There are numerous ways to get what you want. Obviously, most everybody today from a practical and budgetary standpoint all use digital. You are getting a distorted digital sound because proper gain adjustments are currently beyond your scope of understanding. If recording was an easy thing to do, there would be no professional folks doing it. So little information other than it hurts when I do this question, would be helpful such as what kind of equipment are you using, what kind of computer, what kind of software, what kind of preamp or computer audio interface, etc., etc.. Microphone? I didn't mention microphones so microphone also. I can tell you this, utilizing your computer's internal sound device and that $10 multimedia headphone/microphone thingy ain't going to sound professional. Well I can sort of make it sound professional but most can't. But that's also because I have some rather costly software I've invested in and I understand everything about what I'm doing to anything that I'm doing it to. So please, more information is necessary to help you.

Why is my milk sour?
Mx. Remy Ann David

well I can't resist this thread! And I love

Why is my milk sour?

I can understand why you want that sound indeed, the worst sounding music of all time happened between 1998 and 2005. And I fell victim to it too. But at lease I know it. And its still kind of bad sounding today, but more so because of what Remy just noted. But there are other reasons and it become costly and most likely not worth investing in because it won't make a difference to your peers. Why? The entire music industry has gone for shit. It makes no difference to the ear bud crowd. They like that flat and zizzy in your face sound.

But it could be changing too, I do have hope and also see a new crowd coming... Like you!

Q: Why do you need a warm clear sound like 70s 80s?

audiokid, post: 387033 wrote: Q: Why do you need a warm clear sound like 70s 80s?

Gee, audiokid. You should know that! It ALWAYS sounds better starting with a clear warm sound to squash to death into earbud-ready tizzy modern MP3s!

What REALLY gets me is people listening on their tiny-tinny little phone speakers...like THAT is enjoyable, somehow!

Seriously, though, it probably IS good to actually get that in the first place...if nothing other than to archive it, and for knowledgeable peoples' enjoyment...just in case people come to their senses again one day, and want to actually hear good-SOUNDING music. But, that may take awhile. We'll probably have to get the rest of the way through the Temples of Syrinx, first.

Kapt.Krunch

amen to that!

My kids show hope. they are pre teens. They love clear sounding music but I'm thinking it could be because they are exposed to our studio. But I'm sensing a new generation that loves real sounds and real instruments. I hope this is more than my kids.

I was having a similar conversation with a producer I work with on Friday.

Music appreciation is gone. This was the topic of our musings.

I'm not that old (32) but I'm still old enough to remember back to when advancements in the sonics of recorded music was something to look forward to. The quality of the playback medium used to be a real part of the experience and dynamics were rife! People used to take pride in their stereo hi-fi's for music ENJOYMENT at home. Sad thing is, nowadays you can buy multi-million dollar high end home audio systems that reproduce those same fizzy, squashed mp3's while it's owner jerks off with snake oil.

Pardon the lurid image.

Anyway, music is now disposable. Good work, planet earth! You just can't stop destroying all that is sacred, can't you?

Audio engineering is now trivial. Thank you, Waves L2, radio marketers and ignorant people who think louder is better!

Bring back Vinyl! Bring back tape! Bring back the wax cylinder!

Sorry for derailing the original topic.

I love sour milk!

Cheers :)

i think was pro tools the problem,, or i think also so much reverb on music the music sound so tigh

not like an 80s radio

somebody can talk bout it

akon lars "oh cool demo" - YouTube

theres an example of one of my daw recordings using amplitube tryng to make it the more warm possible i know

There's an awful lot of processing on that guitar. Try using less. Just record the guitar through the amp. There's a lot of stuff competing over the same frequencies. You need to find a sonic "space" for each instrument. Work on some panning. Spend some time working on EQ. Just practice. Mixing takes time to learn. EQ takes time to learn. Panning takes time to learn. Don't expect things to come together on the first shot. Practice. Practice playing with a metronome. Rhythm needs work and it's much better to just get it right when you track than to try and fix it with beat detective. Practice. It's not Pro Tools, it's inexperience. Practice.

To make it sound more like the 1970s/80s, you have to think about what they had to use back then. It was nearly all rudimentary and rather simple in comparison to our software world we live in today. So the only way to get that sound is to record that way to begin with. That means really simple use of some dynamic strange processing and a little reverb maybe some echo and that's it. That and the use of plenty of inexpensive SHURE SM57/58 on most everything except for maybe the vocal. No specialized plug-ins. Plate reverb emulations. Because all of the other gobbledygook you are using is just gobbledygook that will not make it sound like something from the 1970s or 80s. Of course crap microphone preamp stone help that sound any either. And you're probably not interested in dropping $2500-5000 on some decent microphone preamps? So even though you can make your VW bug look like an Indianapolis race car, it won't be and it's not going to win anything. And you wonder why because it looks like it should. So if you don't have the equipment and then the engineering expertise to back it up, it's good to sound like all other 21st-century crap. Maybe you should purchase an analog mixer and an old 8-track analog recorder? Then you won't have any choice but to turn out stuff that sounds like it came from the 1970s/1980s. But that's not like playing computer games so it's not any fun since you have to plug things in and unplug them and know what you're plugging away at.

I do stuff that sound like a 1970s and 80s because that's the equipment I use.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Another thing they did in the 70's and 80's was LINEAR recording. They played the song all the way through with most of the instruments playing together. That gave the songs an organic feel that is missing in today's cut and paste multiple overdub world. They rolled tape and the band played.

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 [[url=http://[/URL]="http://rocksuresoun…"]sensible gain staging[/]="http://rocksuresoun…"]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.

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 converters 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:
http://recording.org/hybrid-recording-forums/52660-print-vs-export.html

I hate to bring this up on this topic but, this is about the only thing that I really like PT 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?

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

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!