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Old 01-09-2016, 05:41 AM
Mischief Mischief is offline
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Default Any tips how to emulate 50-60's country/Honky Tonk Recordings?

Howdy,
I'm just about to start out on my recording journey. I know I will end up experimenting with lots of sound techniques and styles in future.

To start with I would like to see if I can capture at least some essence of the 50's 60's raw Nashville country/Honky Tonk sound.

I'm just looking at solo guitar and singing. Done as they did at the same time instead of laying tracks.

What I have for equipment at the moment;
Acoustic Play pedal,
Lyric in parlor guitar
Sennheiser e935 mic
Prosonus itwo interface and studio bundle
Presonus M7 large diaphragm condenser mic
Behringer 1002 FX Mixer
iPhone 6 Plus with garage band (no IPad to use with Presounus bundle software.)

I'm willing to buy another condenser mic or ribbon if required and a few bits and bobs to help get the sound but I hope I can get a descent sound with that vintage Nashville flavor or at least some essence of it with the gear I have or by adding a little to it.



The following is some info about the environment I'll mostly record in.

Recording area will be the aft quarters of the sailboat we live on. The space is small but acoustically I think not bad. I can add a thick blanket or something behind me. I have to play seated in the spot I have to work with. I'm relatively surrounded by sound absorbing material. The ceiling is cedar strip though and the bed is raised up about 4' in front of me standing about 3.5' high when I sit it's top level is about equal to where the upper bout meets the neck. So that area would offer an early reflection panel. I could also add a simple absorption mat etc. on this panel. The area is still not sound proof by any stretch but I think it will be okay but limited. Ideally for the right sound I may need to record in some other areas but if there's any tricks, techniques or budget gear to help me get the right sound with what I have I'd be super grateful.



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Old 01-09-2016, 08:41 AM
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KevWind KevWind is offline
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I think you can certainly start with what you have.

You can try two different mic' ing methods both of which will facilitate singing and playing simultaneously .

#1 use the two mic's each going to their own track , the LDC on your vocal and the Dynamic on the guitar.
Now considering the LDC is most likely going to be considerably more sensitive than the dynamic you will have to experiment to get the levels where you want them to be ....Also you can try reversing the mic's Dynamic on vocal LDC on guitar and see how that sounds .

Also in order to maximize separation (for mixing) you can try to angle the LDC facing up towards you mouth and the Dynamic angling down towards the bottom of the guitar neck ( 12 - 14 th fret ) or slightly behind and below the bridge.(as per personal taste)

#2 you can simply use just LDC for both vocal and guitar. And place it out in front you and somewhere (where the blend between vocal and guitar sounds best to you)
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Old 01-09-2016, 08:46 AM
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fazool fazool is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mischief View Post
Any tips how to emulate 50-60's country/Honky Tonk Recordings?

I scanned that too fast and mis-read it as "Any tips how to eliminate 50-60's country/Honky Tonk Recordings?"

and I thought, "well, that's kinda harsh"

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Old 01-28-2016, 03:36 PM
CaffeinatedOne CaffeinatedOne is offline
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In the 50s and 60s many of these recordings were made under less than optimal circumstances, and if you hear a honky tonk or rockabilly band in a bar or other live venue, where all the energy will be, you're certainly in a poor recording environment. So go for it.

To my way of thinking it's much less about gear than about musicianship and style. If you want to sound good at this stuff, play the hell out of it and log lots of hours at it.

In terms of gear and effects - all you really need is a little slap back delay on the vocals after laying them down. I'd record as clean, clean, clean as I could for the space and the gear you already have and add the slap back or maybe a touch of reverb in later. "Touch" means just that. If you add salt, measure out two grains and add that. Less is definitely more here.
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Old 01-28-2016, 05:51 PM
sdelsolray sdelsolray is offline
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Use a ribbon mic for vocals.
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Old 01-29-2016, 08:36 AM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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Of course the question is so enormously broad it'd be difficult to pin any one sound without a specific recording in mind. I do think however a lot of country stuff from that era was 90% the talent and specifically the ability to do a vast majority of the recording in 1 or 2 takes. Track count and overdubs mostly weren't available. It also stands to follow that most the those artists were playing live 50 weeks a year. Many here will recall the early Beatle stuff was not much more than a quick capture of what they had been doing live for some years. There is a magic in hearing musical entities that have, as a result of endlessly playing live, distilled into a tight unit.

Further the old rooms (Little Pig in Nashville comes to mind) were also magical in and of themselves and probably made for the other 10% of the in general sound of that era. They were (and still are) magnificent tone generators.

One thing I'm sure of however, at least as a broad brushstroke, is that sound is decidedly not about a new mic or makeshift room treatment or pre-amps or converters. None of our modern day recording amenities are gonna help much in that quest. In the end it's gonna be your performance, your band mates performance and the room you record in that's gonna get you furthest in your search.
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