Need Help With Beatles Cover Project

[BertKoor]

Another thought: you're doing a parody. So The Leaches are not The Beatles. It just needs to be close enough to be recognisable.

You know what in reality was inspired on The Beatles? The Monkeys. Did these use the same gear? Not even close.

So just stick to things that are right in the period. And in that period everything was relatively simple. You don't need to be so hard on yourself in getting the details right.

[funky lime]

i would imagine theres some somewhere in the usa, just search, that was just the first link for me.

I ordered from Anazon. They had it for under $20. Thanks for making me aware of this. Had no idea it existed.

always happy to help if i can

Just wanted to let you know that the Beatles book came today. While it's certainly going to be an interesting read (at over 200 pages) it doesn't go into the detail that I was hoping for. There is some info on what was used for recording each song but it's not a complete equipment list. More like a "this is the important stuff." For example, on one song, they brought in an orchestra and listed all the instruments used and how many of each. While that's nice and will certainly help when doing the arrangement, there's no mention of tape decks were used, what amps, what FX, etc. Sure, some guitars and keyboard are listed but again, not complete. I'm going to have to fill in a lot of blanks and take my best guess.

Still, as a huge Beatles fan (Paul is my songwriting idol) I'm going to thoroughly enjoy reading this. However, what I'm looking for on a technical level (complete specs) probably doesn't exist. It would be hundreds if not thousands of pages long.

I reckon the Beatles weren't stressing over which brand of preamp or tape to use. And I'd go so far as to say that emulating their exact signal chain will do very little in terms of getting a Beatles sound to your music. That sound is almost entirely about clever arrangement/composition and interesting (often sloppy/imperfect) performance. The Beatles don't sound like that because of the gear they used, they sound like that in spite of the gear they used.

You wouldn't expect to sound like Van Halen just because you used the same guitar and amp as him, right? They just use that gimmick to sell guitars. So just be wary, the same sort of manipulation is used to sell "vintage" plugins to people who want to sound like their favorite records of old. Any bog standard plugins that come with your host can probably get you at least in the ballpark. More than good enough for a YouTube sitcom.

By all means, if you enjoy emulating their signal chain, have fun! But I personally think that's probably barking up the totally wrong tree. To get that sound, you have to emulate their craft, not their tools. And a bunch of that happens outside of the recording studio, anyway.

(for bass, i've gotten some fun "vintage" thuddy tone using tapewound strings and shoving some thin acoustic foam beneath them at the bridge)

As far as the mixing, I don't think you need exact replicas of the tools, as long as you understand the limitations of the tech they were working with (e.g. mono, limited track counts, lcr panning, no DI, very simplistic mixing tools by today's standards, tape artifacts and imprecise cuts, absurd noise buildup) and how they worked around it (e.g. tons of prints/destructive edits, hard panning the drums opposite the rest of the band). Yeah, they employed/pioneered a few studio gimmicks (such as ADT) but a lot of it isn't necessarily unique to any one band, just a product of that era.

(also: ride your faders live! like, in real time, with your hands. not an automation envelope. do multiple passes if you have to. this is such a crucial part of older mixes in particular. they played those consoles like it was another instrument, sometimes with multiple sets of hands at once)

One area you could look into is IRs for vintage mics. I know Fog Convolver comes with a ton of them, though I think that same collection was floating around for free on the internet for years prior. I personally have only used such an approach for an exaggerated effect on vocals, but who knows, could be a good way to nail that old recorded guitar tone.

I think what might be the hardest part: emulating the engineers' microphone techniques, especially if you're working purely ITB. That's often such a core part of the sound of older music in particular, getting the source sounding exactly how you want it so that you aren't screwing about with EQ and whatnot.

[wagtunes]

Thanks for the comments above. Great stuff! Yeah, agree completely. There is more to this than just gear. Fortunately, I've been writing in a style similar to the Beatles for over 40 years. The sound, that's something else entirely.

[zerocrossing]

[...] got no real idea about the amps etc excerpt Vox.

I'd be happy to record something with my VOX AC-50 head. Should fit in the period.

If only... there's an impediment. Last time I tried (some years ago) my audio recording PC (based on WinXP I think) did not boot anymore and my current computer (MacBookPro) has no audio interface at all. Being a laptop I can't use my Maya1010 PCIe card on that.

While that computer and interface is close to being from that period, I’d suggest a more modern computer.

[wagtunes]

I just got my Beatles recording reference books today, 5 volumes.

These books literally have every piece of equipment used for every song. But it goes way beyond that. Recording techniques are included. For example, the backing track to "Got To Get You Into My Life" was recorded with varispeed and played back faster at playback.

Ringo's drum sets are explained in complete detail. Every piece. How they were mic'd. What mics were used. All the personnel involved in each recording, listed along with their role.

Now I understand why this is 5 volumes. One song is pages long.

I have honestly never seen anything like this collection in my life.

This is going to be a crap ton of fun.

[donkey tugger]

Ringo's drum sets are explained in complete detail. Every piece. How they were mic'd. What mics were used.

Have you ever tried the Past To Future stuff for Kontakt? Dirt cheap ($15 etc) and all recorded with the period gear, e.g;

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

[wagtunes]

Ringo's drum sets are explained in complete detail. Every piece. How they were mic'd. What mics were used.

Have you ever tried the Past To Future stuff for Kontakt? Dirt cheap ($15 etc) and all recorded with the period gear, e.g;

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

Never even heard of it. I'll check it out.