Bossonova/Samba Guitar set up /effects

[dave davies]

You know those 60s latin- jazz tracks such as this;


What's the best way to get the sound of the guitar chords used there? I don't mean which chords were used, just some advice on the production or effects and guitars used? Acoustic mic'ed up or electric? Reverb? Delay?

[Winstontaneous]

I've played quite a bit of Brazilian samba/choro/bossa nova as a bassist and listened to a lot as well. I'd say nylon-string guitar mic'd fairly close with good condenser mics. I don't hear a lot of reverb on background instruments in this style, usually reserved more for vocals, featured horns/strings. Back then, especially for recordings with people playing together in real-time rooms that were designed to sound good, there were only so many tracks, and reverb plates/echo chambers took up a lot of space. On some of the Brazilian/jazz crossover recordings there were archtop guitars with magnetic pickups played through amps which may have had tremolo/reverb. And there was a lot of political turmoil in Brazil after the military coup in '64 so my guess is that gear was not easy to come by, musicians were persecuted, and they'd probably try to record outside the country if at all possible.

Of course if you're talking about Brazilian psychedelic music like Os Mutantes it's a different story!

[dave davies]

I've played quite a bit of Brazilian samba/choro/bossa nova as a bassist and listened to a lot as well. I'd say nylon-string guitar mic'd fairly close with good condenser mics. I don't hear a lot of reverb on background instruments in this style, usually reserved more for vocals, featured horns/strings. Back then, especially for recordings with people playing together in real-time rooms that were designed to sound good, there were only so many tracks, and reverb plates/echo chambers took up a lot of space. On some of the Brazilian/jazz crossover recordings there were archtop guitars with magnetic pickups played through amps which may have had tremolo/reverb. And there was a lot of political turmoil in Brazil after the military coup in '64 so my guess is that gear was not easy to come by, musicians were persecuted, and they'd probably try to record outside the country if at all possible.

Of course if you're talking about Brazilian psychedelic music like Os Mutantes it's a different story!

Ok, thankyou!

By the way, what was the rule for bass patterns when follwoing the samba/bossonova chords? Any tips?

[Andreya_Autumn]

Mostly play the root and five of each chord, sometimes a third also, especially as a lead in to the next chord. Say if the chords are C∆-F∆ you might play c on the one and e on the three to lead into the f chord. Otherwise you'd mostly play c and g over a C chord.


And in many cases, the first beat of the bar is lighter/shorter and the 3 is heavier/longer. Not every groove uses that thing but for those that do it's kinda critical. Creates a halftime backbeat feel in the bass similar to one-drop Reggae grooves.

[dave davies]

Mostly play the root and five of each chord, sometimes a third also, especially as a lead in to the next chord. Say if the chords are C∆-F∆ you might play c on the one and e on the three to lead into the f chord. Otherwise you'd mostly play c and g over a C chord.

Yes, I get it, makes perfect sense, thankyou!

And in many cases, the first beat of the bar is lighter/shorter and the 3 is heavier/longer. Not every groove uses that thing but for those that do it's kinda critical. Creates a halftime backbeat feel in the bass similar to one-drop Reggae grooves.

Ok, I'll look into that.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Good luck!

[dave davies]

Good luck!

Thankyou. Which artists in that genre do you like by the way?

[dave davies]

Good luck!

I get the impression that the bass is low in the mix in this genre? Sort of a gentle sound to complement the soft vocals.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Good luck!

Thankyou. Which artists in that genre do you like by the way?

Oh, was logged out of KVR for a while and missed this.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about this stuff to be honest, but here's a couple nice brazilian records:




My first impression of this style actually came from a Swedish/Dutch singer who (among many other styles) played Samba. He traveled latin America and learned the style from the real ones, and translated/wrote Swedish lyrics to the tunes.





For a more modern sound, it doesn't get much better than this I think:


And I mean, then there's people doing crazy stuff like this:
...but then we've drifted pretty far from the style you originally asked about so...