Reverbs & oldies vocals

[azulay]

Hey...

I'm working with this client now that really wants an old-sounding vocal
track. so I tried some stuff but nothing works for him.

He gave me 3 songs to listen to so I'll get the idea, and I'm wondering
if any of you could tell me what is it about these songs' vocals that has that old magic?

I say its something with this reverb. Which sounds to me like a plate
but nothing like anything I've got. VERY metallic...

listen to:
Doris Day - Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
Skeeter Davis - End of the world
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (which is a new song...)

Would like to hear from you....

 

[BTLG]

A lot of that sound comes from the source. Old tube or ribbon mics, tape compression and then mastered to vinyl. It definitely sounds like a plate, try a medium plate with a fair amount of pre-delay on it, like a sixteenth note or so. Boost a little low in the reverb. I don't know that you'll ever get that exact sound, but you should probably be able to come pretty close.

 

[imdrecordings]

Hey...

I'm working with this client now that really wants an old-sounding vocal
track. so I tried some stuff but nothing works for him.

He gave me 3 songs to listen to so I'll get the idea, and I'm wondering
if any of you could tell me what is it about these songs' vocals that has that old magic?

I say its something with this reverb. Which sounds to me like a plate
but nothing like anything I've got. VERY metallic...

listen to:
Doris Day - Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
Skeeter Davis - End of the world
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (which is a new song...)

Would like to hear from you....

Old Vocal sound?? Check this out.. Works great for me..Don't tell anyone.
Take a mic... a good dynamic or just send a signal from your board or external pre to a Fender Super Reverb. Make sure you are going to the amp with an unbalaced cable. Impedense matchers Clip the front end to much.."Sounds bad". Pull the bass down to about 2.5 and the treble can float between 2.5-5 (adjust to taste) Mid at 7 or 8. No kidding. Pre gain at around 7 or 8. You can come back out of the direct out, if the amp has one or just mic the room abd amp. The hard you sing or if you do short stabby dynamic vocal sprints, will hit the front-end of the amp/tubes/spring reverb, will respond with a dynamic you won't believe. You can actually control it, much like playing guitar. AWESOME! I sing in a band that kind of sounds like Frank Sinatra meets the Badseeds meets Chet Baker or LOW. After every show, people are like..WOW!! When I play live and roll up with the big Super Reverb and sound guy goes, "How many Mics?" I say "Non, just a D.I." and the freak out... "Oh no man, That ain't going to work!" I say "Trust me" And by the end of the show... they're kissing my ass.. "Dude, that sounds amazing" But then again.. that could be my voice.. ha!
Give it a try..
late
Scott

here is a link... it sounds like this.. only better.this is kind of a poor example.

these cuts are a recorded practice, sometime ago and the amping sounds much better, if recorded to something much more pro... this is demo stuff from a yamaha cassette recorder 3 years ago... I know I know... I need to rerecord. This is Lo-Fi to say the least. ha!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... d=51011250

 

[imdrecordings]

Sorry.. here is a better link.. Check it out.

http://www.myspace.com/coyotehoods

Scott[/url]

 

[edised]

I think the amp solution is quite efficient indeed, what I like to use is a spring reverb on vocals! It can sound really sweet...

 

[neil wilkes]

There's a great IR in AltiVerb for this sort of thing.
The old Bill Putnam Echo Chambers.

 

[chewie]

I hate that they are only for AltiVerb, I´d like to use them with SIR....

 

[Awesom-o]

The UAD space echo has a nice spring reverb

 

[brian]

Also the RE-201 can be used for pre-delay to the reverb of your choice for authenticity (yes I know the Space Echo didn't exist in the 50s-60s but they used tape for the pre-delay). Just use the 1st head-position on the selector with little or no feedback and go into the EMT140t.

The added benefit here is that you get less top end in the sound entering the reverb, and some subtle grunge/dynamic behavior, which is nice. You won't get such dramatic dynamic effects as when hitting a Fender amp hard like Scott suggests but it is worth experimenting with.

Azulay - have you had any luck getting closer to that sound yet?

 

[azulay]

Well, actually - no.
The thing is this client had a really good perception of what he wanted,
and nothing digital got around that. The reverb was just a part of it
and to my understanding after a lot of experiment, what he wanned most
was the slight drive of the tubes going into tape. (\"Can you hear it when
they scream? it sounds so... OLD!\").

Since I haven't got a 50s Neumann nor a Telefunken, and my mid-end
tube mic -> 610 didn't do the job. (The highs are just too damn harsh on
these things), and (!) the singer couldn't produce another good take
during my experiments, we just settled for a nice, warm, semi-modern sounding track. I DO feel pretty lame about it, since I couldn't satisfy my
client, but sometimes there's so much you can do...

 

[John Lance]

Also, try frequency response limiting.

Also, try the PEQ (Pultec EQ: it has frequency response limited sound).

The Fairchild also has a character of \"back then\".

That tape sound probably cannot be emulated in any way but to locate a real machine. Especially that overdrive. \"Tape\" overdrive character (really tape and associated equipment) changed a lot through the years.

 

[John Lance]

Dialing in a response of 50 to 15,000K on your channels wouldn't hurt I'm sure. A response like that was phenomenal back then.

Try constructing some of your own equipment or try to obtain some very old tube equipment.

A lot of equipment used triode single ended class-A common cathode circuits for amplification. They were notoriously filled with distortion even if negative feedback was used and the distortion character was not symmetrical on the positive and negative halves of the waveform. If you could find tube circuitry with less than 0.5% distortion it was amazing.

Also, the distortion was somewhat pleasing (in the better equipment) if not also compressing or constricting to the sound. Roll your own equipment and try to have some fun doing it.

Do some research and try to get equipment lists for what was available then and then research what that equipment did (schematics, specs, etc).

Also, for some of this, I am sure part of what you are hearing has the entire lacquer or vinyl process thrown on top (for that day and time) and that changed the sound a lot.