Members saktr-iyko Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 I want to get the guitar sound from the Street Fighting Man instro. How to over drive my recorder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 I want to get the guitar sound from the Street Fighting Man instro. How to over drive my recorder? We'll let my buddy Keith describe how to do it in his own words: Says Richards: "Street Fighting Man was all acoustics. There's no electric guitar parts in it. Even the high-end lead part was through a cassette player with no limiter. Just distortion. Just two acoustics, played right into the mike, and hit very hard. There's a sitar in the back, too. That would give the effect of the high notes on the guitar. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=508 ~~~~~~~~~ When we went in the studio, we just couldn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted February 9, 2009 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2009 Of course, this was an analog cassette. They sound great overdriven a bit. If you're using a Boss digital portastudio type deal, not so much. Do you have a tape sim of some sort? Or an amp sim where you can defeat the cab? Or a cheap little 99 buck toob pre? those will do this. Better yet... do you have an old cassette deck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 The cheap mic may have been a good part of it too. Used to experiment with cheap crystal mics when I was a kid with my folk guitar. Crystal mics have a higher gain than a HiZ mic and can easily be over driven with a strong signal. Also some of those earley cassette decks had a built in compressor (Besides the tape compression) which might have been what he was talking about. Some labeled it AGC which was for picking up voices at a distance. It sounded alot like an opto compressor which it could have been. I had an old Webcor which had it and could be overdriven nicely. Think I still have some original tapes I recorded using it. pretty sad by todays standards but they're still listenable. I would use a chain like this to recreate the sound. A low Z mic with a Hi Z Cord into low gain device maybe a tube screamer or some simular overdrive or fuzz device to mimic a crystal mic. Low gain fuzz might sound better because one transistor drives another vs clipping diodes. Adjust the drive to where its just on the edge of breakup. Run that into an opto compressor set with high gain slow attack and release which will mimic the built in compressor of those old cassettes. Then use something like JS magneto or some other tape mimic plugin once its recorded to get a bit more tape saturation sound. You would have to tweak with the drive settings of all three to get it as close as you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted February 9, 2009 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2009 Great idea about the crystal mic. I've got one laying around somewhere. I'll be tracking a Stones-like acoustic track myself soon. I'll try that. I've only used it on vocals so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 You want to get it inside the guitar. Tape it in there or something maybe. I tried using one a few years to try an mimic a megaphone for a live singer. It got kind of close but wound up using a channel switcher and two different mixer settings, one real driven and midrange and the other normal. Think we were doing a Santana song Smooth. Worked out OK but a real megaphone would have been better for a metalic sound, plus would have been cool on stage to draw attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 Yes, the distortion had to largely do with overloading the cheap mic that came with the cassette recorder. I think it was a crystal mic, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted February 9, 2009 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2009 For a while I was tracking vocals with the crystal along with the main mic. Two seperate tracks. When I needed lo fi I'd use that. Or blend. It's kind of played out now though. Love the idea of it on acoustic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 It doesn't really sound the same, but if I take mic an acoustic with a dynamic mic and crush the snot out of the incoming signal with my RNLA compressor, I can get some pretty cool sounds that somewhat approach it. I love the sound Keith got on "Street Fighting Man" and "Jumping Jack Flash". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 9, 2009 Members Share Posted February 9, 2009 I tell you if you can find one of those old square Bell and Howell reel to reel crystal mics they kick butt for sound quality. They were a large diaphram mic that could be distorted to sound very cool. I was doing an acoustic recording with a buddy of mine, He had a guitar case and a tupperware full of change he was banging on that had a tremendous impact that sounded like a full set snare and kick. Folk guitar blew chunks as well with that mic on the floor in front of us moving it around for the best sound. Remember making that tape 9/12/80 the same night John Lennon was shot. Again lame by todays standards, but doing nutty stuff like that teaches you your ABCs when you're just starting out recording. Plus people ask how the hell did you get that sound. I tell them it sure the hell wasnt with and Ipod and PC. It required some creative mic techniques and wacky musicians. I got another great cut once when I heard this horendous banging going on upstairs. My wife had overloaded the washer with some sneekers or a blanket or something and that old Matag was jumping off the floor it was so unbalanced. I got my portable recorded and got a great take of it with me playing guitar. Made one of the best cuts of Take me to the river I had ever done. Nobody could figure out what the hell was in the background of that recording other than it sounded big bad and metal. Coolest part was when the spin cycle was over it slowed down perfectly to end a live song. Creative micing used to be used in all kinds of movie work. I got hooked on it listening to Spike Jones growing up and always like using something to break the monotony of bland recordings. I did one with a weed wacker and horns then a skid and then busted up some glass bottels to mimic an auto revving and crashing a while back. Sounded more like a lame ass motor scooter crashing into a trash can but what the hell, Who hears weed wackers in the background. Beatles did wackey stuff like that so I guess I'm in good company. Doesnt seem like theres many people around who do much experimenting with sounds but it sure can liven up a dead recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 10, 2009 Members Share Posted February 10, 2009 Great post! Screwing with the sound as you're recording it is so often the best. There's no plugin (or hardware unit, for that matter) that can match the sound of sticking a mic down in a floor heater and having someone sing into it. There's nothing that can mimic the sound of someone swinging a 57 around the room as you are doing a nasty-ass feedback-drenched guitar solo. There's nothing that can mimic contact micing your dryer while drying your shoes or a bunch of loose change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marcher5877 Posted February 10, 2009 Members Share Posted February 10, 2009 indian head pennies have a better tone than regular ones during the spin cycle. (I wonder how many people are now going to A/B regular and indian head pennies spinning in a dryer....actually, I might have just made my evening plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 10, 2009 Members Share Posted February 10, 2009 indian head pennies have a better tone than regular ones during the spin cycle. This is largely a matter of whether you are going after that vintage sound with the Indian heads or a more contemporary sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nice keetee Posted February 10, 2009 Members Share Posted February 10, 2009 I say keep old mics and whatnot around plug them in and mix old with new. Why use a plugin when a $1 mic does it for real? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 10, 2009 Members Share Posted February 10, 2009 Indian Head Pennies for a vintage sound, What a Hoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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