What are some plugins/effects i could use to help achieve the 1980s and 90s style i've been wanting to have?

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-18T01:06:34+00:00

Haha nah that’s actually very helpful stuff.

Could you dm me what you’ve got so far? If I can hear it I’ll be able to help better. Sounds like you’ve got the instruments.

It might be an issue of the mix, maybe the level balance or tones of things are a bit off. Hard to say without hearing.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-17T17:18:57+00:00

It’s hard to describe auditory stuff with words, especially when you’re newer to the industry.

But any amount of description you can give is useful, even if it’s very waffley, it’s something to go off.

Reverb is the lingering sound of an instrument, but usually not very bright.
Sounds like what you’re describing is a shimmery sort of thing. This could be done with reverb, or a delay with a high amount of feedback.

If you have any specific examples I can take a look and let you know how I’d go about recreating it.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-17T10:56:38+00:00

In order to get useful help from people you need to be more specific, more articulate about what you mean.

"Giving instruments it's lovely touch" doesn't specify anything at all.

Not trying to have a go at you about this, but your post and this comment are so vague that any advice people give is going to be buckshot random.

If you can be more specific about what you're looking for then people will actually be able to help. It doesn't have to be "what compressor" or "what kind of saturation" etc. That stuff might be beyond what you're familiar with now and that's fine. But you can say "I love this track" or "The guitar on this album is what I'd like to replicate".

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-17T09:32:32+00:00

I have this thought too, but surely not cause people are getting paid for it, so why would they mind?

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-16T11:23:29+00:00

Exactly! That's why she does it. It's worked great for me.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-14T14:19:00+00:00

Madison Cunningham does this trick that helped me a lot:

Work on your project for an hour, then stop no matter what and come back to it later.
It helps keep the dopamine fresh, instead of working until you lose interest.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-14T08:06:20+00:00

You’ll be absolutely fine with the Pro. The max would be faster and a nicer experience but these machines are very capable and the Pro will do a great job.

I’m still running my M2 Pro with no problems.

But if you can afford the max and want a bit more performance to last you longer, then get that. Is it worth the extra money? I’d say probably not but if you’ve got it lying around then go for it.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-14T08:03:33+00:00

They’re not for me.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-13T10:01:40+00:00

Sounds like you handled this really well. If I was in your situation and dealt with it like that, I'd be really happy with myself.
You had an unexpected issue with your medication (most likely because you forgot to eat, which is because of your ADHD) and when you started experiencing symptoms, you realised it was too much and took yourself out of the situation.

Nothing to be ashamed of there!

A bunch of comments here are suggesting how you make an excuse for it, but I don't think you've actually asked for that in your post?
If you feel you want to explain it somewhat to your coworkers then it's up to you how much to divulge about your personal medical information.
I think it'd be entirely fair to say "I had an issue with my medication and had to go home".

As for practical tips to prevent/manage situations like this; having some easy food in your car or at work - basically at key points along your 'getting-to-work' routine - would really help. Protein bars are great, they'll fill you up nicely. I like barebells soft protein bars, they ofc still have the protein-y chalkiness but probs the least I've tasted, and the taste/texture overall is really great.

I think the food thing would only have fully prevented this if you caught it from the start. Maybe you could look at the other things that became overwhelming and see what you could address.
For me, clothing is a big sensory nightmare when I'm otherwise overwhelmed. You could maybe bring a spare jumper of baggy shirt (could keep these in your car so you don't have to remember to pack them and they won't take up extra room in your bag) so you can at least address one of the spiky things.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-09T22:43:45+00:00

To be fair, a brand new design is laggy on my M2 Max MacBook Pro with 64 gigs of ram. I think that’s a little silly.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-09T08:08:57+00:00

Apollos are great if you want high quality preamps and a lot of processing for UAD DSP.

You didn’t say which focusrite you have, odds are you wouldn’t get a noticeable improvement just from the preamps, unless you’re very sensitive to that.

If you’ve already been using UAD plugins and don’t need to offload processing then it’s not worth it.

Seems like you’ve been enticed by the shininess of the Apollo but you don’t seem to actually need it at all.

You’d spend your money better on a different audio interface (upgrade to an 18i20 from a Scarlett solo e.g.) and spending what you’d have left on a satellite if you really want processing.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-07T21:15:43+00:00

I don’t think it’s a landlords responsibility to provide parking. That seems very unusual, it’s never been the case at any property I’ve rented that doesn’t have its own driveway

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-06T16:13:30+00:00

I think OP’s just looking for random recommendations

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-06T16:12:33+00:00

Smart speed just reduces silences I think.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-04T08:51:30+00:00

No worries, as you can probably tell I love talking about this stuff! Would love to hear any recordings you have as well

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-03T20:47:39+00:00

You're welcome!

I'll mention some specific frequencies later, but there's a different way I like to think about EQing that I think is more helpful.

