Bass

Listening back on a couple of my old recordings recently, and comparing them and other british country acts with USA produced country music.
Main difference I keep hearing (apart from playing quality:roll:) is how big a sound the USA produced stuff is. The UK seems to be able to compete on the rock and pop stuff, but Country, we are nowhere near.
I feel the biggest difference is in how you compress the bass and allow the acoustic to be eq`d totally different,Whats your thoughts gentlemen ?
( not that i`m gonna ask you to listen to loads of uk country stuff, I`m not that cruel ):lol:

man! I'm not sure you can have a sweeping generalization on this, i.e. UK Vs. USA country mixes. I think here in the States, we do a lot more Country recording than in the UK and we've been doing it longer in that too. Maybe that accounts for some of the difference you hear but I'm just guessing.

Yeah, the Nashville "music industry" has been evolving for over a half-century now — because they've grown the market steadily and been able to invest a lot in not only technology but also talented personnel. I'm sure there are country fans in the UK, but not enough to support something on the scale of, say, Abbey Road. On the other hand, when what we called the "British Invasion" was going on, music folk over here were scrambling to catch up and get a piece of that pie. ... For the "industry," it's all about the money.

Bargoedboy,

I would be interested in hearing some mainstream UK country bands. What are the biggest country bands in the UK? How much of a country "scene" does the UK have?

Generally you have 3 types of country band in UK, (this is for the club circuit)
Type 1 is the 60`s band that has a hank marvin wannabe as the lead guitarist so lots of echo and tremolo arm, sound unlike any country you boys know, but they generally play Jim Reeves songs, or if female singer, tammy Wynette stuff.
SwEm_k38HqYType 2 is the showband with a guitarist who has a penchant for Albert lee licks and a tele, but the band will mainly do Line dance stuff, and some Alan Jackson type tunes with harmonies.
wm-NQoCrGuUType 3 is the band who actually do their best to go for feel and have a strong singer, generally a four piece but specialize in the old Merle Haggard/Johnny Cash type of stuff ( I was mainly in type 3)
FVn1NgQzvSQThere is one other type of country in Britain and its Irish, beats hell out of me what the attraction is though, biggest exponent is Daniel O`Donnel, sort of a Cliff Richard nice guy, all the old ladies love him !

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There are some good bands around, but the scene is poor, most venues will book one country band per month, and once they have their twelve they stick to them.
But back to the recording :wink:
sorry if it sounds like sweeping generalisation but when you have heard lots of uk country artists on the local radio station, you will see what I mean.
The last track I recorded with band before we split was one I posted here, and that was the first one where I thought the sound was decent. And that was after taking in CD`s of major country artists to show the sound I wanted.
We used more compression on "Dont call me a fool" than any other song we have recorded, and it was far better for it, (just wish it sorted out the right notes as well :lol:)