • Thread starter Thread starter d(-_-)b-Phones
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d(-_-)b-Phones

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This is an Elliot smith tune, I feel that it captures His sound to a good extent, and I was just wondering you you guys could kinda listen to it, and give me a run down on what you think he did, I know he recorded these tracks in his basement with limited equip.

He is dead now so the idea of asking him is kinda out the window.

Just simple things and advanced things will do just fine, like for example:

"sounds to me like he doubled the vocals using a ______mic"

or

"Sounds like he is using a hollow body guitar and playing through a ______"

or

"Sounds like he layered vocals with a wisper track"

That kind of idea, My reason behind this is to somewhat capture this sound myself, I am in love with it, its smooth and no too polished yet it has quality.

please help...

Here is the tracks
One with drums one without.

&


My main Point on this I want to pic up is Acoustics and Vocals.
His tricks that died with him.

Thank you.
Derek
 
Sounds nice. If its softness you were going for you have got it. Like the double vox. Singer is talented.
Did you use outboard effects rather than digital plugins?
What did you record to?
Nice full soft sound.
 
One thing spoils it. There is a kinda click sound on the beat at points. Could be the bass guitar or something. Yeah i think its the bass guitar strings rattle i am hearing. What bas guitar did you use? was it a cheapy?
 
oh my goodness, you 2 listen, re read the post, I am trying to figure out what tricks you think HE used, that is not me, that is Elliot Smith,... work with me here, lol :)
 
I read your post as if you had recorded and Elliot Smith tune and you were trying to get tips on how to improve on your mix. I was pretty impressed until i found out it wasnt you! Still am though. Its got a distinct sound which is real nice.
I would guess he used analogue tape with really nice tube compressors, really lovely warm pre amps, tube condensor microphones. Just a guess though.
 
Alrigh, I'll take a stab at this one.

First off, everything sounds very dry. Doesn't sound at all like anything was tracked in a large, reflective room. At all. Dead, but very flat and well-treated, I would guess.

Song 1 : Accoustic actually sounds like it was stereo mic'ed. Pretty close-mic'ed with condensers I'd guess, right down the center. Now what's this I hear? Hmmm. Souds like a noisy track; player moving around in his chair, maybe a little hiss? Ya know, they might have even used reference mics on that guitar (earthworks or similar?) -- very sensitive; I know that sound :D .

Vocals sound like they were just double-tracked and paned about 25% right and 25% left. Close-mic'ed with a damn nice vocal mic.

Wow, the cymbals sound really quiet and soft-spoken. Like they're being picked up off-axis from above two very low-placed overheads. I'm hearing plenty of hat and the snare sounds big, so I'd say the overheads were brought almost right in on the snare / hats. I'm guessing they pulled out the nice tube mics for that. The drums just sound like they were tracked with the million-dollar tube mics. They sound great.

Song 2 : Sounds like the same thing on the vocals. Double-tracked, and panned 25% left and right. Accoustics are double-tracked and hard panned 100% left and right. Sounds like an extreme compression effect was used on them. Like there's just a very fast attack and ultra-quick release.

I'm guessing they cut a generous amount of the highs and lows in order to give the song that midrangy, low-fi effect. They probably used some old dynamics on the song to add to the "nasality" of it. Sounds too good to be green bullets, but it could be a copperfone or similar. Maybe some very old electrovoices.

Love those recordings. Almost forgot how great that guy was.
 
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Sounds to me like hes just a very soft player. I am listing on my laptop right now so i cant give too detailed. But very soft with the mic very close. Still going to pick up alot of noises so you have to be careful. I have a client who players his guitar a bit like that.

The vocals sound similiar to what i used to get with the Soundelux U95. That thing was warm and upfront and had that softness sound. But im guessing alot of 3-5khz was cut out of the vox too to make it even softer sounding. And in general, he is singing very soft. Very open Ahs too.

Danny
 
I know he was a big fan of analog tape...I know that doesn't help too much, but I think that was part of his sound. He probably didn't neccessarily use something like a Studer either, as I know he did a lot of home recording.

The other posts seem to give pretty good info. The soft-style thing is kind of hard to do though...you need very high quality pres and a good room.
 
Very cool. Kinda sounds Syd Barrett-ish. My guess is that the bass was not DI'd. That cluck sound is indicative of a mic'ed amp with a pick player. My opinion is that clucky tone adds to the feel of the song, and kinda fills the low-mids nicely. Most likely this was a Fender J-Bass (Possibly a soapbar equiped bass, bought I doubt it), as it lends a very midrange presence. I would also dare say this sounds to be a 15" combo (old Ampeg PortaFlex possibly) that was used. Very tight, and not too heavy in the bottom-end. It doesn't seem as though the bass was EQ'd or compressed real heavy either. Has a very dynamic natural sound too it. Good songs, good recording. I like the bit of hiss in these tracks. Without it I think they would be too sterile. It adds to a lively sound, like you were listening to it right in your living room live.

Also good use of alternating vocals instead of panning left to right and back. It does sound on a couple parts of the acoustic track that the vocal parts in some spots actually start at the 5-10% pan position and work their way to the 25% position (In their respective directions) quite rapidally, coupled with a lot of head movement. He really used the dynamic response of the vocal mic to good effect, as is evident with moments of proximity bass affect, and then quite rapid movements of off-axis thinning vocals (used to good affect on the doubled parts). Very expressive indeed.
 
Atterion said:
My guess is that the bass was not DI'd. That cluck sound is indicative of a mic'ed amp with a pick player. My opinion is that clucky tone adds to the feel of the song, and kinda fills the low-mids nicely. Most likely this was a Fender J-Bass (Possibly a soapbar equiped bass, bought I doubt it), as it lends a very midrange presence. I would also dare say this sounds to be a 15" combo (old Ampeg PortaFlex possibly) that was used. Very tight, and not too heavy in the bottom-end. It doesn't seem as though the bass was EQ'd or compressed real heavy either. Has a very dynamic natural sound too it. Good songs, good recording.
Click to expand...

Let me guess; you're a bassist? :D Very good observations, man. I didn't catch it at first, but I think you're spot on.
 
I'm actually:
Drummer First
Pianist second
Bassist Third
Guitarist Fourth
Vocalist Last (Way.....Last).
 
I thank you guys for your input Imma start trying to get this sound down, its an amazing sound.
 
Ok i did this tonight in about 5 hours writing and all, so tell me what you think, i did post this in the songwriting forum but this is dif cause i know that people will take a dif angle on it here.

thanks


 
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