Logic Pro wanting to sound like 1958

the freebie by Izotope called Vinyl comes to mind for crackle and a little lo-fi eq-ing.

Also, I once did something like that and used Logic's Tape Delay as an insert (instead of on a bus) and used only the wet signal (with no feedback) to run the whole mix through. There are possibly also some impulse responses of old gear and/or even tape machines that you could load into Space Designer and run the mix through. There was a thread going on a while ago on here about some "Beamsonic" Ir's that I think had some Studor tape Ir's.

Another thought might be to use Logic's match eq to grab the spectrum from an old record or tape that you have lying around and apply that to your mix.

And finally, the ever-coveted tube saturation sound that you might want to add. I like PSP's Mix Saturator for that. It comes with their mix pack but it's not free. Vintage Warmer is nice too. But I've had some luck with Logic's distortion plugs too. I'll occasionally use clip or phase distortion on a bus. I'll send the entire mix to that bus but first throw a Hi Pass Filter in there. Then I'll delay it ever so slightly. Then into the distortion plug. Then mix that high frequency, delayed overdrive back in under the mix. I'll do similar with another bus and the low frequencies but handle them differently (maybe heavily compress and boost a little 200k for warmth).

some ideas...

- use a ribbon mic somewhere, maybe over the drums. Takes out the ultra-high end and gives an old school mid-thump.

- use a spring echo, or suitable plugin substitute (Altiverb or Space Designer impulses, or UAD1 space-echo emulation)

- record to tape or use a tape saturation plugin (vintage warmer, PSP mix-saturator, etc)

- tape delay on the reverb send (preferably a plate)

- finally, I'd sneak in at least one out of tune instrument. Most of the old ska stuff I've heard has at least one organ or guitar that's hopelessly out and it doesn't matter.

Hi,

Well,there are several considerations to this wanting to record "a la vintage"

Here's a few:

1.Use LESS mics.Recordings back in 1958 used a maximum or 8 mics.Seriously.

2.Use the room sound to blend the band together,as they did back then.If you hate the room sound,then you'll have to close-mic,and then add ambiance to all of it.Include the bass drum and the bass guitar as well.This will sound more "authentic" than dry bass drum and dry bass guitar.

3.As far as "plugins" go,hey,they didn't HAVE plugins in the 50's,what makes you think that plugins will make it sound "vintage"???

4.The ONLy other thing as far as processing,is they used a Limiter,such as a Fairchild program limiter,on the mix before it went to the cutting lathe.So to "imitate" this,put a ssimilar sounding Limiter plugin across your stereo buss.I LOVE the Nomad Factory Vintage LM-662:

http://www.nomadfactory.com/products/analog_signature/lm662.html

Cheers

yeah i mean plugins are an easy way to get that sound at the push of a button. or you could think of how they got those sounds (jamaican studios in the 50's).

-minimal mics, ribbons if you got em. find the best place in the room and try not to use more than 4 if you can.
-fat compression, as if tracked a little too hot to tape.
-eq out all the frequencies that just didnt exist back then (before digital). the super highs and lows. but crispy and a fat bottom.
-and dont forget to blow di smoke over di tape for di jah vibes get in dere. mon. no wait, that was the 70's.

G4PB1.5GHZ12"1.25RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) EDIROL FA101 INTERFACE, DRUMSET

I've had a good success with recording a Rockabilly band wanting to make it sound authentic, but using just one mic (AKG C12VR) set to OMNI in front of the lead singer, with the band and amplifiers positioned around the studio behind him. And nothing else. Just light eq, compression, plate reverb and slap delay.
Surprisingly enough it gives exactly the right kind of sound, the double bass sounded distant and slappy, the drums sounded thin and roomy, the vocals sounded hugely above the mix. It all sounded like it was band playing in a room together in mono with loads of echo. Just the way they like it! Compared to the cd's they brought in to reference to, old 50's rock n roll and rockabilly it sounded just right! Of course you need more confidence in what you're doing to take this route. You need to know from the get go, that it's the right way to go. But when you see the band smile from ear to ear and say "FINALLY THE SOUND!" you know it's the right move and putting up more mics would be a mistake.

If it's your band then you have enough room to experiment to try something like this and it not matter too much if it doesn't come out right the first time around.

Personally if I wanted to make something that sounded like authentic ska, I'd look for a good condition 4-8 channel tape machine and use that, throw up 6 mics, ribbons where possible (as mentioned before), mix it quite roughly, the bounce it back and forth a bit, while doing some over dubs and it'll become nicely saturated and compressed. It'll cost about £300 for a decent tape machine and a load of tape, not much compared to your Ensemble!!!

3.As far as "plugins" go,hey,they didn't HAVE plugins
in the 50's,what makes you think that plugins will
make it sound "vintage"???

WHAT????? No plugins in 1958???? You're SERIOUS?????

He's right of course. Use only a vintage MCI or Studer tape recorder, and old Neumann tube or ribbon mics. And of course a real EMT 140 plate reverb.

Anything else would be cheating.

A good thing to do to get a vintage feel to a song is to heavily pan everything because thats what all the bands used to do back when there was only 8 channels max to play with.

Or don't pan anything at all, as before the mid-late 60's one channel was all that was available for playback.

To heavily pan everything would date it to the late 60's and for only a short while as people very quickly got over stereo and started using it correctly.

And don't forget,that Beatles album that came out again in "stereo"...

That was actually two MONO tracks,which were meant to be panned center,but some genius decided not to read the accompanying notes,and panned them hard left/right...and voila,instant car wreck!!! (and also instant clones of the "cool mix")

George Martin had a heart attack when he heard it...

Cheers

I hate it when any client asks me to do some over elaborate panning system, it's OLD hat, and things that MOVE across the stereo image, imagine:

Emo band member 1 says: "Can you pan the guitars back and forth really fast"

Recording engineer: Throws up........... "you REALLY want me to ? ....... ok 😟"

Something like that.

Recording engineer: Throws up...........

On band member shoes away from SSL console please.

"you REALLY
want me to ? ....... ok 😟"

Turns to pan, puts finger on Hi EQ knob, and suddenly the urge to go to the bathroom comes, takes a break, gives the band member more beer, comes back, beer's done, band member says... the panning sounds cool... - another day another trick in a recording engineer-bag-O-tricks© (available for only $9.99 plus shipping and handling of $200.00.)

R

Use the Izotope Vinyl plugin. You can make it sound like any era you want. I use it all the time and it works great. Best part.....IT'S FREE!!! 🙂

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