SOUND ON SOUND

[Steve Watts]

I had a very exciting day out recently being let loose on a pucker vintage Hammond.
I miked the Leslie using two mics at the top and one at the bottom and generally the results are very pleasing indeed. However on one of the songs I have not given the Hammond enough welly and it sounds a bit feeble.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how I should best add a bit of grit. Whatever I do its going to be wrong because of course all the distortion comes from the amp BEFORE being whirled around by the horns and baffle, so adding it afterwards is never right.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
mtia
Steve

[Hugh Robjohns]

If it's a voicing issue then the best option would be to re-record it, but if that's not practical, then ditch the track and use a Hammond emulation. Most are so good these days that they are hard to spot as fake in the context of a mix.

H

[Dave B]

You lucky devil! (where's the 'jealous' emoji?) :)

If you've recorded it with the Leslie, then I'm not sure what more you can do other than the usual eq tricks. Possibly you can try a dynamic eq (I like TDR's Nova EQ) to give more oomph in the lower ranges. There is also things like SoundRadix's Surfer EQ which track the pitch to let you have a moving eq to keep up with the playing.

I'm guessing that overdrive / distortion is out for the reasons you mention. Hugh is a bit of a Hammond buff - he might have some useful thoughts.

Being slightly sacrilegious, but I do wonder if a good mod for a Leslie is to fit a DI output in the amp so that it might be possible to record a 'clean' version before it gets all swirly. I often record my (modern digital) Hammond dry and add Leslie in the DAW so that I can tweak the automation and insert anything else needed. I'm guessing that a real, mic'd up Leslie will sound nicer, but it's a practical solution for me.

Edit : that's the second time today I've posted a reply and Hugh has posted whilst I'm typing. I must either type faster, or get hold of Hugh's time machine :D

[Steve Watts]

If it's a voicing issue then the best option would be to re-record it, but if that's not practical, then ditch the track and use a Hammond emulation. Most are so good these days that they are hard to spot as fake in the context of a mix.

H

Thanks Hugh. Unfortunately I only had the one day available and the reason for using the real Hammond was that I wasn't happy with the sound of the clone I had already recorded. Also I need the sound to be as close to the sound of the real Hammond on the other 10 songs. Can you think of any techniques I could use in post? Thanks again :thumbup:

[Dave B]

Steve, which clone are you using?

I actually did a shoot out of various implementations and found that the results, whilst sounding good in a mix, were not equal. If you let us know where you are, there may be forumees who can help out with something different which may suit your needs.

[bgood]

Jimmy Smith loved having a DI as a separate track to fiddle with during mix... I never did this with any of my real hammonds but started doing with my Hammond digital years ago and loved it... I do it now with the virtual b3 (gsi’s Vb4)... I’ve been really impressed with the sonicouture virtual b3 of late, but, haven’t researched whether it has a DI option...

All that being said, dynamic eq or maybe a low shelf plus a dynamic or muktuband eq afterward in series?

[Steve Watts]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I've elected to reamp all the individual tracks (2 top 1 bottom) to just add a tiny bit of grit. It seems to have done the trick... well near enough for this project anyway :)

[Matt Houghton]

I'm late to this one. Glad you got it sorted. I might have looked to use parallel distortion/exciter to add energy in a specific frequency range. Might help get you that last tiny percentage from your current sound?

[Dave B]

Another option might be a multi-band distortion like FabFilter's Saturn. That's really good at beefing things up without a crunchy mess in the mids/highs.

[The Red Bladder]

Feed the recorded tracks through a couple of valve amps and mic them up in the usual way - or just do one at a time.

Then mix and match the re-recorded tracks with the originals.

[Steve Watts]

Thanks guys - I just picked up some of the late replies!.... 3 years on!
All good stuff and should I ever get the opportunity to use the Hammond again I'll take it all on board (no pun intended :lol: )