'Love Me Do'-style harmonica production (on a BR1600CD)

[Super 8]

OK, as some of you may know from my recent posts on here, I've just invested in a Boss BR1600. In the midst of all my sonic experimenting (read: 'farting about'!) a new song seems to have presented itself to me so, in light of this, I have decided to use said song idea for my first full production attempt on this BR1600.

I'm thinking that the intro to the song (working title: 'The Key') might benefit from some harmonica having no doubt been subconsciously influenced by Lennon's harmonica part recently on numerous repeat plays of The Beatles' 'Love Me Do'. (NB: I've not pinched his riff or anything - it's more that 'feel' and production style I'm after).

Any ideas as to how I might go about achieving this? So far I've tried recording said harmonica part:

- Flat/dry' (ie with no FX)
- Processed with BR VOCAL Presets: P001; P002 & P040

... but I'm not getting the right sort of sound. Is it possible to put a harmonica through, for example, some light overdrive when using a VOCAL input channel (ie: mic via XLR input) and, if so, how? Any thoughts/ideas as to how to achieve a decent harmonica sound here would much appreciated as it's the intro riff to the song but, as it currently stands, it sounds a bit lame!

Here's my reference by the way namely 'LOve Me Do' by The Fab Four (learn from the masters eh?!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed_2W_KO_zI

[bruno]

Now I'm guessing, the Beatles probably used a guitar amp for this. If you plug you mike into channel 1 and dial up an AC30 (and these patches normally have a distortion pedal that you can switch on). I would change the speaker to a smaller cab (edit the patch, scroll to the speaker or amp and edit, you'll find speaker as one of the parameters - seems to be always set to organic, but set this to other values - and it does sound better to my ears) .

Hope that helps.
B

[Super 8]

Great stuff, I shall go try that out RIGHT away amigo. Thank you Sir George 'Bruno' Martin! I knew there had to be a way to access those guitar amps using a microphone, I just couldn't work out how. Hmm? XLR though?? OK, I'll try an SM57 terminating in a 1/4" plug methinks. CHEERS!

("YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!")

[64Guitars]

I knew there had to be a way to access those guitar amps using a microphone, I just couldn't work out how.

The BR-1600 has several patch banks available - GUITAR, MIC, SIMUL, MULTI-CHANNEL, and STEREO. When you select an input source (GUITAR/BASS, VOCAL, SIMUL, MULTI-TRACK or STEREO TRACKS), the BR automatically switches to the corresponding patch bank. However, this is merely for your convenience. It doesn't mean that you have to use that patch bank. If you want to use a different patch bank without changing the input selection, simply move the cursor to the Patch Bank field of the display and turn the TIME/VALUE wheel to select the desired patch bank.

So, to use a guitar amp model with a microphone, simply plug a mic in to any mic input (doesn't matter if it's XLR or 1/4"), select the VOCAL input, press the COSM EFFECTS button, move the cursor to the patch bank field (MIC) and turn the TIME/VALUE wheel to change it to GUITAR. Now move the cursor back up to the patch number and select the desired guitar patch.

[Farrell Jackson]

Don't lose sight that Love Me Do was recorded with analog equipment. Very good analog equipment but old technology ie warmer sound and not as bright. The BR1600 is all digital and captures more of the extended high end of sounds. The high end of a harmonica can be very harsh, thin, and phasey sounding. Also some of that distortion on John's harmonica is coming from his throat technique but you can simulate that somewhat as Bruno has suggested by going through an amp. After I record my harmonica tracks I always pull the highs down and bump up the low midrange to get a more pleasant sound and use lot's of reverb. I hope this helps or at least gives you some things to try. Good luck with it!

Farrell

[64Guitars]

Bluesberry, Greeny and I covered "Love Me Do" a few years ago. Perhaps Bluesberry can recall how he recorded the harmonica track. I suspect it's recorded clean with maybe a bit of reverb. As Farrell said, much of the sound quality comes from the harmonica technique rather than the recording gear.

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=8567.0

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I remember one problem we had with the harmonica solo is that Lennon used a chromatic harmonica which can play any note, while Bluesberry only had blues harmonicas available which are limited to certain notes. So some of the notes in the harmonica solo simply couldn't be played on a blues harmonica. We got around it with a bit of improvisation on Bluesberry's part and a second track I recorded using the harmonica patch on my Yamaha keyboard. I then mixed both tracks together.

[Super 8]

You cats are AWESOME (and what a great 'Love Me Do'  cover by the way!) OK, armed with some great info there. I'm going back in ..... CHEERS!

[bruno]

I knew there had to be a way to access those guitar amps using a microphone, I just couldn't work out how.

The BR-1600 has several patch banks available - GUITAR, MIC, SIMUL, MULTI-CHANNEL, and STEREO. When you select an input source (GUITAR/BASS, VOCAL, SIMUL, MULTI-TRACK or STEREO TRACKS), the BR automatically switches to the corresponding patch bank. However, this is merely for your convenience. It doesn't mean that you have to use that patch bank. If you want to use a different patch bank without changing the input selection, simply move the cursor to the Patch Bank field of the display and turn the TIME/VALUE wheel to select the desired patch bank.

So, to use a guitar amp model with a microphone, simply plug a mic in to any mic input (doesn't matter if it's XLR or 1/4"), select the VOCAL input, press the COSM EFFECTS button, move the cursor to the patch bank field (MIC) and turn the TIME/VALUE wheel to change it to GUITAR. Now move the cursor back up to the patch number and select the desired guitar patch.

We'll you learn something new every day -) Thanks 64

[Super 8]

Hey 64Guitars, thanks for the above diagram - that's great to know! OK, next question ... where's the 'Track Solo' button would you know? I've got my head around muting tracks but being able to solo a track (very helpful!) still eludes me at time of writing. My current workaround (which is a rubbish one!) is to mute EVERY track (other than the one I want to isolate of course) which is not ideal!

PS: In case you were interested ... Regarding my harmonica part for my new song, after much time spent showcasing different sounds/processing this evening, I've ended up opting for the following treatment:

HARMONICA > MIC > VOCAL INPUT 2 (XLR) > GUITAR PRESET: P016 'Early 60s UK' (I wish I'd found it earlier - the clues in the name as it were!)

I've taken a leaf out of Farrell's book (cheers F!) by backing off some highs & adding a slight boost to the mid range. I still don't think it sounds as good as the tone you guys captured on your excellent 'Love Me Do' cover but both Lennon & Bluesberry were/are better harp players than I (plus my harmonica is a real cheopo model!) That said, the song appears to be coming together alright. The harmonica sound is certainly better than what I had to begin with prior to asking for advice here & I'm fairly pleased with how it's turned out. Thanks to everyone who chipped in their 2 cents - much appreciated folks! I will endeavour to post this song of mine once I have worked out how best to use the Mastering facility on this unit (that's my next challenge!)

In fact, I already have one question about that side of things already:

Does the Mastering Suite on the BR1600 boost your stereo master up to Industry Standard 'normalised' levels OR do you need to bounce>master your mix first (I'll probably just go with a preset at this stage) and then 'Normalise'? Arrgggh! SO many q's I know ....        

[bruno]

You need to first bounce the track to 9/10 stereo track, and then master the track. Mastering is quite easy and very powerful on the 1600 imo.