how i get an analog 70s 80s sound?

[rocksure]

I love the sound of the 70's. I hate the way that everyone these days is listening to music on terrible little speakers in phones, laptops etc. If I play videos from youtube on my studio monitors, 90% of them either have distortion that drives me nuts, or that horrible "phasey sound of poorly bit-rated mp3's.
When I make music I aim for the more analog sound of yesteryear...even though I am recording to digital. Now granted, I often still mix to 1/4" tape to get that last little bit of tape sound, but even if I don't, it still works.
Thinking and playing like a 70's musician is a good start, recording with sensible gain staging is essential, and then I like to sum my mixes OTB through analog satges.
I am finishing off the final stages of an album of my own 70's influenced rock music at the moment, and getting lots of questions from people asking about how I get that "authentic" sound (to use someone's terminology they used to describe it recently).
I mic real instruments, (amps, Leslies, etc) and try for good old fashioned rock tones, use real backing singers who know how to emulate the soulish sounds of Pink Floyd or Joe Cocker "chick" BVs. I try to imagine recording in those bygone days, and mix like I think an engineer then might have done. All these things make up the formula for getting a vintage sound, BUT overall the most important thing is don't squash every last inch of dynamics out of things if you want "THAT SOUND". Let things breathe a bit, that's the main secret I believe.

[bigtree]

Tony,

absolutely with you. I've been reminiscing over the 70's all day.

Check this out. I'm doing cartwheels right now. You have got to try this, ( thank you Boswell for suggesting this) . If and when your tape deck dies, there is hope!
I'm sure the reason why we love summing OTB and, printing to tape is largely because of the SRC crap that happens during a SRC bounce or export.
They never turns out the way we hear it, right? I'm using a second converter now and printing my master to a second DAW. My system is pretty sweet, I use 2 versions of Sequoia 12 now but I'm certain Reaper would Rock for the master DAW on a PC or Mac, laptop or any stable computer for that matter! I suggest Reaper because it will run on most anything and it is stable and very clean sounding and cheap! If you get your hands on something like a Lavry AD11, this is choice because it is USB , you don't need an interface and the convertors are stellar. Choice for DIY Mastering. However, any good converter will work better than bouncing .

Print to a second DAW and you are going to be a happy guy. My sound is way better now. No more bouncing.

For more on this topic, I've started a thread here:
Print vs Export

[hueseph]

I hate to bring this up on this topic but, this is about the only thing that I really like Pro Tools for. Bouncing is LIVE so you hear everything. It's also an option in many DAWs(Sonar has this and I'm greatful) but not all. I need real time bounce specifically for this reason. I don't like what quick bounce can do to your mix. It's so unpredictable. Unreliable really. I treat a mix down the same way I would using tape. That is, I listen. If there's a glitch how will I know if it was done in quick bounce. This is all about listening after all. Why would you skip a listening stage?

[rocksure]

Just did something I haven't done in ages. I sat outside in the autumn sun with a coffee and the speakers blaring out Deep Purple......you know the stuff "Highway Star", "Child in Time" etc. Reminded me of growing up in the 70's. I started playing guitar in '79 and that was the kind of stuff I listened to then........sitting outside with the speakers blaring. Reminiscing...man those were the days!

So.......it's little wonder I am still emulating that sound to a point when I record and mix. Except my overall mixes end up louder than those old records. My songs are mastered to just -0.3 dBFS, but they still breathe.


I NEVER bounce mixes. I always record them back through analog. If I ever bounce anything, ( like individual tracks etc) I always do it in "real time".


Ah music......it's 2012...whatever happened to music? We have all this technology that means music should sound better than ever, but the quality of the songs and the quality of the systems people are generally listening on is generally going downhill not upward

[bigtree]

oh man, so true! You can't even find stereo's here anymore. Remember when there were stores everwhere that sold great stereo's!? Everyone was happy, great songs, the economy was good. Parties were full of music and it was happening. Now... lame ass ear buds, cell phones and facebook. What a bunch of BS.

Now... the radio sounds like club music. big kick drum and mush. No guitars, erk... But I don't listen to country so maybe I should more. Not complaining really, times change. I am very happy over my sound though. Sounds like we produce a good sound. very cool to hear more about your system. I'm preparing a mixing contest for us. Hopefully I get some fun prizes. maybe you will participate and win!

Stay tuned and enjoy that coffee on the porch!