Are 50', 60's mixing tools good for electronic EDM

[horizon7]

Greetings,
I see UAD or IK multimedia T-racks plugins having those analog extra harmonic character on almost every plugin in contrast to others.
but using only those vintage plugins are they really useful for EDM or electronic music or they are only designed for pop acoustical based style?

for example when working with electronic 909 kick using Hitsville EQ, Pultec Passive EQ or UA 1176 compressors the methods in here are not like parametric eq or transparent compressor so I usually use these vintage colored EQ's in case I want to make the track stand out more adding character to them.
as in my experience if I'm working only with fully vintage mixing tools in electronic style the mixing will have full colored tracks noticing some frequencies cannot be cut properly using those vintage tools due to some quantized values via knobs unlike a parametric EQ or transparent compressor where it's possible to smoothly fine tune the knobs which is crucial in here.
If I want to add vintage EQ plugin I usually place it after or before the parametric EQ. (2 EQ's one for fixing & one for coloring).

What do you think?

[jamcat]

When albums were recorded in analog studios, they would get the rough sound they wanted with EQ and compression while tracking, and that would be printed to tape. When the album was mixed months later, often at a different studio, EQ and compression would be used to get everything sitting nicely in the final mix.

It was pretty common for consoles like Neve, Helios, and API to be used for tracking because of their sonic character, but mixed on consoles like SSL (starting in the '80s) for the percision of their fully parametric EQ, plus automation and VCA compressors on every channel.

That is essentially what you're doing here. To follow the same signal path, you'd do "vintage" EQ and compression for colour first, followed by surgical EQ and transparent compression second, to mix & fix. You might also want to stick a tape emulation between the "tracking" and "mixing" stages.

[horizon7]

When albums were recorded in analog studios, they would get the rough sound they wanted with EQ and compression while tracking, and that would be printed to tape. When the album was mixed months later, often at a different studio, EQ and compression would be used to get everything sitting nicely in the final mix.

It was pretty common for consoles like Neve, Helios, and API to be used for tracking because of their sonic character, but mixed on consoles like SSL (starting in the '80s) for the percision of their fully parametric EQ, plus automation and VCA compressors on every channel.

That is essentially what you're doing here. To follow the same signal path, you'd do "vintage" EQ and compression for colour first, followed by surgical EQ and transparent compression second, to mix & fix. You might also want to stick a tape emulation between the "tracking" and "mixing" stages.

You mentioned tracking so what does this refers to? do you mean it’s a realtime live recording stage?

[jamcat]

Yeah, tracking is when the live performance is recorded to tape.

They wanted to get “the sound” in the studio and on tape, so they were dialing it in and recording with EQ and compression in place. This is when they would be using the LA-2As and 1176s and Pultecs, which they had a very limited number of. The sound on tape was the sound of the record.

Months later, during mixing, they’re doing stuff to “polish” the sound and get it all working together. But the rough shape of the sound was created during recording through mic selection and placement, compression and EQ. That’s what they’re doing in the studio most of the time.

[slackhead]

This Sonic Academy course goes a good way towards answering what you are asking, although it's a little dated now. Kirk is a very good tutor.

[Uncle E]

Greetings,
I see UAD or IK multimedia T-racks plugins having those analog extra harmonic character on almost every plugin in contrast to others.
but using only those vintage plugins are they really useful for EDM or electronic music or they are only designed for pop acoustical based style?

My friend XOQ used to be the mix engineer for Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso, among many others. He primarily used UAD plugins for those records. However, per your later point about using parametric EQ's and vintage EQ's together, he almost always used something like Soothe along with the UAD EQ's.

[andymcbain]

They can be if you like the sound they're giving you. Some producers are using them all the time - https://faderpro.com/programs/drums-mas ... n-remember

[pixel85]

Electronic music has no restrictions so you can use ANY tool you want. Vintage, modern, retro etc. - it's all just colours. electronic music is not restricted to 'the best possible recreation of acoustic instruments'. Not to mention all those genres based on saturation, dirt etc.

One thing tho: copying settings used for eg. acoustic drums and pasting them on electronic drums is not necessarily the best idea. Same for guitar bass vs synth bass. This is something that was common in the late '00s (like copying EQ settings for 60's rock to their psytrance tunes) and people were wondering why their mixes sucked.

