Old recording quality

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:37 pm

I'm wondering what I would need to do to a mix to make it sound like it's from an old recording of the 30's or 40's.

I've tried EQ, cutting highs and lows out, but that makes it sound more like a telephone than an old record.

joshw · Post by **joshw** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:46 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote:I'm wondering what I would need to do to a mix to make it sound like it's from an old recording of the 30's or 40's.

I've tried EQ, cutting highs and lows out, but that makes it sound more like a telephone than an old record.

That's the big thing you could do, I'd guess. Try tweaking that. You also might want to run it through a plugin to simulate slight speeding up and slowing down. This might do that. It'd probably be cool to find a sample of record player "noise", since those clicks and pops are a big part of that sound. Also think like the old record producers: mics were used with more distance between the instrument, and often whole takes were made with a single microphone placed at a strategic place.

ken · Post by **ken** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:48 pm

Hey Jim,

I posted this to the plug-ins thread. It might be just what you needed.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

Be well,
Ken

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:08 pm

I've been working on this for a while. With EQ and crackle/pop plugins and maybe speed variation, you can get the side effects of the old sound, but not the good parts (the character). I think a lot of it has to do with the actual sound (it's hard to get an old blues sound without an old Stella (or something like it) and a good blues voice. I think most of it is the recording equipment too -- kind of microphone, and recording onto acetate instead of tape or hard drive. I'd love to try out a vintage microphone and see what that produces, but it looks like they're even more expensive now than they used to be.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:16 pm

I may be wrong, but I think Starfinger's "violet" was run through the izotope vinyl plugin to give it that seasick sound. i think he was really abusing it though

-bill

UnDesirable · Post by **UnDesirable** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:33 pm

ken wrote:Hey Jim,

I posted this to the plug-ins thread. It might be just what you needed.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

Be well,
Ken

I agree this plugin is great for that effect and pretty much only does that effect. Also comes in a variety of formats. If you are still using Sonar Jim you might want to DL the DirectX

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:07 pm

ken wrote:Hey Jim,

I posted this to the plug-ins thread. It might be just what you needed.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

Be well,
Ken

i just d/ld it. Def one of the better ones of that type (that i've seen). Thanks for the tip!

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:46 am

HeuristicsInc wrote:I may be wrong, but I think Starfinger's "violet" was run through the izotope vinyl plugin to give it that seasick sound. i think he was really abusing it though
-bill

that's correct. I am a huge izotope fan.
that song wasn't trying to sound old-timey though.

-craig

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:47 am

ken wrote:Hey Jim,

I posted this to the plug-ins thread. It might be just what you needed.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

Be well,
Ken

Oh, how cool. I'll try this out when I get home. As far as I can tell from their web page, this simulates vinyl, which is part of the solution. The other part is the original recording quality, which as c hack said, may be due to the original microhpones more than anything else. I have lots of old recordings on CD which have none of those vinyl artifacts but still sound lo-fi and "old". Maybe combining the Izotope thing with EQing will get me there. This is gonna be fun.

ken · Post by **ken** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:01 am

Jim of Seattle wrote: The other part is the original recording quality...

Hey Jim,

I was talking to my buddy Brad the other day about getting a coffee can, and suspending a mic inside to get that old tymie sound. He saw some guys do this live and said it worked really well. If you've got something like this, give it a try.

Be well,
Ken

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:42 pm

Hmmm.
Here is an example of an old song where there are no vinyl artifacts, but it has a flattened out "old" sound. I'll try the coffee can, but I don't think that's going to get this sound. Listen particularly to the flat sound of the brass bounding in at 0:40 and that oh-so smoooooooth vocal recording at 1:30. And the bass the whole way through has presence but has lost a lot of detail. Is there a way to duplicate this flat sound?

ken · Post by **ken** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:21 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote:Is there a way to duplicate this flat sound?

Vintage Ribbon mics in a great sounding room with excellent players straight to acetate?

Ken

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:42 pm

http://s93909993.onlinehome.us/mp3s/Sixteen%20Tons.mp3

How's that?

It certainly needed more tweaking, but after a good 10 minutes of eq'ing and messing with the record sample, that's what I got.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:54 pm

You're talking about the first half, right? Yeah, it sounds pretty authentic. That's a more extreme example of what I'm gonna be going for, but it's real good.

Old recording quality

Old recording quality

Re: Old recording quality