80s Hard Rock & Metal sound

[Dave1978]

I've listened to a lot of oldschool stuff lately and I love the idea of producing a 80s style EP just for fun, but it's kind of a challenge for me to deal with big drums, fat reverb, room on guitars and stuff like that.

My references are Alice Cooper - Raise Your Fist And Yell, Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin, Scorpions - Love At First Sting, Dokken - Under Lock And Key, Firehouse - Hold Your Fire and so on...

What equipment and mixing techniques would you use for recreating that kind of style and my biggest problem - how can I avoid killing the mix with all the reverb?

 

[JonWormwood]

Marshalls, 75's, and room mics

 

[Bay Studio]

I think the ultimate 80s sound is RATT - Dancing Undercover. Like wormwood said, Marshall head, Marshall cab, no tube screamer (for what i can hear), 57 a few inches away from the grill-mesh, room mic.

If you want to work on some 80s drum sound and you have slate samples, the Black Kit is a starting point. (Mind the kick)

From what i know back in the day they had huge live rooms where they had everything set up from drums to amps, so its the same room basically. Try working with one reverb on the drums and guitars, but use it with caution. For eg.: Use more reverb on the hard hitting things, like snare, toms, (dont forget the room, probably the most important thing when doing 80s stuff). Even try gating the snare with a plate reverb on it.

Just use your ears and keep listening to great 80s records (Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls, Ratt (80s, early 90s), Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet)

 

[MetalMiller]

Nonlin reverb, fat samples:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/929252/HairMetalTest.mp3

 

[kaomao]

Nonlin reverb, fat samples:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/929252/HairMetalTest.mp3

Guitars are way too modern and mean.....
80's tones were less mean

 

[MetalMiller]

Haha, yeah you´re right.... It was just a test creating a 80´s snare like this:

 

[Bay Studio]

Check this. Listen to how low the guitars are and how much the drums and bass do most of the job. Splatty snare, soft punchy kicks, big boomy toms, thin but attacky guitars, present bass, weird but cool reverbs goin on on the 12 string guitars in the intro, and vocals.