Retro/Vinyl/Cassette (Digital Recording)

  • Thread starter Thread starter DrD
  • Start date Start date
D

DrD

New member
There's something about some basement recordings that I absolutely love. The production is most likely terrible, but you get to hear, for the most part, the heart and soul of what a band is going for. Growing up in the digital era, most of the music coming out sounds very bright, saturated, and for a lack of a better word, over-produced. I need a way to cut that crap out of the picture, get a very organic, retro kind of tone while using pro-tools.
Any Suggestions?
 
DrD said:
There's something about some basement recordings that I absolutely love. The production is most likely terrible, but you get to hear, for the most part, the heart and soul of what a band is going for. Growing up in the digital era, most of the music coming out sounds very bright, saturated, and for a lack of a better word, over-produced. I need a way to cut that crap out of the picture, get a very organic, retro kind of tone while using pro-tools.
Any Suggestions?
Click to expand...

Check out Izotopes "Vinyl" plug-in. It's free, and has an RTAS version.
 
Haven't heard of that plugin yet. I had a highly recommended analog plugin i tried using, didnt give the sound i was looking for whatsoever. I'll check that one out though and let you know what i think.
 
DrD said:
Haven't heard of that plugin yet. I had a highly recommended analog plugin i tried using, didnt give the sound i was looking for whatsoever. I'll check that one out though and let you know what i think.
Click to expand...

Cool.

Welcome to HR :)
 
Wow. Just went over my buddies house that has the Isotope Suite, threw down a pre-mastered track of a song i did a few months back, and i dug the hell out of it! Pretty damn close to what I was looking for, it seemed like it just had a giant bass cut, and not alot to really mess around with for eq. I think in a track by track basis, this will be perfect.
 
DrD said:
Wow. Just went over my buddies house that has the Isotope Suite, threw down a pre-mastered track of a song i did a few months back, and i dug the hell out of it! Pretty damn close to what I was looking for, it seemed like it just had a giant bass cut, and not alot to really mess around with for eq. I think in a track by track basis, this will be perfect.
Click to expand...

Just watch out for noise buildup :)
 
You could also try tracking a few things (vocals, guitar, etc.) to cassette before moving to PT if you really want to get dirty.
 
But how is deliberately reducing the fidelity / quality of your recordings going to allow your listeners to get to the heart and soul of what you're doing?

You enjoy the sort of music you describe because the fidelity level of the recordings tells you something... they were poor, they had no gear, they didn't really know what they were doing... all this comes together to produce this particular sound.

You seem to be on a different path, whereby you want to deliberate achieve a particular sound artificially, because you think the sound is cool, not because it's a necessary by product of your gear and experience.

Seems everyone wants to be "lo-fi" these days.

I have no problems with the aesthetic, if that's what you want to do, I'll just point out that you're "emulating" lo-fi, not "being" lo-fi.

Good luck...
 
Armistice said:
But how is deliberately reducing the fidelity / quality of your recordings going to allow your listeners to get to the heart and soul of what you're doing?

You enjoy the sort of music you describe because the fidelity level of the recordings tells you something... they were poor, they had no gear, they didn't really know what they were doing... all this comes together to produce this particular sound.

You seem to be on a different path, whereby you want to deliberate achieve a particular sound artificially, because you think the sound is cool, not because it's a necessary by product of your gear and experience.

Seems everyone wants to be "lo-fi" these days.

I have no problems with the aesthetic, if that's what you want to do, I'll just point out that you're "emulating" lo-fi, not "being" lo-fi.

Good luck...
Click to expand...

I don't get it myself either.I started out on a Tascam 4 track cassette and honestly made some crappy sounding recordings.When i listen back to them i can almost cringe at the quality i was getting.

Lack of experience being the main factor but from there i progressed to a portable Korg digital 8 track recorder and it was a big step up with more features and better overall recording quality.

A little over a year ago i starting out recording onto the pc.I'm amazed at how far the home recorder can go and how many tools are available to achieve a much better product .

I'm no pro and still have tons to learn.My recordings are still far from commercial level but i think with enough time i'll be able to get a little closer.

Why anyone would want to throw all that away just to get a crappy recording is beyond me.Just buy an old 4 track cassete recorder off ebay and do the "vintage"sound the real way.Using software to "crap out " a recording is just lame in my opinion.

Use a mixer and just hook it up to old cassete deck or some kind of digital recorder and leave it at that.Avoid any multi tracking of any kind.Just that raw live sound.There's many ways to make an underproduced sounding recording.
 
My last little project was a mono one & I tracked into my Yamaha MT100 - when I ran out of tracks I copied the 4 into my computer & did the additional tracks through the 4 track preamps - all tracks using an old but good dynamic mic - through the 4 track mixer & into the computer.
Sounds nice enough to me & not a false sound via a plug in - I tried the isotops stuff & whilst it's OK it sounds like what it is.
 
I used the Massey Tape Head free plugin all the time back when I made Pro Tools home recordings (not that that was long ago).

I'm sure you'll love it. Check it out... it's free!
 
I'm lo-fi through ignorance !

Armistice said:
But how is deliberately reducing the fidelity / quality of your recordings going to allow your listeners to get to the heart and soul of what you're doing?

You enjoy the sort of music you describe because the fidelity level of the recordings tells you something... they were poor, they had no gear, they didn't really know what they were doing... all this comes together to produce this particular sound.

You seem to be on a different path, whereby you want to deliberate achieve a particular sound artificially, because you think the sound is cool, not because it's a necessary by product of your gear and experience.

Seems everyone wants to be "lo-fi" these days.

I have no problems with the aesthetic, if that's what you want to do, I'll just point out that you're "emulating" lo-fi, not "being" lo-fi.

Good luck...
Click to expand...
In the days when there was no internet (:eek:), it was often through offhand, throwaway remarks in interviews or books or magazines that one came across info on recording techniques. I remember Keith Richards once remarking that the guitars and drums of "Street fighting man" were recorded on a cassette then transfered and the rest of the song recorded with sitars, pianos, bass, various noises and vocals. Now, I love that song to the max, all subsequent live versions I've heard just pale in comparison. And when I got into recording, on one song I thought I'd track some overdriven acoustics onto cassette then transfer them to my............cassette portastudio :D. But it was to try a new/different technique and see what it sounded like, rather than try to emulate a particular sound because I'd have no idea how to emulate anyone's sound.
But each to their own. Does not often the sound of particular artists change from album to album ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top