the motown sound?

[BrettB]

Hi all,

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.

any other suggestions regarding mixing,EQ'ing or reverberating these drums to get that old sound?

 

[Chrisjob]

Brett-

You should use the search function to find previous threads dealing with similar topics. Most will tell you to use vintage gear, analog tape, etc. The rest will say check out the film "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" which will be indispensible to your task.

You won't want to add much reverb (if any) beyond your room mic... keeping it tight and dry will be best.


-Chris

 

[Foo-bu]

phil spector and all the other big producers of the day used to use what they call the wall of sound. basically you cram a bunch of musicians into a small room with a few large diaphram condensors and let them play. the sound bounces off the walls and into the mic giving it a pretty full sound. it'll have lots of bleed but thats how they did it

 

[Tim Brown]

phil spector and all the other big producers of the day used to use what they call the wall of sound. basically you cram a bunch of musicians into a small room with a few large diaphram condensors and let them play. the sound bounces off the walls and into the mic giving it a pretty full sound. it'll have lots of bleed but thats how they did it

You can fake the wall of sound.

I have a modified version of it using a pair of room mic's.


Set the drumkit up in the center of the room.
Place amps on each side of the drumkit at various distances from the back wall in the room.

Have the band play all at one time.


Adjust the amps volumes so that you can hear everything evenly - through the MIC'S.

Roll off some of the low end on the bass guitar and guitar amps - because this will just muck up the low end.

Have the band play, and record it.

Then, have the drummer go back and play to this track.

Do the same thing with everyone else in the band.
Each instrument goes on a stereo pair.
Then adjust the volumes of each stereo pair during mixdown.

Try placing the guitar amps different distances from the pair of mics.

The goal is to be able to set all of the tracks at the same level, so you get what would be a whole band playing live in a room, but because each person played at different times - you get isolation on each instrument.

Oh, and do NOT move the microphones. You want the mic placement to remain consistent.


I would use a pair of sd cardioid condensers.


Tim