Mixing Vintage Nashville Country In A Modern Studio

The change in reverb in the vocals over the years is huge. from big rooms to tight

my assessment, confirmed by these songs, is that overdone & badly done artificial reverb, circa 1949-1969, made those records sound WORSE than the eras before and after…!

I hope one day you'll revisit Lincoln to make a video about recording Death Metal in a 1960s studio 😃

all i hear is aliasing and seperation. sorry but that's not doing it for me

Thanks so much for creating and posting this video. I do have some technical questions--The vocal mic was said to be a 44, which I took to mean an RCA 44bx, but in the video, an AEA 44 R44C is shown. Was the AEA mic actually used? It is an active mic, I believe, that does not need a preamp, although it would usually be fed through a AEA preamp that has high gain--85 db. Was that done for the recording, so the signal chain is mic --> AEA-->computer interface-->software chain? If so, could you tell us which preamp was used, and the settings for it?

Thank you for allowing Daryl to sing for you. You make him sound super!

the modern equipment dont really capture what the tubes did even Elvis his produces shared this ... old great was the best still is

you can see why elvis knocked them of their purge although having shared that today all is autotune and crap

As someone who listens to a lot of old American music as part of my job, all of the mixes are shockingly authentic. The ballad might be might be a touch overdone, but the shuffle is dead on--especially the Bradley-like touches. I get that a real "folkways" copy wouldn't have worked for the project brief, but the gospel song homage is also wonderful. Kudos to the musicians as well. The only thing that seems out of place is the steel playing which, pedals or not, is a little bit too mid-career-Ralph-Mooneyish, a style that wouldn't have been heard until well into the 60's. Wonderful video!

I would love to see this same style video for 90s country.

The only issues I'm hearing is that there's too much reverb. It somehow sounds more like it's inside a big empty warehouse instead of coming straight off the vinyl. I don't think they were using plates in the '40s, either.

"..it's actually really easy to get to get a vintage sound because effectively what you do you take really old gear, try to make it sound as clean as you possibly can, and it's failure to do so is what gives you the vintage sound" best advice for getting a old sound I've ever heard

Nice sound. Good work. Thanks for the video. I lern a lot .

Do I spy a pre-mkII WA-12 500 series?

Amazing Video, i learned a lot. THX!

Truth is and I hate to break it to all the equipment snobs. Elvis, buddy holly, Dion, Ritchie Valens, Rosie Hamlin, little Richard, Fats Domino, Etc. Would have sounded like them selves with today's tech. I personally think people think to hard about this. I know all that legendary equipment sounded beautiful but so does modern equipment. If Elvis & his band would have had the same equipment today they would have sounded like Elvis & his band. More clear even. The equipment didn't make these artist. It was their performance that made these legendary records. There is plenty of hipsters with vintage equipment that have it all but their songs still sound modern. Think about it.

Love to see this guy do it the other way. Old vintage gear and try to get the most cleanest seperated modern sound he can...just for fun....only using 8 tracks or something lots of creative bouncing ect.

Theres a bit of a bruce sprinsteen river pinch in there . Ha i love it

I like your approach to the mix and production. Some 50's country had remarkable frequency range and others not so much. You made a good choice to choose the sounds that suited your project.
I'm an obsessed fan of country music from the 40s through the 60's, and a jerk about it. I felt the pedal steel player threw in some post 50's feel now and then. Not at the head, that was great. I really liked his playing. However, I think it would raise my eyebrows though if I was watching a movie based in the mid to late 50's. The male singer's phrasing might be a little off, kind of hard to say from the clips. I heard some Carl Butler who was big in the early 60's, which is really close. Maybe a little bit of Hawkshaw or Cowboy Copas which totally works. Am I hearing Porter Wagoner?
When I think of the 50's male singers first of mind is Hank, Little Jimmy, Webb, Early Ray Price, Lefty Frizzell, Tommy Collins, Faron Young, Starday George Jones, Carl Smith, etc. A little bit different sound. You do hear voices like his back in the 50s though... so I'm really just being a jerk. I should probably delete my criticism

Very interesting.Thanks.

Mixing the box is shit, pushed by people trying to sell stuff 🥺 it’s like making movies on an IPhone 🤔 you can do it but why❓

A craftsman indeed, and as I switched to Studio One professional, nice to see a pro using it as well.

sounds like a music played through megaphone in empty shopping mall, not really vintage

Absolutely brilliant video and thanks for putting me on to studio one instead of the laborious cubase i was using before . Able to concentrate on recording and mixing now . Thanks.

That's a pretty sweet desk...

Wow! Studio One Daw! That's what I use along with Pro Tools 2019.6...I use Studio One Pro. 4.5! Awesome! I thought most studios used Pro Tools and Logic. I have the perfect DAWS for me and am in good company with the pros!

This is one of the best "how to" videos I've seen on mixing. Period. I thought Lincoln's earlier video on recording "vintage style" was excellent, but this one is even better. I've now watched it several times, and learned something new every time. SOS, please keep them coming.

And yet another super interesting video featuring Lincoln. I could listen to this guy all day.

Cripes there's some compression on that guys... i can hear the liquid in his throat, eww! Thumbs-up anyway though 'cos SOS ;)

Really great insight into simple technique and simple processing applied expertly. Wonderful!

That first sentence holds so much truth

Certainly nailed the instrumental arrangement from the period on "Staying Out Tonight." I listen to a lot of this music. IMO, the vocalist's articulations or perhaps just timber sounds a bit more Texas than Nashville, but that's on a really picky level. Really awesome work.

studio one too cool

This is awesome. Vintage Country. Love it and thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Love Studio One and can't for the life of me figure out why it's not more popular. I can't stand looking at Pro Tools, Logic has really weird quirks, FL and Ableton are great for "producers" but not so quick for mixing engineers...Studio One's got it all--especially after 4.0.

👀 Devil Loc on the mix bus? 👍

Brilliant! Absolutely fascinating!!!

Wow !! Why Don't they sell this stuff? Country has gone to shit and authentic eras of country are awesome.

This was really, really cool. Well done.

Good stuff...excellent daw choice.

This guy reminds me of an actor from Underworld.

If this proves anything to me it is that anyone who talks about how much better analog gear and tape is in the mix process for the sound they lent to older records is just plain wrong. Put the best gear you can afford that captures the sound how you want to hear it in the end in front of great players on a well written song and the rest takes care of itself as long as you can properly hear what your mixing.

Anyone else hearing Warren Huart's voice as they read the last bit? I did lol

man, that sounds like Ranger Doug.

wonderful & fascinating

Brilliant!!! Learnt a lot here....Thank you