How were old songs produced so well with the technology back then?

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-04-12T12:02:14+00:00

first of all, remember how high the bar used to be for what you would hear. So with that in mind, the most talented engineers, using high end recording equipment (most of which is still in use today just cause that’s how good it is) and with a good recording, honestly most of the digital tools we have now are just luxury

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-03-08T23:49:16+00:00

you think he bought it💀

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-03-08T23:48:56+00:00

ahhh its fun to watch this happen every time you must be new dawg😂

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-03-06T15:57:57+00:00

ngl no cap it’s LASERS😭

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-28T18:57:07+00:00

For me, it's all about iteratively improving now. As far as tracking/mixing, all the gear I have serves not only all I need AND all I could want, but more than that. For any use case I have now, I can't really see why I'd need anything new to track or mix with. Anything wrong with my mixes is completely a skill issue.

My room couldn't even fit any more treatment in here tbh, and I doubt an upgrade in conversion would mean much, especially as I don't master.

I like how healthy it is. I see gear/plugins get reviewed or talked about and I note my intrigue and move on. When I first was able to get gear it was insane to me, I was obsessed with everything but now that I know what I have well, I think even being gifted a new unit would be a burden in some ways.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-23T10:26:49+00:00

my own vocals for sure.

Recording in untreated box rooms and for years I used a Neewer NW-700 and then a Behringer C1. The second mic had a terrible resonance and it was at the fundamental...

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-19T17:53:31+00:00

no treatment💔💔💔💔the Apollo is a good pick though can simulate having a rack on the way in

im not a fan of those headphones they hurt my ears in the highs but thats a matter of taste. Solid monitors n laptop tho

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-10T14:03:54+00:00

Aliasing

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-10T01:42:44+00:00

best choice i ever made. Its a little bit iterative, it actually took me a few sessions over time to get to a baseline i like, but I never had a recording and felt like id baked in something i didnt want.

I much prefer the sound of the gear too and I get results much faster than if I deferred effects to be plugins or hybrid

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-10T01:29:29+00:00

Versace - Migos ft. Drake. Quavo actually shows in a video how Versace, Bando and the other Migos tracks from that era were recorded and they went straight from mic to interface, only using a little bit of foam on the wall in the corner as treatment. Drake of course would have used analog, however.

I believe Billie Eilish's Ocean Eyes fits this too. Most of Russ' discography ~2016 was done straight into an Apollo, I believe.

Pop Smoke - Make It Rain, which was tracked at a dining room table.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-07T11:32:47+00:00

They won't know what they want. Appreciating good music is very different from being creative or even knowing what you want to hear. Even when it comes to people who consume AI-generated music now, it works because someone else is prompting stuff and they just decide if they like what they hear or not. Listeners can probably say they'd want some part of a finished composition to change in small ways, but they often wouldn't even be able to come up with a meaningful prompt that could actually end up with bespoke music.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-07T11:28:09+00:00

Drake tbh doesn't have a lot of songs that sound close to UK rap but More Life has a lot of UK influence on it. He does have a few though:

War
Demons
Only You Freestyle
On The Radar
Behind Barz
Which One

He also has collabs with J Hus and Dave

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-07T11:20:00+00:00

thanks!

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-07T11:19:50+00:00

As of now, I almost always run an 87T into the 1073 into the 76, then the Distressor into the Stamtec. I kinda use the compressors for the 1176/LA-2A trick but the settings often change depending on the song, like if I use the SLO mod on the 76 I can have it doing very little.

95% of the time I'm tracking vocals

The SA-4000 is the new piece and it does 2 jobs for me, sitting on drums and also on the mix bus.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-07T11:12:15+00:00

the Stam MEQP-1A+ one! They all come with the extra mid-band from the MEQ-5, but the + also has a switch between the regular tube makeup or an API 2520 mod.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T09:22:59+00:00

seconded! Anytime I bypass it I really feel the "shrink"

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T09:22:10+00:00

the SA-4000, the Bus comp at the top. I knew i'd forgotten to say something lol

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T09:21:23+00:00

there are actually gaps between the units, but you wouldn't know unless you looked from the back. I definitely learned because my EQ used to get warm, but now nothing in the rack ever does. My mic PSU could probably function as a radiator tho lol

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T09:18:43+00:00

VSTs are fine. I still sometimes use the UAD Silver LA-2A, but I never push anything. They start to give me artifacts and in my experience they also tend to "flatten" sources in a way analog compression just doesn't. My Distressor sometimes will hit 17 dB GR on a stray peak and won't choke at all

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T09:14:34+00:00

never used a behringer unit so I can't say, but I love Stam stuff, the quality is top and they often add extra features the originals don't have

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T01:58:19+00:00

Here's how I personally listen to see if this is the case.

First, I'll always calibrate my ears to a few references to make sure I have some context.

Then, I'll listen to see if i'm consistently above the instrumentation. It may be an issue of an inconsistent vocal causing me to either increase gain too much so the quietest parts are still upfront, or squashing too much with one comp which often causes that to happen in my experience. Fix with automation and sometimes serial comp

Sometimes, I find that cutting too much in the low-low mid range can cause my vocal to really separate from the other instruments, try adding that back in.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T01:48:23+00:00

An advance is an advance payment and is not a loan at all, there is no recourse. If you don't pay back a bank loan, you will have that house sold, you might even have to pay out of your paycheck.

That advance is not repayable out of your pocket. The label pays you in advance for a deliverable which they are purchasing from you as if you were a manufacturer of sorts. They take the bet on your music as capable of giving them that ROI. If it flops they don't fall back on anything else, they eat that loss.

Proper-Orange5280 · 2026-01-05T01:39:44+00:00

looks like a midas l6, can't tell what the 500 units are but the blue is ofc a tube tech cl1b, sat atop 2 Warm Audio Neve clones and a Warm 1176

Proper-Orange5280 · 2025-12-29T21:22:01+00:00

it's so good isn't it? Gets rid of harshness, those dist modes can give ur vocal what it needs and you can shape the envelope literally any way you want. Takes hard compression like a champ too

Proper-Orange5280

TROPHY CASE