1970's Analogue Mix

For a while I've been thinking to do a song (mainly for a bit of fun) as an early 1970's rock remix. So I've spent the past couple of weeks, researching, YouTubing and experimenting with the creation of a simulated analogue song recording.

Where to Start

I've always loved that warm 8 track, analogue vintage sound that these bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the early Beatles first recorded on. It was ridiculously simple and yet, they just sound amazing. What really hit home for me was when I heard Wolfmother for the first time many years back and my reaction was "What is that fantastic sound? How do they make it sound like that?"

In my recent travels searching the great plains of the Internet, looking at how to those old bands got that sound - I found that there are a lot of opinions, some conflicting, but all good to consider none the less.

Analogue Tape Machines

Well, there was debate on this one. One guy claims, like The Beatles, it was recorded on two 4 track tape recorders. Either way, I knew I had to limit the channels to 8 to be realistic. This meant minimal doubling of guitars and vocals. Tapes also have saturation, which is a type of distortion that makes the sound sound warmer and fuller and sometimes a slapback echo or phasing effect.

Soft Highs and Warm Overall

In the 70's, you were always battling inherent signal noise. And with everything being physical (like tape reels), you lost your high frequencies every time you touched something. Funnily enough, this meant the music was warmer and not so abrasive. And in today's technology, we have to simulate that, because everything is recorded perfectly and never loses its fidelity. So our ears, are bombarded with all these accumulated high frequencies, which I guess we're not really used too.

Expert Advice

So the YouTube video that really got me interested in pursuing this experiment was from one of my favourite YouTubers - MixBus TV. He did this great video of how he suggests you build an analogue recording setup.

Now, I loved this video, but as I've mentioned previously, I'm not one to spend money on my art (Ha! Hilarious!). One of the first plugins he mentions is Bootsy's FerricTDS.

Now, FerricTDS is actually part of this amazingly awesome free plugin pack called Variety Of Sound (VoS). This pack has a total of 14 top quality free plugins. And of those, 11 are designed to simulate analogue equipment.

For the record, there is another amazing free plugin pack called Antress Modern Plugins. This pack has 24 high quality free plugins - 5 custom analogue designs, 7 modeled after real classic equipment (SSL, Pultec, Fairchild, etc.). This pack will probably be my second setup that I'll experiment with. NOTE: The download link on the homepage doesn't work. Visit http://vst4free.com/index.php?dev=Antress to download.

So the challenge was, can I make an entire analogue mixing desk from a free plugin pack. And I did!

So I took what was said in the video above, and summarised it to something like this.

Instruments/Stems and the Console Strip

On your stems (raw digitally recorded tracks), start with a Tape Emulator. This is to simulate the recording coming straight off the tape. As per the video, I used Ferric TDS with the built-in preset "Classic Tape". Some of the caveats were, I minimised the output "Trim" value as low as it would go, and then adjusted "Input" to maintain a similar volume, but pushing the plugin at a reasonable signal so that it has more effect. If I hadn't done that, the needle would hardly move, which means the effect wasn't really operating at a good volume.

But the other aspect that I was missing was that phasing sound you get from tape. So I used another VoS plugin called NastyDLA, set to preset "Tape Flange". I reduced the Wet value to -21dB as it was a bit too strong as an effect.

Third in line was the BootEQ MkII. This would be where the signal finally hits the mixing desk. BootEQ is an analogue emulating Virtual Console Strip (VCS). I started with the preset "Vintage" but I reset the EQ back to flat. I found the settings I used across all my stems were High Pass filter at low frequencies, remove some "mud" around 300 - 500 Hz, boost some highs between 3 - 5 kHz, and then adjust the high shelf to taste.

Next, I used an analogue saturator TesslaSE (using preset "Vintage"), which was the pre-cursor to the TesslaPro MkII plugin mentioned below in the Master Bus section. This just adds a bit more colour to the sound. It was optional and only used when the sound still sounded dry.

Lastly, I used the ThrillSeekerXTC "black" Exciter/EQ (using the "Warmth" preset, EQ to taste). The black version is tuned for -18dBFS signals, appropriate for stems. Exciters are used "to enhance a signal by dynamic equalization, phase manipulation, harmonic synthesis of high frequency signals, and through the addition of subtle harmonic distortion".

Vintage Compressor Settings (L/R)

I used this same setup on all my tracks - drums, bass, rhythm guitars, lead guitar, clean guitar and speech. The only time I changed the setup was on the clean guitar, where I added a compressor (VoS Density MkIII) set to a custom vintage compressor settings.

Bear in mind, all these plugins are free and of a very high quality, all from a single source - Variety of Sound.

The Mix Bus

So all my stems are sent to the Mix Bus on my project.

I used a number of send/return effects in the 1970's vein, such as custom NastyDLA Ambience (reverb), custom NastyDLA Flanger, NastyDLA Tape Ping Pong delay and custom Density MkIII vintage compressor (shown above).

But the Mix Bus, well here's how I set it up. First was the BootEQ MkII VCS using "Vintage" preset, EQ adjusted to taste. Next was the custom Density MkIII with vintage compressor settings. I then used a the Rescue MK2 stateful saturator using "Bootie's Choice" preset but with the Analog setting enabled. Finally, the ThrillSeekerXTC "blue", tuned for -9dBFS signals, suited for buses and masters - set to the "Warmth" preset, EQ to taste.

The Master Bus

The Master Bus, again starts with the BootEQ MkII VCS using "Vintage" preset, EQ adjusted to taste.

Next I use a Leveling Amplifier ("Vintage Opto" preset). I had to look up what it was, and found that it was used by broadcasters to cut or boost signal levels automatically - which in my mind means it's kind of like a compressor, so I used it where I would have normally used a bus compressor.

Next was the ThrillSeekerXTC "blue" ("Warmth" preset, EQ set to taste) and then an analog Limiter, the ThrillSeekerVBL - using the "Bootsies Choice" preset. I set the input so the signal was around -3dB Gain Reduction, and set the output to peak at -0.3dB (after the Tessla plugin below was enabled).

Finally, simulating recording the Master to tape, I used the TesslaPro MkII, set to "Tape Warmth II" preset.

The Final Product

Below is the recording - it's a very quick mix. I'll embed the original song below it for comparisons. You'll see I removed all the sound effects and kept it at a bare minimum - not unlike a real 1970's recording on 8 tracks.

Please let me know if you like this article.

The 1970's analogue mix.

The original song.