Faking a '70s production?

[georgethedifferent]

I really appreciate the chance to speak to someone living through 70s as a musician. But with all the respect, I can't agree with this:

Originally Posted by whiteaxxxe

and they ass-off-playing in small clubs before the record deal didnt benefit there playing in the studio, because of the uncontrollable live-situation.

From my (and others) experience, every minute played together contributes to band's sound. Even when playing in a big church, you learn.

[Bjorn218]

You guys are more advanced than I am in regards to Reaper, but the best suggestion I can think of to try and capture what the OP's initial question was, is to mix and master your music for the limitations of 2" tape with the intent to reproduce onto 12" 33-1/3RPM vinyl with a maximum of 22 minutes a side. This is where the answers in your question lie and not so much with what to use to achieve the sound of 1970's, but rather to be able to reproduce the hottest signal possible with the limitations of having to mix and master for those formats during that time frame.

[ginormous]

Bjorn, your answer has merit.

Analog tape in the 1970's wasn't nearly as good as the later formulations, especially regarding print-through (signal recorded on one layer, getting through to the next... creating "echoes" or "pre-echoes" depending on how the tape is wound up), how much magnetic energy it takes to record signal, how quiet the tape is before noise reduction is applied, etc.

Engineers in that era weren't yearning for the "vintage sound" of equipment used 20 years before. They were busy fighting against the technical limitations at the time. They tried to get every ounce of perceived listening experience out of what they had, whether new, top-shelf, purpose-built for recording, or grimy, abused radio leftovers.

When I see people creaming their shorts over an unrestored Pultec EQ, I chuckle a little. Even at its' best, a Pultec had its' fans and its' detractors.

However, right at this moment in time, we can walk into a mega-store and buy a computer more powerful than the ones used for the Apollo moon missions.

We can use them to create music, mix and master, shoot covers, create art, shoot footage of a live performance, burn a DVD (for archival purposes, LOL) and send the entire media package around the world in a matter of hours or minutes. For this kind of access, people used to spend millions of dollars, and now we can do it from our homes.

I'm a big fan of 60's and 70's music, but I'm glad to be alive now.

[whiteaxxxe]

Originally Posted by ginormous

...

I'm a big fan of 60's and 70's music, but I'm glad to be alive now.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

that is the best quote I have ever read on the internet!

bah ...

its the best quote I have ever heard.

in fact I think people of all times should have thought and said this an mankind would be a lot better of.

congratulations! thats a Nobel Prize! (if you are European it would be your second ... )

edit: saw just you are an American? or live there? anyway ... give da man a Nobel Prize!

[Anaon]

Hi!

I just read this thread, great one! It deserves more replies

There's a band I love called Eye who manages quite well to fake, or I should say, reproduce this particular 70's prog sound. You can hear them on Bandcamp : https://eyemusic.bandcamp.com/album/second-sight

I suppose they use vintage instruments which helps obviously. I love how they use the Mellotron for instance.

[LightOfDay]

right, I listened to EYE under the angle of "70s production"-style.

what came to mind is, that a 70s-sound has to avoid at all costs all kind of right-in-the-face-sounds. its all in the room. in this production there is nothing upfront audio-wise.

btw: if they are using real vintage instruments, they must be rich. a real mellotron is hard to come by and even harder to get maintained.

btw2: that production is simply great!! the kind of psychedelic music that is my favorite! thanx for the hint.

[Anaon]

Well, they do use a real Mellotron, I know because of the pics they post on Facebook, the proof in picture :


It's like the band Astra, great sound, great vintage production (with real Mellotron too).

[tdintbl]

I'm listening to their work now. I certainly lust after having that M400.

If you guys are interested the Mellotron community is fairly easy to get to know. newmellotrongroup on yahoo and there's also a group on facebook.

Also, if you have a pretty penny to shell out the Mellotrons are back in production, with updates. Markus Resch owns the brandname and produces an improved version of the M400 in Sweeden, the MkVI.

Meanwhile, John Bradley, the son of one of the original Bradley brothers has paired up with Martin Smith and have re-opened production in Birmingham, England. They do not own the brandname but are the original Streetly Electronics/Bradmatics that built these things before a rights bungle in the US in the 80s. They are producing an enhanced and more reliable version of half of a MkII, in an oversized M400 style cabinet, this is the M4000.

Both companies have also gotten into the digital sampling realm with various products, all of high quality, and less price than the tape-based machines.

---

Someday I too will have one. Until then, I have a finely curated library of samples that were gifted to me. Not sure their provenance but they are GOOD.

[kirk1701]

Here's something I was playing around with this summer. Is this anything like the OP is talking about?

It's very rough, but it was an experiment in the 70s sound/approach. I left it rough because many of my favourite records are right on the edge of falling apart. Hendrix is a good example of this. Listening to this now, it sounds like a first take in the old live tracking style.

I once read an interview with Dave Davies, where he said that he liked a song to sound "cranky" like it wasn't quite finished. He liked the ragged edges. Many happy accidents used to happen when you had lots of live tracking time in the 70s.

I was experimenting with allowing the mistakes here. It doesn't quite work, but I think my theory is sound. It takes practice to track well.

The good thing about living now is that you can always remix something that doesn't quite work. You can bring tracks in and out as you like to fatten things up or strip them down.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q062u93b57...%2022.mp3?dl=0