Project: 60s British Rock

[wagtunes]

As I am winding down my Trance project (should have it done this month) my next project I want to be in the style of 60s British rock bands but focusing mostly on The Beatles.

I grew up with the music so I know what it sounds like and will know if I've achieved that sound. Problem is, I don't know where to start other than I know I want to keep the arrangements very simple.

Rhythm Guitar
Lead Guitar
Bass
Drums
Vocals

That's it. I'm not even going to use any keyboards. Think of songs like "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You" and so on.

On the surface, this would seem like a very easy project. Musically, it is. No problem emulating the playing style of these bands though I'll need Fox's help on getting the guitar playing just right using Musiclab's Real Guitar plugins.

The bigger problem is nailing the sound. I'm assuming I'll need vintage gear emulations.

I currently have:

Abbey Road Vinyl
J37
Kramer Tape
TG12345

as far as tape emulations and consoles. I also have a few others but don't remember the names off hand.

For guitar FX I have:

Guitar Rig 5
Peavey Revalver
Amplitube Max

The problem here, of course, is picking out the presets that will most accurately reproduce the sound of that era. As I am no guitarist (and even if I was, I have no clue what these bands used) I don't know where to begin here.

And then of course there is the type of reverb and delays to use.

As reverbs go I have:

MTurboverb
Valhalla Vintage Verb

as my two main ones.

And then of course there's vocals. How to process them. No clue here either.

I'm guessing as most people here are not into 60s music, this may not be the best place to come for help but I've gone to Youtube and there's nothing there. It seems nobody wants to sound like a 60s rock band. Strange.

Anyway, if there's anybody who can give me a hand or at least just point me in the right direction (post some videos you might know about) I'd really appreciate it.

[vurt]

ive got the beatles studio sessions book here.
has a full run down, including studio session notes.
not a cheap book but well worth it.
ive only ever looked at the more psyche stuff personally but im sure the early pop stuff is there too.

[vurt]

i do know this.
no fx, vox amps for guitar.

[BertKoor]

The irony... back then they just whacked whatever they had directly onto the 2-track. Cheapest rotten e-guitar plugged into a tube radio which was plugged into another tube radio. Now you wanna emulate that meticulously?

[vurt]

vocals?
how will you be doing these?
please tell me you are going to sing.

[funky lime]

nevermind, my opinions aren't worth sharing

[vurt]

that should help

[deastman]

I can’t help much with gear, as I’m not a fanatic about recording methods of yesteryear. I am a huge Beatles fan, however, and love all of that 60s British rock sound. I’m actually pretty curious to see how this turns out. As I’ve said repeatedly, your vocals sound like those of Mercury Rev, and they’re very much into that retro 60s sound.

[ghettosynth]

Listen to the opening vocals of "A Day In The Life", then run, don't walk, over to Waves and get AR Chamber with Steed. While you're there, you might as well pick up AR-Plate. Neither of the verbs that you have listed are "vintage" in the right way.

[funky lime]

that should help

Haha, I should probably include a disclaimer that I could be wrong about a lot of that stuff.

I was born in the 80s, after all (and also much more into the psychedelic stuff of that era than the pop stuff)

[vurt]

that should help

I was born in the 80s, after all

so young!
74 here

(and much more into the psychedelic stuff of that era than the pop stuff)

same here, the beatles came alive for me with revolver. but even then they are far from top of my list of rock bands of the time.

[AnX]

if you cant sing, or play guitar, nailing the beatles sound may be a tad difficult

[funky lime]

if you cant sing, or play guitar, nailing the beatles sound may be a tad difficult

Ringo might disagree.

[donkey tugger]

I don't think you need specific vintage gear/console emulations, necessarily. A lot of that is marketing hype. A little bit of tape saturation should help, but don't think you need a 60s console emulation to get "that sound." It might help you get from 95% to 97% of the way there, but won't really do much beyond that, in my opinion.

As far as reverb, I don't think there really were reverb units, beyond those big plate and spring units. Maybe try using any physical space you have as an echo chamber; that's what a lot of those people had to do. Or look for impulse responses of actual echo chambers from studios, etc.

Maybe also try using some free vintage microphone impulses in your convo reverb of choice, to get some grittier, "old-timey" tones.

Tea towels, or other muting, is pretty fun on drums. Also, keep it mono. Stereo drums didn't really happen til the 70s. Maybe just one mic overhead, and one on the kick, and sum that into a mono bus.

Listening to old records, often the drums are panned hard left (for instance) and the rest of the band is panned hard right. A lot of those old consoles, from what I understand, didn't really have pan pots, just hard left, hard right, and center. Maybe google "LCR mixing."

Also, just use the amp's own distortion, rather than pedals.

Vox AC30 is a pretty "classic British invasion" amp. I'm sure GR5 has an emulation of it. Most big amp sims do. It just might not be called "Vox" for reasons. Look for the number 30 in the model name.

Also, the intonation on those guitars wasn't always the greatest, for some of those garage style bands especially. The pristine tuning of virtual guitars might need to be futzed with, if you can.

ADT is your friend, too. The Beatles kind of pioneered that stuff, from my understanding. Try Airwindows ADT for free. I'd say ADT is essential for a lot of Beatles' vocal fx chains.

Try putting a piece of sponge under the strings at the bridge of your bass. Or find a sampled "sponge bass," to get that muffled, thuddy sound that gives that vintage low end without dominating the mix.

A big challenge in doing this kind of music virtually, in my opinion, is that you really have to work hard to replicate the sensation of "moving air" that was crucial to that era. There wasn't really much DI going on. Convolution reverb (early reflections in particular) and spatial imaging plugins (VSS2, Proximity, et al.) can help approximate this.

They also weren't working with audio as pristine as 24/48 or whatever people tend to use these days. I think the vinyl cutting process also rolled off everything above 12KHz or thereabouts.

Also, they didn't have Vocaloid back then. (sorry, couldn't resist )

Good post. I'd add;

Lot of Rickenbackers in the early Beatles stuff, 6 and 12 strings both. Also other Hollow body geetars - George Harrison I remember using an Epiphone Casino.

This is good;

http://www.shatteredglassaudio.com/product.php?id=106

There's a nice 'tea towel drums' setting in NI Abbey Road 60s drums.

[Blaster]

Maybe check out EastWest's Fab Four @ http://www.soundsonline.com/fab-four. I've seen the videos recently so it also gives you information even if you're not interested in buying.