That Motown Sound!!!??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Raydio
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Raydio

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I hear lot of hip hop songs use samples from the 60's and 70's, which have a lower quality and vintage sound than 90's and present songs. Producers like Kanye West tend to sample from these old vinyl recordings because of the vintage Motown like sound you get. HERES MY QUESTION......

How can I make my finished recordings sound like these old vintage songs? Like they were recorded during the era of The Temptations? Not just the vinyl noise effect, but the "Motown-ish" 12' imperfect sound. I have a list of my setup, but if there are any other software titles that can achieve this sound fill me in. Here we go....

AKG Solidtube mic, Joe Meek preamp, Art Tube MP preamp, Korg Triton 61 Key workstation, Cubase SX, Adobe Audition (CEP2.1), Waves Gold Plugin Bundle, Waves Restoration Bundle.
 
if your looking for s/w to do that motown sound your looking in the wrong direction IMO....digital is way to 'clean'...go get you some 2" and a neve console and some sm 57 and your good to go :D

or you can register over here www.gearslutz.com

bob ohlsson is a member and if you don't know, he was an engineer for motown and helped make that sound you are desparately after...
 
I know digital is very clean but there has to be a way to dirty up the sound some. I just figured that going backward is easier than going forward. Any other tips to at least get close to this sound using a digital setup?
 
If you want your record to sound like Motown, hire the Funk Brothers.

If you don't know who the Funk Brothers are, go and rent (or better yet, buy) the movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown."


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Raydio said:
I know digital is very clean but there has to be a way to dirty up the sound some. I just figured that going backward is easier than going forward. Any other tips to at least get close to this sound using a digital setup?
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did you read my post home boy go register at gearslutz and ask one of the men(Bob Ohlsson) themselves how to get that motown sound!!! thats the best and easiest way to do it....
 
Get a bunch of good musicians, preferably all the old ones left who played on those tracks - but James Jameson is a must, put them all in one room, mic them up and push play......and your problems will be solved
 
Jamerson's been dead for years, now. (And to think, he played ALMOST ALL of that shit with ONE finger!!!)

"Standing In The Shadows of Motown" is an awesome piece of history. Most anybody who likes any music should watch that joint.

I thought Kanye West sampled anything that he could drop some 16th note hi-hats over while he pitched up the sample. That's why he got the job at Rocafella, he was doing the same ugly shit that State Property & co. were rhyming over. I don't think dude samples that shit for "the sound," as much as the musical motifs, anyways...

Raydio, you're a decent producer, I think, (from the stuff I heard on your CD), and I don't understand why every now & again you try to flip your own script & mimic "what's hot." What you got in you, you can't get out of a"tips & techniques" book. Trust it.

You've got enough goodies in your arsenal to make the "sound" you're after. Instead of biting at the teat of the next broad, eat the titty of your own bitch and get full...
(don't worry, she'll grow another one)

btw- going backwards takes effort, moving forward happens whether you like it or not.

Maybe if you specify what exactly it is you're trying to recreate, we can help you more (is it how Jamerson's bass sounded? The snare, kik, hats, or cymbals? What up? With a reference point, maybe we can listen to some Motown stuff & try to capture a particular nuance you're looking for.

Conversely, feel free to tell me to go fuck myself.

Good luck,

F.D.
 
It kinda' sounds like he just wants to dirty up the tracks a little and make them more lo-fi.
 
chessrock said:
It kinda' sounds like he just wants to dirty up the tracks a little and make them more lo-fi.
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EXACTLY! Thats all. I dont need a funky bass sound or Smokey Robinson's penny lofers. I just want to get that Lo-Fi record sound for this new song Im working on. I want to record a female's voice for the beginning of the song, but I want it to sound like an old record and not like it was recorded on good gear.

Flo Dolo your inspiration in that post was good business. I didnt know you heard my music before but Im glad you enjoyed it. My style has evolved since that disc big time; if you liked what you heard on there you'll whats coming up!
 
The funny thing is that this particular "sound" is so special because of the players involved. They were all special, and especially special when they played together. And the latter they did, as all the foundations for those tracks were played live in one room.
I had the pleasure of doing an album with James on bass (and his son on one of the tracks) in 1974. As soon as he plugged his bass in you knew who made the sound - it was just him. On those sessions he played a bog-standard P bass.
Some players now can emulate that sound perfectly, like for instance Mel Brown.
The instant recognition of "a sound" is what makes players so special. And that is something very difficult to emulate, as that HAS to come from the musicians. And that's why you can never get near that sound.
 
I think we're confusing "that sound"

with "that sound quality."


