Jeff Lynne drum sounds?

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mikethomasmusic
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Jeff Lynne drum sounds?

Post by mikethomasmusic » Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:47 am

The drum sounds of Jeff Lynne, Love them or hate them.... I personally really like his drum sound. I know he caught some heat from the die heard Beatle fans when he helmed the boards for the posthumous anthology releases. Like he F@#$ed with a sacred thing.

Given the time period leading up to the anthology with projects like Cloud 9,then working with the Wilburies, and then Paul on his Flaming pie album, it makes total sense that Jeff would be asked to work on The Anthology tracks. In fact I would go as far to say,had Lennon not been shot, by the time of the 90's I think there would have been enough healing time and we would still see some type of retrospective/anthology release, maybe even followed by a few one of shows spread thinly to major cities. After the anthology would have winded down I think they would have either gone to Paul's Essex studio or Abby Road. Either way had Lennon lived and we did get a reunion. I think Jeff would have produced it?

To me his production style reminds me of a really great lead guitar player. An instantly recognizable player, that you can pick out of a song within a second or two of listening. Jeff's production technique is the same way,especially with that snappy snare sound he has become known for. I personally love his drum sounds. I love how much more articulation there is; which is funny because in a mix magazine article explained that he pretty much takes an old school approach. He isn't into close miking the kit at all but prefers instead to relay mostly on the room sound.


Using DAW's I was wondering if anyone was able to somewhat close to emulating that sound, and how/with what?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:24 am

The easy answer is that all you need is a good drummer in a good room. Try using a close mic on the snare to trigger gated room mics so the room only opens fully on the snare hits.

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Post by RoyMatthews » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:01 am

I don't really have much to add but I read this recently about "Don't Bring Me Down"
Looking out to the main studio area through the control-room glass, Mack would have seen Bevan behind his drum kit in the far left corner, Groucutt on DI'd bass next to him, and then Tandy's DI'd keyboards. The drums were miked with a Neumann U47 on the kick, a Neumann KM84 on the snare, a Sennheiser MD421 on the toms and Neumann U87s as overheads.

"All of the drums were double-tracked,? Mack says. "The overdubbed kit was in the bathroom, and I just stuck one mic up there and compressed it with a Urei 1176, overloaded. We did that on every album, but on Discovery we just recorded the bass drum, snare and toms in there for more control. Otherwise, it would have been too messy.

"To this day, Jeff insists that he doesn't mind reverb on other people's recordings but he doesn't want it on his recordings. So I'd have to capture the real room sounds and then I'd always cheat a little bit by adding some reverb. Often, he would go over to the tape machine and stop it running, in order to hear if any reverb had been added. Well, whenever I saw him walking over to that machine I'd have my finger on the mute button, and as soon as he stopped the machine I'd hit the mute button so he couldn't hear what I'd added.?
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Post by Zygomorph » Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:00 pm

I've always had an appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into making recordings that sound like his, especially with the technology available at the time they were made. I also find him extremely likable in interviews, very pragmatic and humble... the same qualities I appreciate in Hugh Padgham, for instance.

But I'll be damned! The one thing I always made fun of in his recordings was that "the drums always sound like they're recorded in a bathroom!" Not knowing that this was actually the case.
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Post by vvv » Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:37 pm

Good ears onya, mate. :lol:
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Re: Jeff Lynne drum sounds?

Post by JGriffin » Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:41 pm

mikethomasmusic wrote:
To me his production style reminds me of a really great lead guitar player. An instantly recognizable player, that you can pick out of a song within a second or two of listening. Jeff's production technique is the same way,especially with that snappy snare sound he has become known for.
I feel that same way but respond to it in completely the opposite direction. To me, Jeff Lynne productions always sound more like Jeff Lynne records than they sound like records by the artist he's producing. That's fine for ELO because it's his band, and the Wilburys because he was part of the group. But why do you have to make George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and The Beatles sound like ELO?
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Post by losthighway » Thu Jun 26, 2014 6:53 am

The Move > ELO

I respect that guy, but I will say it took me years to get past the overly-glossy sound of the Wilburys records to enjoy some really good songs.

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Post by lefthanddoes » Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:44 am

This is so weird. Traveling Wilburys first album came out when I was 6 years old and I was totally sold on it having a rootsy, authentic sound. Nowadays I'm aware that all of these sounds are the result of careful hypercontrolling production style. But I still feel like Traveling Wilburys is a far cry from, say, Hysteria, which came out around the same time, right?

There's a little documentary thing on the making of TW where you can see that he programmed a drum machine to do the kick and sometimes the hihat, and then brought in Jim Keltner to play the rest of the kit into a couple LDCs. Obviously you can't lose with a formula like that.

If you're someone who's not into the polished solo-Beatle 80s sound, you might still like Highway Companion, Tom Petty's most recent solo album. You can hear Jeff's influence on the drum sound, but it's very warm and natural sounding. I put that on right when I got my Senn HD650s and I remember that being the moment I felt I understood the idea of sonic detail.
Also, Long Black Road in the credits of American Hustle. I feel like they searched through a catalog of 70s music and couldn't find anything 70s enough, so they ended up turning to a Jeff Lynne solo album from 2001.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:19 am

lefthanddoes wrote: But I still feel like Traveling Wilburys is a far cry from, say, Hysteria, which came out around the same time, right?
you make a good point! hell, pyromania sounds organic and natural compared to hysteria.

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Post by lysander » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:11 am

I think double-tracking the snare is one of the most salient parts of Lynne's characteristic drum sound -- it'll get you a good way there, at least.

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