Ever tried to sound oldschol analog with digital gear ?

LeSedna

LeSedna

Mat or Mateo
Jan 20, 2008
5,391
2
38
Montpellier, France
Hello,

I wondered if any of you ever tried to sound and record an oldschool way. I listened to some old hypocrisy records today, and even if it has less "wall of sound in your face", sometimes it sounded damn good, with maybe tiny guitars to our current ears but that opened the air for some good drums or round bass.

have you ever tried to record something this way, more organic, and achieved something correct even with full digital equipment ?
 
LeSedna said:
Hello,

I wondered if any of you ever tried to sound and record an oldschool way. I listened to some old hypocrisy records today, and even if it has less "wall of sound in your face", sometimes it sounded damn good, with maybe tiny guitars to our current ears but that opened the air for some good drums or round bass.

have you ever tried to record something this way, more organic, and achieved something correct even with full digital equipment ?
Click to expand...

the default 'sound' of analog is a nice bonus but for me the workflow is the biggest benefit. not staring at a screen really lets you use your ears more and in turn lets you appreciate the nuances of the recording more. I used to have a Tascam 38 which was brilliant until you needed to fix it or buy more tape :(

I've heard some pretty 'warm' recordings done with surprisingly lo-fi digital gear but I think it took a lot more work. I really love the *smell* of old reel-to-reels though.
 
I just recently went this direction. LOVE the sound of bussing out to my outboard gear! I never found any plugins that gave me the satisfaction like slamming a real compressor. The depth and punch was what I really missed!
 
Hey, I had a simple questions for you who have outboard gear, but how is it managed to work on different tracks ? I mean, using 2 instances of a compression with only 1 gear, and, how do you set each one ? Is that a matter of channel ?
 
LeSedna said:
Hey, I had a simple questions for you who have outboard gear, but how is it managed to work on different tracks ? I mean, using 2 instances of a compression with only 1 gear, and, how do you set each one ? Is that a matter of channel ?
Click to expand...

Two ways, not mutually exclusive - record WITH effects (if you need a specific delay for guitar for example) and also by utilizing your mixer efficiently and creatively.

For example, you use mixer busses to combine tracks on playback so as to share an effect. During mixing if you only had a single compressor, you'd probably buss the bass, kick, and maybe snare to a single channel to share the compressor. An EQ might be used on just the guitars or maybe the whole mix. Effects like reverbs and delays are not a big deal as they can easily be shared by using sends/returns on the mixer.

It actually prevents you from getting overwhelmed with endless decisions and one could argue that it adds a lot of 'glue' to the mix.

Imagine 50 years ago when everyone in a a band was simultaneously being recorded to a couple of microphones in a room. You'd hate to be that guy that screwed up the take for everyone.
 
Yeah I guess that must be somewhat a challenge for a plugin boy to come to outboard gears. That still sounds to me strange. Do even big studios do this way ? Or are there topnotch gear able to process multitracks ?
 
I remember I made a thread about this before, something like "Getting analog sound by digital means" or something... too lazy to dig it up. But to sum that thread up for ya, it was basically:

NO, get analog gear if you want analog sound.



That's probably not the answer you hoped for, and believe me, me neither but the general consensus was basically that.
 
Good be great sound like old Hypocrisy with digital plugins, but I think its impossible at the moment. There is no good emulation of old hardware.
 
when I get some free time I wanted to experiment and see if I could actually record something so that it sounds like "Number of the Beast". That cd is so oldschool but still so awesome sounding.
 
lol yeah i mean i know plugins can't replace the hardware but it's def getting better. the waves ssl bundle is amazing, so is the api collection. just mess with them, you might be surprised by the results :]
 
Yeah this vid is cool. We all know you can't replace analog gear, and that for this video of course he was gonna say "ho wow, waves sounds so cool". But that could be a good idea in order to "imitate" (cause it's the word here) the analog gear. By the way, I guess the most difficult thing is to record with an old school sound, simply because of the gear needed.

There are also simple ways to achieve that : just mix the same way. Many old record don't feature quadtracked guitars, often it was one-shot recordings, mastering was quiet etc.
 
Two days ago, we tried in our studio to mix some tracks with analog stuff, and the differece was amazing, more punch (purpleaudio compresor) and more "nice and warm" high frequencies...(brent averill's pre's like the neve's...i don't know the exact model) It's amazing how it works, very natural and very warm...it's sound like crystal...

there are difference, and that man is right, you can get similar sounds with digital stuff...but you can afford it? i mean...can you buy two neve's preamps and a good compresor??or it's better if you buy a waves mercury bundle??


that's the difficult decission...



cheers
 
I tested the V series of waves and i Like it. Can you recomend me some other vintage character plugins?
 
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