Robert Johnson, Son House ...

[teleblaster]

I'm gonna put together 2-3 pieces for this one:ACOUSTIC BLUES SONGS WITH VOCALS a la Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters are sought after by a successful Music Publisher based in L.A. who has secured tons of Film/TV placements for many TAXI members. This Publisher will be looking for songs with vocals that are specifically similar to the artists mentioned above – male vocals only, please. You'll want to be sure that the lyrics don't have any profanity and the recordings need to be Broadcast Quality (excellent home recordings should be just fine). They offer a non-exclusive, 50/50 split deal – you keep your original copyrights. Please submit 1-3 songs online or per CD, include lyrics. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than March 6, 2009.My incllincation is to make a recording that sounds 'vintage', lots of farfield micing, etc. It won't be noisy, but the frequency response and overall fidelity won't be what is normally considered 'broadcast quality'. Does that seem like the correct approach, or would it be better to make a more modern sounding track (modern in terms of recording technique)? Curious to hear other's thoughts

[billg]

I wondered about the same thing. If they really want authenticity the Robert Johnson and Son House stuff would certainly NOT be considered broadcast quality by today's standards. I'm thinking about something for this listings and had decided to make it acceptable for today's standards so it can be used elsewhere as well. Of course the safest bet would be a Muddy Waters type of song . . . lots of those are broadcast quality.

[sgs4u]

This kind of thing has question up quite a few times. I don't want to steer anyone wrong, but creating a lo-fi 78rpm sounding trrack is easier to create from a broadcast quality track than vice verse. When it says broadcast quality, I think they mean the sound engineering must be broadcast quality. It would suggest if the screener or listening party wants old style sound engineering, they could easily achieve that with re-mastering... So I suggest imagining what Robert Johnson would sound like, if you recorded him playing in your own home studio, sitting right beside you. Not a smoke filled niteclub with noise and a lousy old mic. However, it can never hurt to call the office about a question like this.

[teleblaster]

Thanks Steve, great input. There's no point in doing something that a music director can do. Especially since they understand better what they need for the cut. There's plenty of lo-fi and 'vinyl' plugins available.I guess I was thinking more in terms of recording techinque. My inclination would be to sit in the corner of a room and capture that sound from a distance (corner loading), like RJ used to do, rather than try to capture a close mic on my slide guitar and make it sound l'pristine' like a typical solo acoustic track. I also think that the performance needs to be loose and rough -- I don't think I'll record to a click Cheers,