Raydio, it's going to be tough, because you have to take a lot of factors in to the equation, as the technology they were working with was vastly different than what you or I have at our disposal.

I have no clue what you're working with, but I think the idea would be to get a hold of really old equipment, if you can. Tube mics, tube mic pres, opto-compressors, reel-to-reel decks, etc. And push them to the point of some mild distortion.

If you want to try and fake it, then I suppose you could make some EQ cuts in both the extreme highs and lows to mimik the limited frequency response of a lot of that day's equipment. You could also try introducing some sort of mild distortion -- preferably tube-related. Maybe try running your final mix through a tube DI on it's way to an old cassette deck and back in?

It's not going to get you that sound by any stretch, but it could very well give you a lower-fi kind of sound that one might associate with older recordings in general.

. . . Or it could backfire and just sound like complete shit, too. :D
 
Okay, I posted before I looked at your equipment list. You've got a tube mic, a hybrid toob mic pre, and a Joemeek compressor. I'd just run each one of them hot. Really test your mic's spl handling. Also see what kind of nastiness you can get out of that Tube MP on the way to the Meek's line-input, where you should really shoot for some extreme compressor settings. Cut some highs and lows with the EQ and go for a honky, midrangier kind of thing. If you've got something like PSP Vintage warmer plugin, see if that has any interesting settings on it.
 
James Jamerson and I were both born on January 29th. The "Standing in the Shadows" movie was great.

I think getting any particular sound is something that should probably happen as early as possible in the chain of events. However, if you have a finished recording that you want to make sound older, try playing around with different "radio sound" filters on whatever software you have. Often, they just emphasize some key mid frequencies... but, maybe you'll find something you're happy with.
 
Raydio said:
EXACTLY! Thats all. I dont need a funky bass sound or Smokey Robinson's penny lofers. I just want to get that Lo-Fi record sound for this new song Im working on. I want to record a female's voice for the beginning of the song, but I want it to sound like an old record and not like it was recorded on good gear.

Flo Dolo your inspiration in that post was good business. I didnt know you heard my music before but Im glad you enjoyed it. My style has evolved since that disc big time; if you liked what you heard on there you'll whats coming up!
Click to expand...


Have you tried messing around with the Stereo Decimator effect on your Triton? That's exactly what it does...lowers the fidelity. I'm not sure it will accomplish what you're trying to do...but it could be worth a shot.
 
How about hitting a four-track cassette machine on your way to digital? You can overload the input to get distortion, hiss, and tape compression. Try using a crappy dynamic too (like a plastic Radio Shack mic or something).
 
bsanfordnyc said:
Have you tried messing around with the Stereo Decimator effect on your Triton? That's exactly what it does...lowers the fidelity. I'm not sure it will accomplish what you're trying to do...but it could be worth a shot.
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Tried the Decimator and its works great. What I did was add the St. Decimator and vinyl noise for the master fx's. Used the mastering EQs and took out almost all of the low and hi frequencies, but i boosted the mids by like 5.0db. I noticed on those really old Motown songs the reverbs were kind of high in decay so I put a 3.0 decay with just enough reverb that it can be heard. From there it sounded very very close.

I used a Shure BG 2.1 for my microphone, ran it through the Art Tube MP preamp, into my Korg Triton's input and used the onboard effects.

On my mixdown Im going to use the PSP Vintage Warmer with a nice drive to give a lil distortion and warmth. It should work out nicely, what do you think? ANY MORE TIPS???
 
Raydio said:
ANY MORE TIPS???
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Try and track down a Spring reverb if you can. I think Danelectro even makes some in the form of a guitar pedal for less than a $100.
 
what you're trying to accomplish

i had to do for one of my tracks too...basically emulating a sample etc...i use a combination of eq techniques and a plug Izotope vinyl

however since you can remove the static and just use the models without the noise you can get some pretty cool effects...also trying out Magneto in conjunction with vinyl and eq will usually give you a vintage warm sound.

Also
go get the Digital Fishphones plugs in particular Blockfish and dominion

they give your sound a very distinct warm older sound that you just dont get tired of hearing if you're into rap music that uses samples and whatnot

thats just my two cents

Peace
Illa

PS
why am i not impressed with the Triton LEs sounds?

Is it me or do the older tritons sound different from the LE series???
Its weird but the LEs sound more like the Roland sound library than the KORG library....I actually prefer the Kurzweils now its weird i could get a K2000 for 600 bucks if i wanted to...anways rant rant
 
If you're using computer-based recording gear, isn't there a lo-fi plug in? I use a Boss 1180 and it has a lo-fi effects section that's supposed to emulate 78s, 45s, and lps, as well as radio of different vintages.
 
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