I have been wondering if it is possible to make a recording sound like (as an example) 60's Pink Floyd recordings. Piper At The Gates of Dawn etc.
The records back then sound so much more natural, unrefined and raw compared to music today which sounds more "processed" and "manufactured" (i'm not talking about actual musical quality, but how it physically sounds).
Could you simply run a track through an old tape player a few times to induce some of the irregularities that you would normally get from a tape? Is it the equipment used?
Any ideas?
Thanks!
I have no ideas but I can tell you that the ideal for mixing and mastring has changed a lot since the 60's. Perhaps you should start there and find out what they aimed for back then, what they tried to achive in the final production.
Most pro sequencers have an effect that will mimic tape recording for a mix. Bouncing on a tape used to be more about multi-tracking - when you only had a 4 track you had to bounce/continually reduce a 4 track mix to 1 track to free up the others for recording. This may have added some tape 'warmth' but it also resulted in a lot of lost information...
It used to be common practice to let the mix go slightly into 'the red' as analogue desk (rather like a valve amp) isn't unpleasant. You can't do this on a digital console as digital distortion is horrid. However the sort of sound you are after is also likely to be due not just to reel to reel recording as the desk and outboard gear and mic'ing along with changes in recording practice. Old Floyd would have been recorded through a big analogue desk using expensive high quality valve and analogue eq's, compressers and so on. The use of analogue consoles and outboard has, to some extent, come back in to fashion - but the kit tends to be very expensive and high end. Something like a Neve Compressor will set you back 1500UK Sterling and up. If you wanted to get a big analogue console then its really a case of sell the house time...
In some instances the way instruments are arranged and mic'ed in a studio have changed over the years. We now tend to mic each instrument separately on a single channel and try to avoid crosstalk/spill etc. We also now tend to record each part separately and often with only the recorded instrument and player or vocalist present. The fashion for a particular mic type (and even pattern) has changed over the years although ribbon and tube mics are once again becoming fashionable.
Rendering used to be very much an art - the person who cut the acetate of the recording had a lot of control over the dynamics of the piece and could really affect the mix in quite subtle ways.
If you wan to check out the actual detail on what Floyd did in the studio then Sound on Sound run a monthly series on how great records were produced and mixed. Sure they much have done Floyd by now...
Cheers,
Tony
Awesome thanks tonymiro for that! We can't really afford anything like what you mentioned but it has certainly made things clearer.
I will check out sound on sound as well.
Thanks!
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