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Post by theshea on Jul 8, 2021 6:36:24 GMT -6
so ... i am a bit obsessed with the production of Dr. Feelgood's "Roxette": it just sounds so meaty to me ;-)
i've got some "pub-rock" sounding songs laying round that would lend themselves very well to this kind of production.
i did some research, know the instruments, mono obviously is key, a telecaster ... but what would you suggest as the "main ingredient" to this sound?
i love its low mids but didn't come close in a test recording.
how or what did they do to the hihat? in the intro, it almost sounds like a "machine", no attack, just "sh-sh-sh-sh" like a train ;-)
bass sounds ace to me as does the telecaster (which i can come close).
i don't wanna do an exact clone or copy of it, but really want to get in the vibe.
any suggestions welcome!
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Post by notneeson on Jul 8, 2021 9:54:19 GMT -6
I like that tune too, only discovered it in the last few months actually.
I was going to say it sounds like an Gibson or Epiphone bass, but then I found this video. Hardly definitive though:
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Post by superwack on Jul 8, 2021 10:40:32 GMT -6
Never heard this track - it's really cool but I'm not gonna lie I was kind of hoping it would be Roxette covering Motley Crue's "Dr. Feelgood!"
I think the HH may be a distorted dynamic - 57 probably? - also he sounds like he might be hitting it more on the edge of the stick than on the tips. Just a guess though. It could be possible that all the drums are a dynamic as an overhead as the toms have that sound to me as well.
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Post by cowboycoalminer on Jul 8, 2021 11:02:21 GMT -6
Like a lot of productions in this era/genre, the bass is rolled off on the bottom and top with little to no help from the kick. The bass is the feature in these types of songs. P-bass loud and proud. Lots of mids. Boom.
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Post by theshea on Jul 8, 2021 11:08:14 GMT -6
Like a lot of productions in this era/genre, the bass is rolled off on the bottom and top with little to no help from the kick. The bass is the feature in these types of songs. P-bass loud and proud. Lots of mids. Boom. yeah the p-bass sounds great on this track. thanks for the advice. |
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Post by Ward on Jul 12, 2021 7:40:03 GMT -6
THe P-Bass, Fat snare and thuddy kick are really central to the sound here.
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Post by thecolourfulway on Jul 12, 2021 11:27:30 GMT -6
As far as the hat, I hear a tight doubling/tape slap/ADT kind of thing on the drums…other than that the drummer is just playing it slightly open and I think the slap is kind of “blurring” it into a unique sound. I hear the same on vocals and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s on guitar & bass as well ala Beatles “put ADT on everything”. In fact it’s a fairly Beatles-y tone overall really warm and fat. Minimal drum mics, tape, everything live, emulate a console setup eg same eq and pre on everything
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Post by theshea on Jul 12, 2021 11:55:38 GMT -6
tried to mix a song like this: failed. lacked the fatness, cohesiveness and warm mids ...
its harder mixing all in mono than i thought. gotta push the drive on everything more.
hmm ... i don‘t hear ADT, that would mean stereo effects right? i don‘t hear that.
on the vocal it sounds like a really short short and rather loud slapback delay.
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Post by thecolourfulway on Jul 12, 2021 12:16:48 GMT -6
i don‘t hear ADT, that would mean stereo effects right? i don‘t hear that. on the vocal it sounds like a really short short and rather loud slapback delay. Nah ADT is just a really tight tape echo, ok it’s actually more complicated than that but basically that’s what it sounds like, just a mono effect (of course you could pan it). I’d say this is more likely tape slap than ADT but I just say “ADT” out of habit. There’s an echo on the drums, listen especially when he hits the toms. And it sounds roughly the same timing as the slap on the vocals and I suspect it may be on guitar and even bass as well. Probably a single tape machine running as an echo on an aux from the console. |
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Post by jmoose on Jul 12, 2021 13:38:17 GMT -6
Thought this was gonna be about Motley Crue...
Are we sure this is actually mono? Or is that just the utoob upload?
There's a really obvious slap on drums & vocals. Sounds like a Cooper Time Cube. Feels too tight and exact to be ADT or anything tape based.
Lots of console drive too. Saturated transformers.
I find the key to making something "period based" is to use the same techniques and equipment as the period that's attempted for the emulation. This is what? Mid or late 70s? So use the gear and recording methods they used then. Hence the time cube... digital delay probably didn't exist when this was recorded.
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Post by theshea on Jul 12, 2021 14:22:40 GMT -6
recorded in 1974 in glorious mono!
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,937 
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Post by ericn on Jul 12, 2021 20:51:03 GMT -6
Don’t believe what you see in videos!!!! So often, especially if they are well lit/ well produced the video has nothing to do with the real production. I can’t tell you how often the mic you see in the video was chosen by an art director!
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Post by theshea on Jul 13, 2021 6:01:43 GMT -6
Here's a quick test i did. unfortunately the bass player played with a rickenbacker bass with regluar round strings ... not important fender p bass guitar in sight ... tried to murky up the rickenbacker and eat its growling a bit. i send the kick, snare, overhead (mono) and bass guitar to a bus and tried a slapback delay with kramer tape but ended up with a very short room instead: 0.20s reverb time, 48ms predelay. turned out not exactly i wanted. have no hihat mic. very aggressive hicut at 15kHz to match the "roxette" sound. waddaya think?! where to go from here? obviously a p-bass if i can find one ... Test.mp3 (487.67 KB) |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jul 13, 2021 7:37:40 GMT -6
First thing I thought after two seconds in was round wound bass strings, I even thought they're probably those black ones. I can't tell from the video, but I think was right. Kind of surprised myself with that one.
That bass sound, plus the snare not being overwhelming, but sitting back in there is key. The rest is mostly mic placement of the Tele and not too much reverb on the vocal and in general.
The modern way of processing every single drum leads to over emphasis in the individual drums instead of feeling like a proper whole kit. This recording seems to split the difference. It's likely not a simple Glyn Johns drum sound, but not a 15 drum mic production either.
The key to all this is the band's tastes. You gotta want this sound to get it. The singer is so good at not overdoing anything, just keeping the R&B thing tight.
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Post by thecolourfulway on Jul 14, 2021 13:21:47 GMT -6
Damn that sounds great! Love a 3 mic setup that’s just such a tasty and “realistic” drum sound. Nice work. Personally I think the reverb on the drums is getting you away from the really “dead” sound on the Dr Feelgood recording. Guitar sounds excellent
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jul 15, 2021 8:08:26 GMT -6
The Shea, drums are too loud, so they distract from the guitar's edge. Perhaps a little less reverb on them too. Try adding a bit more brightness in general, but not much.
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