The Velvet Underground Sounds

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
burn
pushin' record
Posts: 267
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:00 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada.
Contact:

The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by burn » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:09 am

What would you do to recreate :

1-the Velvet & Nico type of sound

2- White light White heat type of sound

bigtoe
deaf.
Posts: 1776
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 5:13 am

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by bigtoe » Thu Sep 09, 2004 7:03 am

try less! :)

kidding.

Mike

User avatar
Red Rockets Glare
tinnitus
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 8:36 am
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by Red Rockets Glare » Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:23 am

I know that Sterling morrison used a silvertone piggy-back amp and a lipstick pickup in various guitars to get his sound, lou used a gretch country gent through a smallish fender for his.
john cale channeled God Almighty through his bass, so good luck there.
he filed his viola bridge flat so he could bow all the strinigs at once and he amplified it throgh an enourmous cabinet.
the drums were on thier sides and Mo tucker usually used a mallet on the kick and a towel-covered snare.

what else....oh yeah, if you can get an artsy pop culture maven to produce the session and have a hot blonde with a mans voice replace the dylan-esque singer and make sure everyone does loads of speed at the session you should be set.

yardleyone
steve albini likes it
Posts: 314
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:26 am
Location: louisville ky

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by yardleyone » Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:57 am

what about that great velvets record that featured neither nico or john cale(the shite light sound)/ What about loaded? cause that just fucking rocks. That's the one I'd not bother to recreate
all the bad leaves fall on cake for heaven's sake

User avatar
I'm Painting Again
zen recordist
Posts: 7086
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 2:15 am
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by I'm Painting Again » Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:43 am

white room studio in detroit does that style really well..or at least they did on those first two slumber party albums for kill rock stars..

heres some small photos of a recording session..looks like lou plays a Gibson and sings into a U67..there seem to be a bunch of what look to be ampex play/rec electronics in the back..Tucker is using mallets..looks like there are 3-4 mics on the drums and they are really low hanging..

Image

User avatar
JGriffin
zen recordist
Posts: 6739
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:44 pm
Location: criticizing globally, offending locally
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by JGriffin » Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:50 am

White Room...I did a record there in 1990 when they were basically just Second Self's rehearsal space. 1/2" 16-track or something. The live room was an old Fred Astaire dance studio, and the floors were all fucked up and warped. There was no plumbing so if you had to pee you had to go across the street to the 24-hour coffee joint and use their employee bathroom in the basement. I'd love to see what it's like there now.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

User avatar
I'm Painting Again
zen recordist
Posts: 7086
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 2:15 am
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by I'm Painting Again » Thu Sep 09, 2004 12:04 pm

dwlb wrote:White Room...I did a record there in 1990 when they were basically just Second Self's rehearsal space. 1/2" 16-track or something. The live room was an old Fred Astaire dance studio, and the floors were all fucked up and warped. There was no plumbing so if you had to pee you had to go across the street to the 24-hour coffee joint and use their employee bathroom in the basement. I'd love to see what it's like there now.
lol..

check them out now :

http://www.vintageking.com/Whiteroom.cfm

helios console etc..

User avatar
JGriffin
zen recordist
Posts: 6739
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:44 pm
Location: criticizing globally, offending locally
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by JGriffin » Thu Sep 09, 2004 12:52 pm

Geez.

I should post some of the photos from those sessions.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

User avatar
Meriphew
deaf.
Posts: 1759
Joined: Sun May 11, 2003 9:56 am
Location: Seattle USA

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by Meriphew » Thu Sep 09, 2004 1:42 pm

Make sure your guitars are slightly out of tune when recording. Sing in a monotone voice. Toss in a bit of tamborine and mix it a wee bit too loud. VU rules the planet though.

burn
pushin' record
Posts: 267
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 2:00 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada.
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by burn » Thu Sep 09, 2004 2:44 pm

well, I don't want to make a "VU Tribute Band", i'm more searching for that late-60s dirty sound. Mic placement, effects to use, weird mixing tricks, etc, etc...

User avatar
theistheman
pushin' record
Posts: 230
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:44 pm
Location: Edgemont, SD/Chicago, IL

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by theistheman » Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:23 pm

Make sure you hard-pan all the drums to one channel.

awolski
buyin' gear
Posts: 533
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:57 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by awolski » Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:38 pm

Don't forget about distortion! Overload everything you can. Crank up the amps and fill the room with sound. Forget about separation. Try to screw up your gain structure so that you are inducing distortion at every step of the way - mics, pres/console, tape, etc. Yeah!

nestle
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 713
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:11 pm
Location: around somewhere

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by nestle » Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:48 pm

do lots of drugs
seriously, I assisted on a Mo Tucker album once. each of the Velvets came in at seprate times for guest spots (sorta like that Ringo LP where all the beatles played at diffrent times). blew my mind. especailly Sterling Morrison (rip)
he was just sitting on the couch noodling with his guitar and it was beautiful. I mean it was that sound, all in his in his fingers, thats how you get the sound, its the players themselves. I was flipping out, it sounded like pale blue eyes but different, just Sterling noodling.....one of the best studio moments ever-

rob
alignin' 24-trk
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 2:22 am
Location: tarzana
Contact:

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by rob » Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:41 pm

yo nestle,
was it the "i spent a week" record?
that's some cool shite.
i agree that alot of their sound comes from the fingers. as far as production, try a 4 track. an old one.
of course that may be bullshit, take a look a sgt pepper, this is one of those age old questions yo!

nestle
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 713
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:11 pm
Location: around somewhere

Re: The Velvet Underground Sounds

Post by nestle » Fri Sep 10, 2004 8:16 am

Yes it was the "I spent a week" album.
JIm waters was producing, I was the engineer at the studio (toxic shock)
only sucky thing was that myself and the other engineer did not get much credit on the sleve, still was cool.
The bass player and drummer from the violent femmes backed her up-
funny shed be in awe of them when in the control room, they'd come in while she was in the live room over dubbing and be in awe of her=

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 29 guests