Need Help With Beatles Cover Project

[wagtunes]

A little background.

This October, I'll be premiering a made at home sitcom on Youtube. I play all the parts and do all the music.

Here's a highlight reel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi8Ug8Lt1ZA

At the end of season 2, I'm going to be doing a Beatles parody episode. The group is called The Leaches. I'll be doing an album of 10 songs that are parodies of Beatles tunes. Most from the mid 60s.

I use Music Labs Real Guitar series as my guitar and have Guitar Rig 5, Amplitube and Revalver as my guitar FX software. I want to duplicate their mid 60s guitar sound (John's, not George's) as close as I can. Do I just dig into Amplitube's British Collection and that's about it? Or is there more to it than that?

Any tips you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

[Nameerf]

They were using a lot of different guitars and amps by the mid 1960s. But the main thing would be to use lots of room sound and spill - the amps weren't miked SUPER close and they weren't using headphones yet - they used huge monitor speakers instead, so lots of spill (compared to normal modern practice)...
(Recorded in an absolutely enormous room too..!)

[wagtunes]

They were using a lot of different guitars and amps by the mid 1960s. But the main thing would be to use lots of room sound and spill - the amps weren't miked SUPER close and they weren't using headphones yet - they used huge monitor speakers instead, so lots of spill (compared to normal modern practice)...
(Recorded in an absolutely enormous room too..!)

Yeah, their recordings sounded so cool. Pretty difficult to duplicate in a home studio, if not impossible.

[Nameerf]

Difficult for sure! IRs of big rooms can be pretty convincing though - I use IK's Sunset and Fame rooms quite a lot for retro, vintage sounds. Adding some room sound to things we wouldn't normally do these days (i.e. even bass) can sound really retro..!

[donkey tugger]

Can't really advise much on the specifics of The Beatles, but to get pretty decent emulations of different guitars without splashing out loads of cash (either for sampled VSTis or something like a Variax for a real guitar) then this is definitely worth a go;

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_ReGuitar/

Use it a lot on my 12 string solid body (the Shitenbacker as I call it..) to get a flavour of the Rickenbacker pickups plus semi-acoustic sound.

[BertKoor]

I use Music Labs Real Guitar series as my guitar

Why make it yourself so difficult? Just plug in any real guitar.
John wasn't a perfect player, why not go for the real thing then.

[wagtunes]

I use Music Labs Real Guitar series as my guitar

Why make it yourself so difficult? Just plug in any real guitar.
John wasn't a perfect player, why not go for the real thing then.

I don't own a real guitar and I'm not spending hundreds of dollars just to get one.

[BertKoor]

You do play guitar, right? Then you're one of the first that apparently got rid of them all.

Anyway, there are other ways. It doesn't need to cost hundreds of dollars.
Like stick a note on the board of your church: can I borrow a guitar for an evening?
You are member of a church, right? No kind soul there?

[donkey tugger]

Well, on the real geetar route (if it's being considered..) there must be thousands and thousands of guitarists who could quickly record guitar parts for these songs, given the popularity of said beat combo. A few on here I'll wager could easily do it for a start (not me, I can't even play my own shite..).

Edit - Ahh, they're not straight covers...ne'er mind.

[vurt]

Well, on the real geetar route (if it's being considered..) there must be thousands and thousands of guitarists who could quickly record guitar parts for these songs, given the popularity of said beat combo. A few on here I'll wager could easily do it for a start (not me, I can't even play my own shite..).

Edit - Ahh, they're not straight covers...ne'er mind.

still can't be too hard for one of them to do something with eg a rhythm track and the chords?
likewise, not me, don't have the skills necessary for hire work (unless it's shoegaze/drone stuff, then give me a call)

[wagtunes]

You do play guitar, right? Then you're one of the first that apparently got rid of them all.

Anyway, there are other ways. It doesn't need to cost hundreds of dollars.
Like stick a note on the board of your church: can I borrow a guitar for an evening?
You are member of a church, right? No kind soul there?

Our church is down to 20 members. At 65, I am one of the youngest. No, there are no guitar players at our church. And I am so out of practice (it's been 9 years since I even picked up a guitar) there is no way I could do these songs any justice without hours and hours of practice everyday.

Not gonna happen.

[wagtunes]

Well, on the real geetar route (if it's being considered..) there must be thousands and thousands of guitarists who could quickly record guitar parts for these songs, given the popularity of said beat combo. A few on here I'll wager could easily do it for a start (not me, I can't even play my own shite..).

Edit - Ahh, they're not straight covers...ne'er mind.

still can't be too hard for one of them to do something with eg a rhythm track and the chords?
likewise, not me, don't have the skills necessary for hire work (unless it's shoegaze/drone stuff, then give me a call)

The thing is, I can play virtual guitar well enough to get the idea across. It's the sound I'm more concerned with. And to that end, anybody playing guitar will have the same problem getting the sound just right. I mean not everybody has a Beatles rig laying around their house.

[donkey tugger]

Have a look at the Blue Cat Re-Guitar link I posted above. For a more lo-fi (but surprisingly effective..) solution in getting a flavour of the hollowbody woody sound, I made these convolution impulse responses a while back, by hitting the body of my semi-acoustic guitar with a screwdriver.

If you mix in (I find about half and half works) some with the dry sound before your effects/amp etc it doesn't sound half bad;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E0GYoy ... sp=sharing

Not being a big Beatles fan got no real idea about the amps etc excerpt Vox. Sure others will chime (hoho) in.

[vurt]

Have a look at the Blue Cat Re-Guitar link I posted above. For a more lo-fi (but surprisingly effective..) solution in getting a flavour of the hollowbody woody sound, I made these convolution impulse responses a while back, by hitting the body of my semi-acoustic guitar with a screwdriver.

If you mix in (I find about half and half works) some with the dry sound before your effects/amp etc it doesn't sound half bad;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E0GYoy ... sp=sharing

Not being a big Beatles fan got no real idea about the amps etc excerpt Vox. Sure others will chime (hoho) in.

theres the beatles diary book, quite expensive now, but it will cover every track, with notes from the studio diary and desk.

but early on, was a fairly basic set up, you can see on live shows what they used, and they would set up and play.
overdubbing maybe a solo or a vocal.
wasnt until later they got fancy with the studio equipment.

[wagtunes]

Have a look at the Blue Cat Re-Guitar link I posted above. For a more lo-fi (but surprisingly effective..) solution in getting a flavour of the hollowbody woody sound, I made these convolution impulse responses a while back, by hitting the body of my semi-acoustic guitar with a screwdriver.

If you mix in (I find about half and half works) some with the dry sound before your effects/amp etc it doesn't sound half bad;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E0GYoy ... sp=sharing

Not being a big Beatles fan got no real idea about the amps etc excerpt Vox. Sure others will chime (hoho) in.

Not to sound like an idiot but what do I do with the impulse responses? I've never used them before.