Turtlerock Forum

The Tasmanian wrote:I do the tea towel thing - with old thin tea towels, but I only lay the towel over the edge of the skin, and pull the remaining ends of the towel through the lugs to hold it in place. Therefore the drum still has some life, and the dampening only takes the ring out a little bit. Sometimes I add a gel or two as well.
The towel over the whole drum kills too much of the tone.

The Tasmanian wrote:If you use teatowels - they must be 1970's or your pissing into the wind

ChrisW wrote:Only chai towels for me.

Linear wrote:Being a big fan of Mad Men, I often watch that show and try and work out what it is that makes it look so 60's.

And the short answer is 'everything'.

This specifically includes the sets, the actors attitudes, their clothes, haircuts, the language used, the context, the filming angles and colour saturation, subject matter - in other words, everything.

I've been asked a few times to do a 70's sounding recording, or even just get drum sounds like that. Best way is to get a 70's drum kit, record it with 70's microphones to a 70's recorder and mix it though a 70's desk using 70's outboard with a 70's attitude.

Yes that is kinda the smartass answer, but honestly I think that it is the everything.

My tips if you don't have this array of 70's paraphanalia?

- dead sounding room
- close mic everything
- maybe overdub hats (weird i know)
- don't make it loud
- minimise crash hits or even get your drummer to play straight rhythms without fills
- don't be afraid to get a bit disco with the hats
- stick a teatowel on the snare, make it dead
- dynamics on the overheads (441's work best)
- gate stuff that's long
- stick lots of pillows/towels in the kick drum
- get a B15 and give it lot of midrange and no subs
- get everyone to listen to some 70's classics to get into that sort of zone. bill withers, eagles, fleetwood mac, pink floyd, zeppelin, etc before they do a take.

I really think that out of everything, the actual drum kit would make a smallish difference.

Chris