[horizon7]

Yeah, tracking is when the live performance is recorded to tape.

They wanted to get “the sound” in the studio and on tape, so they were dialing it in and recording with EQ and compression in place. This is when they would be using the LA-2As and 1176s and Pultecs, which they had a very limited number of. The sound on tape was the sound of the record.

Months later, during mixing, they’re doing stuff to “polish” the sound and get it all working together. But the rough shape of the sound was created during recording through mic selection and placement, compression and EQ. That’s what they’re doing in the studio most of the time.

Thanks a lot jamcat for the explanation those were interesting moments in the history of music.
It’s fun to emulate of what they were doing during there recordings. I’ll try out those techniques in some of my tracks.

Thanks:)

[horizon7]

This Sonic Academy course goes a good way towards answering what you are asking, although it's a little dated now. Kirk is a very good tutor.

Thanks slackhead that was interesting video I learned new things in here.

[bpblog]

I believe that vintage mixing tools still have a place in modern music, in fact, more so now than in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Perhaps not so much as something you'd use across the entire mix, but vintage compressors, saturators, and especially delays can be used effectively to add color to certain mix elements.

This works great for having contrasting elements in a mix, which "hooks" the listener and makes the whole mix sound richer and more interesting.

I covered some of this in more detail recently in a mixing tutorial on my website: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2022/1 ... ing-music/

It's a long read, but there are a few sections that cover how specific compressors and saturation can enhance a mix.

[horizon7]

Greetings,
I see UAD or IK multimedia T-racks plugins having those analog extra harmonic character on almost every plugin in contrast to others.
but using only those vintage plugins are they really useful for EDM or electronic music or they are only designed for pop acoustical based style?

My friend XOQ used to be the mix engineer for Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso, among many others. He primarily used UAD plugins for those records. However, per your later point about using parametric EQ's and vintage EQ's together, he almost always used something like Soothe along with the UAD EQ's.

Thanks for the info.
Yeah Soothe is good for eliminating resonance as well. it's beyond a normal EQ dedicated for harsh removing.

[horizon7]

This Sonic Academy course goes a good way towards answering what you are asking, although it's a little dated now. Kirk is a very good tutor.

There is also another 16 minutes tutorial under the same title, still beneficial.

[horizon7]

Electronic music has no restrictions so you can use ANY tool you want. Vintage, modern, retro etc. - it's all just colours. electronic music is not restricted to 'the best possible recreation of acoustic instruments'. Not to mention all those genres based on saturation, dirt etc.

One thing tho: copying settings used for eg. acoustic drums and pasting them on electronic drums is not necessarily the best idea. Same for guitar bass vs synth bass. This is something that was common in the late '00s (like copying EQ settings for 60's rock to their psytrance tunes) and people were wondering why their mixes sucked.

I didn't know about the 00s technique until you mentioned it, this is interesting.
this might be due to the software were new to the industry.

The 2000s was a straggling decade for musicians who produces on computer only.
I call it (The hesitation decade for exploring & using music software technology).

The common ideas at that time was personal computers are not dedicated for producing music they
are only for office tasks due to limited specifications I remember that.
DAW definition also wasn't a common idea. 

Another common thoughts was producing via PC will never get the production at pro level as hardware specially among users who didn't used the hardware before. also the thought that software had many weakness in contrast to hardware.

back then I was having fun using trackers software like "Renoise" & my goal was to compose a piece of song not even thought about sound design, adding fx, mixing or even mastering. it was a hype at that time.

I believe in early to mid 2000s people couldn't realized yet that music could be produced entirely in DAW with 32-bit system.

The fact that 2000's software were introducing many aliases & not sample accurate in comparable to now days which is almost free aliasing & having smooth tunings. it's much better these days & more accurate emulations. 
many producers currently feels confident when using the software. sometimes yeah we need a hybrid setup in our studios.
in 2010 & onward things started to get imporved specially with the introduction of 64-bit & more memory on many devices beside musical mobile apps, sample based instruments & compressed sizes of GUI. at the time producers started to mix between analog & digital setups.

[Uncle E]

M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade need to have a word with you: