Mixing Insight

ernstinen · Post by **ernstinen** » Sat May 10, 2008 12:34 pm

May 10, 2008, 1:14pm, billg wrote:Ern, both Jamerson and another one of my favorites, Chuck Rainey were both known for that wonderful "no sustain" thumping bass. A lot of it has to do with using flatwound bass strings & not recording when they are new. Jamerson's bass on The Four tops Bernadette still blows my mind. Woops, sorry . . . now back to mixing!Ha! I just got my James Jamerson fix --- listened to "Bernadette" and "I Was Made To Love Her" back-to-back. Wow! HOW did he play all those 16th notes with ONE finger? I've seen guys come close with two fingers --- close, but nothing like that.Plus, even with playing all those notes, he always accompanied the song, hitting all the roots at the right time and didn't step on the lead vocal. Pure genius.O.K. --- Mixing question (kinda ). What kind of amp did Jamerson play through, and how was it miked? I think McCartney around that time switched to a Fender Bassman. I know the early Bassmans (brown face) distorted really easily, and make great guitar amps. I assume the black face Bassmans were a lot cleaner. I had a black face Dual Showman w/2-15" JBLs, and it was EXTREMELY clean. I recorded a rhythm guitar track once with that thing on 10, and it barely broke a sweat. Man, was that amp LOUD! My neighbor lady actually phoned me while I was recording it to see what the hell was going on --- Ern

ernstinen · Post by **ernstinen** » Sat May 10, 2008 5:07 pm

Aha! Straight into the board, eh? Very interesting stuff, Chuck!I know that McCartney began going "direct" after playing through his Vox amps for quite awhile. When Lennon heard about this, he got really excited, and asked George Martin if they could wire his brain to go directly into the board --- Seriously!George Martin said, "Well, John, that would mean inserting a jack plug into the side of your head." Lennon sure had a wild imagination, or was on drugs, or both! Ern

davekershaw · Post by **davekershaw** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:53 am

May 10, 2008, 8:07pm, ernstinen wrote:Lennon sure had a wild imagination, or was on drugs, or both! Ern Yeah, I think both Ern!

Mark Kaufman · Post by **Mark Kaufman** » Sun May 11, 2008 6:34 am

By most written accounts there were no drugs whatsoever involved during Beatles recording sessions. Hard for many to believe, I suppose... But from what I've read, this was a strict rule among them...and they would know better than anyone that it's harder to play well when you're stoned.

Mark Kaufman · Post by **Mark Kaufman** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:44 am

You mean, they broke THAT rule too??

daniel481 · Post by **daniel481** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:54 am

Yeah, not so sure the Beatles had a no drug rule in the studio...there may not have been a lot of blatant use in the actual tracking room, but according to "The Beatles" by Bob Spitz, and several other books, there was definitely more than a little bit of that going on from pretty early in there recording career. Started with marijuana (which they all used pretty heavily), moved on to LSD (Paul was reluctant at first to try it, but ended up being the first pop star to admit that he had), and there was eventually a time when John had a pretty serious heroin habit.It's nice to think of them as the fun-loving goofballs from "A Hard Days Night", but these guys were really a pretty rough-and-tumble crew

ggalen · Post by **ggalen** » Mon May 12, 2008 10:27 am

May 12, 2008, 12:14pm, wodinlord wrote:Glenn,Both of those Youtube songs are great! Nice mix on the studio track, too.WodinlordThanks very much, Wodinlord!All this Beatles talk is relevant: my wife is hosting 75 people for a big birthday party soon, and she has asked me to perform lots of early Beatles tunes.It's really a gas. I find that if I use an "Everly Brothers" harmony on my Digitech Vocalist Live 4 harmonizer, I really can sound quite like the lads. Especially if I "pinch" my voice just the slightest touch nasal, to suggest John. I didn't realize how much that 3rds harmony was used in their '62-'65 period.That's my favorite period for the Beatles. I was 12 and absolutely blown away by "I Want To Hold Your Hand"...still have a GREAT time playing it.Maybe I will post something soon.

jda21 · Post by **jda21** » Mon May 12, 2008 11:01 am

I find that if I use an "Everly Brothers" harmony on my Digitech Vocalist Live 4 harmonizer, I really can sound quite like the lads. Maybe I will post something soon.I hope so, Glenn Look forward to it Liam

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