Recreating the 60's

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harvey Gerst
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Harvey Gerst

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We just did a commercial for a client and we had to recreate that Beach Boys "sound".

Warning:

In the past, I've had miserable luck in getting mp3's to play without horrible clicks and pops. Maybe the 33rd time I try this will be a charm. Is it coming thru clean, or with ticks? This was a commercial for an ad agency to pitch to eBay.

It was a lot of fun to produce and to try to duplicate that great old 60's sound - a rewite of "Help Me, Rhonda". Instruments were cut Nashville in one session, vocals took about 4 hours at our studio. Mixing took about 5 hours.

The mp3 is at:

 
I love the harmonies. I think you pulled it off pretty damn well.

Something sounds a little too compressed for sounding '60s, to me at least.

I can't put my finger on it, sorry. Heh.
 
Yes, I hear the compression on the lead vocal and it sounds too current. I think you could fool around with some different reverb sounds. Perhaps using an actual room, speaker, and mic.
Still, sounds cool. :)
 
Hey Harvey...this is very cool, but if you were going for an authentic 60's sound, you might consider the following. (the mp3 sounds fine, by the way).

The whole mix sounds ultra-compressed...it's good for the bass and drums to make them fatter, but it's not very specific to the time period. When I think of records like this, I think of the drums having that big roomy sound on them with most of the energy of the drums basically being carried by the hat and the brass.

At any rate, regardless of the time period, this sounds too squished, even for today. It sounds like it was VERY well recorded and performed, but maybe when a bit sideways in the "mastering" stages.

[edit] - keep in mind that if this is for TV or Radio, they'll squish the hell out of it anyway, so it's probably best not to compound the squishiness, lol.
 
This works as an updated recreation of a 60's sounding song and will probably work for advertising purposes, but it does have that "today" feel about it. Not a convincing 60's sound though. The 60s sound that you're going for was a bit more tinny and probably used more room dynamics and was definitely big on verb.

The high parts of the vocal harmony should be more in front of the lower and mid ranges.

The MP3 sounds fine though.

Todd Rundgren did an album back in the 70s I think called Faithful. One side was remakes on which he did Good VIbrations, among other songs He got it down. Check it out as a reference point for remakes.

Good Luck.
 
Hi Harvey,

Great fun stuff, but I have to agree with the compression issue; it's very well played and sung, but everything is right in your face. Now, if the client requested that, then that's what they wanted; my personal choice would be to let things breathe more for a 'period' vibe. Very clean all around otherwise, and a good take-off.

Best,

CC
 
great recording, kind of creepy lyrics to a beach boys tune. I think the only way to make it sound "60s" is to go back in time and record it then, so it ages... like a fine wine. oh yeah, and what the other guys said about compressed drums. but it is good for a commercial... gotta remember this is going to be coming out of a TV with bad speakers.
 
Good ears, everybody.

As a matter of fact, I did two versions for the client; one had no compression or major squishing. This mp3 is the second version, heavily compressed for maximum vocal punch. The CD I delivered to the client had four tracks on it:

Track 1. Full arrangement w/vocals - no effects
Track 2. Full arrangement w/vocals - lotsa compression and extra reverb.
Track 3. Instrumental mix only - minus vocals
Track 4. Vocals only - minus instruments

The mp3 is a snippit of Track 2. Here's a bit of Track 1, without the heavy compression:

 
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I really like the guitar and drums sound, I found the vocals a bit too upfront, but then again: It's a commercial. The vocals should stand out on a commercial.

Comes around pretty clean over here...
 
Nooooooo. Not another Ebay comercial! ! !

Nice job Harvey. BTW, Love the MoreMe's.
 
He harv,
i like the 2nd version (track1) better, compression like that always make me feel seasick (spelcheck). there is stil a bit of compression on the idividual track's right?
Did you used 'old school' recording tricks ?, because the recording sounds pretty 'modern' to me. It sounds great don't get me wrong, but it would be cool, 2 use realy old mic's, minimal micing, weird panning ect

Remco
 
remco said:
He harv,
i like the 2nd version (track1) better, compression like that always make me feel seasick (spelcheck). there is stil a bit of compression on the idividual track's right?
Did you used 'old school' recording tricks ?, because the recording sounds pretty 'modern' to me. It sounds great don't get me wrong, but it would be cool, 2 use realy old mic's, minimal micing, weird panning ect

Remco
Click to expand...

Yes, and no. Remember Brian Wilson is deaf in one ear, so most of those Beach Boys songs were pretty much mono. I kept the panning pretty minimal to get that kinda "mono" sound.

I used a 50 year old pristine RCA 77DX for all the vocals, with the singer about 2 feet back, since that was one of the typical Beach Boys mics and recording techniques from that era. (Scott Headstream, our Studio B engineer, sang all the parts.)

There "is" compression on some of the vocal tracks, just to tame some of the dynamics. (Remember, you hafta be able to hear ALL the words coming out of a 3" cheap speaker.)

As far as "sounding modern", it sounds less so when you turn the level down, but there's no way to really capture that old fat sound without going to tape and doing a lot of manipulation. That would have really run up the costs.

Keeping in mind that we did this whole thing in less than 10 hours total (for everything - music, vocals, and mixing), and for a little over one grand, I'm pretty pleased with the results. What's more important, our client loved it!!
 
Harvey Gerst said:
I used a 50 year old pristine RCA 77DX for all the vocals, with the singer about 2 feet back
Click to expand...

Wow! the the vocals sound fab.
 
There we go! The second one is awesome. This guy has an awesome voice.

Great job, dude. Though, I wouldn't really expect it to be a bad job from you.
 
Harvey,

Yep, second version is it from a musical point of view; room to breathe, dynamics-wise, and just sweet recording with a great mic and a guy who can really sing. Does he do this just as a side-gig, or is he a regular demo-singer?

Best,

CC
 
Cosmic said:
Harvey,

Yep, second version is it from a musical point of view; room to breathe, dynamics-wise, and just sweet recording with a great mic and a guy who can really sing. Does he do this just as a side-gig, or is he a regular demo-singer?
Click to expand...
CC,

Scott is our Studio B engineer and he's also the singer in a Dallas band called "Halto Bravo". This was his first demo gig.
 
>=(

That song is going to be running through my head any time I'm not listening to my latest recording over and over now. =O
 
I like the second one but what its missing is: Tape hiss. the '60s had tape hiss, so much so that Ray Dolby wanted to get rid of 12db of it :-)
 
mattamatta said:
>=(

That song is going to be running through my head any time I'm not listening to my latest recording over and over now. =O
Click to expand...
Yeah, the whole 3 minute version I have here has made me crazy these last few days.
 
jgourd said:
I like the second one but what its missing is: Tape hiss. the '60s had tape hiss, so much so that Ray Dolby wanted to get rid of 12db of it :-)
Click to expand...
Actually, even with something like an Ampex 351, tape hiss was managable if you watched your levels and had a decent high energy source. With multitrack machines, the hiss was cumulative, but because hiss is random, it wasn't a straight additive problem. It was only the very quiet stuff that drove us crazy back then (and sustained piano chords).
 
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