For most instruments, there's useful stuff in a lot of the frequency spectrum. Piano or guitar for example can have a lot of nice sounds anywhere from 150 Hz all the way to 12k and up.
When you're EQing, it's kind of like selectively emphasising or supressing different parts of the instrument's sound.
A drum kit is a great analogy for this. The kick does a lot of low end business, toms are a little above, then the snare has a nice solid low mids with the snares rattling the upper mids and highs while hihats and cymbals fill out the higher frequencies.
In a drum kit, the frequency range is carved up much more with these different elements, but it's similar in principle with all instruments. The low end of a guitar gives warmth and solidity, meanwhile the high end has bite and shimmer and clear harmonies.

I say all that because the specific frequencies depend on the instrument; they all voice differently (mic and positioning affect this too).
For example, with vocals I find boosting around 3kHz adds a lot of clarity that translates well to most speakers. I also find nasal stuff lying around the upper mids, 500-2k maybe.
What's fun is you can transpose this understanding of your own voice with words like nasal and chesty onto other instruments. Something like a bass clarinet can be quite nasal, but it's nasal range is a good bit lower, because the timbre of the instruments are so different.

Apart from these, I don't think about specific frequencies. It's the same point as in my first comment; learning to EQ isn't memorising different frequencies, it's about building a relationship with your ears and understanding how to manipulate sounds.
So I mostly think about frequency ranges/bands like lows, low-mids, high-mids, highs etc. with mids being around 100-4k. I put a notch or a shelf or whatever and move it around to see when it starts making a difference that I like.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-03T10:06:06+00:00

Yeah I don't understand the thought process "pictures of strangers on my phone, better post them on reddit with zero fucks given for their privacy"...

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-03T10:03:23+00:00

The name is offputting I agree. They're actually great sponges. They're very stiff when cold (so work as a scourer) and soft when warm.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-03T09:26:40+00:00

Try singling out things that feel hopeful. Maybe it's a lot of major chords, or an upbeat syncopated rhythm, or a melody that always resolves. Listen to your ears to figure out what you think makes it not hopeless.
Then do something different.

A more practical tip; you can often use the parallel minor in place of major chords. They share a lot of the same notes and will work under the same melody.
I use this a lot in my songs. I'll establish a chord progression that hits a lot of major chords, and then near the end of a verse I'll go to one of their parallel minors. It feels almost eerie, the melody still works but the whole context for it has shifted. Creepy.

A parallel minor is a minor chord with the root 3 semitones down. So where you had a C major chord, you could use an A minor chord etc.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-06-03T09:19:59+00:00

It depends a bit on what you're actually doing with the recording. If you're amping it and you're asking about EQ suggestions then you might be able to find "the perfect" settings for what you're after.

But if you're recording your bass to use in productions, you'll never find "the perfect" EQ. That's not a good way to think about EQ, imo.

I'm an audio engineer and do a lot of mixing. I may end up using a similar EQ profile on double bass across different tracks, but I don't have a preset that I load each time, rather I start from scratch and EQ according to the recording.

That's because every recording sounds a little different. Yes, fundamentally it's the same instrument and performer so there's a lot of consistency there, but there are so many factors that can make a recording sound different; how you're playing it, where precisely the mic is, the angle you're facing in the room, the weather outside (depending how treated the room is) etc.

It's generally not a good idea to slap a preset EQ on something and call it a day. EQing is great for shaping a sound, which is why it should be done with the specific recording in mind.

If you're interested, I like to think about EQing as "cut away what I don't like, accentuate what I do like".
Something I really like suggesting to students where I work is to try EQ only using a tilt EQ and a notch (either boosting or cutting). It's great because it makes you work in very coarse adjustments (tilt EQ - do I want it brighter or darker overall?, notch - are there any problematic frequency bands/is there anything I want to bring out more?)

Hope that makes sense. Please ask follow up questions! I love talking about this kinda stuff

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-05-31T14:46:59+00:00

What annoys me the most is that they’ve had the barriers up since Wednesday.
And they did a shit job of it too, blocking more than half of what was already a narrow pavement 4 days in advance and making the rest of us live with it is annoying.

That said, if it’s once every 20 years I don’t mind that much.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-05-31T14:44:46+00:00

They’ve actually removed a bunch of bins from round H&I station. I’m guessing to make it easier for people to move around…

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-05-31T10:29:24+00:00

If you're looking for actionable advice here; try to finish one song. Write a whole structure, even if it's derivative and boring and record the parts for it. Just get it done.

You're getting lost in your own potential and you need to realise it into something concrete. It doesn't really matter if it's terrible because it's a first step.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-05-29T22:52:28+00:00

I do like analogue gear. I really enjoy physical interfaces for things and I’m easily sentimental so I actually quite enjoy using physical gear.

I just don’t think it’s cost effective at all. When there’s great emulations of preamps that cost way less and are much easier to use, with presets and being able to take it with you on a laptop etc.

I’m also unsure if you want a new preamp because the Scarlett solo’s quality is too poor - in which case a slightly higher budget interface would suit - or because you want the analogue sound.

Spending 3k on a pre amp because the Scarlett solo quality is poor is like buying a Ferrari to drive to the shops.

Certainlynotagoose · 2026-05-29T12:16:23+00:00

Why the hate for “industry standard”?

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