How to record the Flying Burrito Brothers

[gravitychapters]

Question for you guys. If you were to try to re-create the sound of Gilded Palace of Sin, what type of gear and approach would you use?

I get that the obvious answer is to get really brilliant players and musicians and singers and songwriters. My question is more focused on the type of gear and approach you would use to create that type of production.

I know hypotheticals like this can be kind of a lost cause but I’m just curious to get some opinions on what kind of gear goes into that sound, so thanks for humoring me on this!

[drumsound]

The things I'm hearing as I play it on YouTube is pretty classic 60s sound. Dry drums, probably in a booth or just a room that isn't very live. Minimal micing on the drums. I wouldn't be surprised to know there were 2-3 total on the drums. LOTS of hi pass on pretty much everything but the bass and bass drum. Even the acoustic guitar is focused on the brightness. Mics right up on the guitar amps. Short but lovely Plate reverb with some tape predelay. It's a lot more subtle than a lot of music of that time.

If you can track at 15ips on a machine with transformers.

The mix sounds pretty LCR, and that fine, I guess. The hard panned vocal duets are kind of fun, but also a little "really?" if that makes sense.

The arrangements are really planed out, probably to make the most of an 8-track 1" machine. There's probably a decent amount of track sharing and bouncing. I'd guess an Ampex 440.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Love that record.

That said, I feel like it's an OK sounding recording of amazing songs and performances. I can guarantee that it was done very quickly and mostly live.
If you're trying for this vibe set the band up together in the room and gobo between instruments. Acoustic guitar and vocals in a booth (if there is one). Minimal miking will help. Don't get concerned about room mics too much. Bleed will fill in the space. It's likely a 16 track record but could easily have been done on 8. Either would have been standard at the time depending on the studio.
Beyond that, mics would be the usual suspects from that era. EV, Neuman, Shure, etc. Pre-amps will be the console (whatever that was). Compression will be minimal. Tape. Slap back tape delay and a plate reverb.
The studio gear is the least important aspect of that record. The sound is in the room with the players. Find the right instruments. Focus on the performances and don't sweat the rest.

[gravitychapters]

Thanks guys. Good call on the high pass filtering. The whole sound is so intensely focused on high mids. Yet it never feels strident. Really a beautiful sound imo...

I’m also struck by how dynamically even the vocals are. Hard to imagine singers today being able to pull that off.

[mjau]

Damn, what songs on that album - so great. The hard-panning gets distracting to me, but that’s a quibble I can get past. Sneaky Pete’s steel playing is perfect on this record.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

It was recorded at a&m in LA. Same era and location as the Carpenters, Joni Mitchell Blue, Tapestry by Carroll King. House producer.and house engineer. You can be sure they weren't reinventing the wheel with every session so searching for photos from those and other sessions of the era will give you an idea of the set-up.


Also, searching out track sheets from albums of this era can be a revelation. You realize how simple the recording was. It's all the players and in the room.

[Nick Sevilla]

It was recorded at a&m in LA. Same era and location as the Carpenters, Joni Mitchell Blue, Tapestry by Carroll King. House producer.and house engineer. You can be sure they weren't reinventing the wheel with every session so searching for photos from those and other sessions of the era will give you an idea of the set-up.


Also, searching out track sheets from albums of this era can be a revelation. You realize how simple the recording was. It's all the players and in the room.

All. Of. This.

Here is a great list of their staff. Just look for that record, and hope they got the credits right. Then, cross your fingers that those engineers are still with us.

https://www.onamrecords.com/labels/a-m- ... /employees

[Nick Sevilla]

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-gild ... 36/credits

Henry Lewy, producer and engineer.

Larry Marks, producer.

Jonathan Little, while not listed on this particular record, is the inventor of the Littla Labs Phase Alignment Tool. He loves talking about engineering stuff from time to time.

Good luck!!!

[jmann]

So much good advice here. I love this board.

I’m only chiming in to say that I made my kids turn off Dua Lipa and listen to this album in the car today because of this thread. Thank you!

[gravitychapters]

You guys saying I should reach out to people who worked on it? Oddly enough that never occurred to me. But...yeah why not?!

[losthighway]

Yeah, that looks real tight and dry.

[crow]

I've always thought the steel and lead guitar sounded like it was recorded direct on this record, but checking it out just now, I'm not so sure.

sounds like the tone control on the bass guitar is turned down, which will make it even more all-important that the bassist not let any unwanted notes ring. a bit of foam padding under the strings right at the bridge a la Carol Kaye helps a ton with that.

On some of the songs, I wonder if there was enough bleed of drums into other mics that they just let that be the drum sound. the drums often sound much less up-front than the other instruments. so +1 to whoever said minimal miking on the drums. kick sounds like it has plenty of damping material in it to me. This is of course after a brief survey of the record just now, so I may have missed some moments that contradict what I'm saying!

[A.David.MacKinnon]

On some of the songs, I wonder if there was enough bleed of drums into other mics that they just let that be the drum sound. the drums often sound much less up-front than the other instruments. so +1 to whoever said minimal miking on the drums. kick sounds like it has plenty of damping material in it to me. This is of course after a brief survey of the record just now, so I may have missed some moments that contradict what I'm saying!

That makes sense. I'm mixing the last thing tracked in my little one room garage studio. It had live vocals and acoustic with a kit in the room. The drummer is very quiet but still 75% of the drum sounds is bleed. Not a bad thing at all if the bleed is good. It makes you realize what a huge part of the sound it was before overdubbing and isolation took over.
When you get the other things dialed in where you want them there often isn't a lot for leeway to get the close mics up in the mix. It's more like you're using them to add some attack and tone shaping to the bleed.

[joninc]

sounds like a dynamic vocal mic ... curious what kinds of things they would have used then for live vocalists in a room with drums. I don't recognize the mic in the Carol King photo.

(there's lots of presence overall but i agree it's not too strident or harsh - not much below 100hz - a little bass gtr maybe - or above 12k)

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I think it's an akg D202 in the Carole King pic.

Nothing to say the vocals are live on either record though. They may have been an overdub