How to find that last 10-15% 'commercial' sound fully ITB?

[VOODOO U]

The question is: Why do these old songs from the 70s always sound so good?

This may be hard to accept, or be understood, but the emotion invoked in the human is what is important. No physical instrument...heck, no physical ANYTHING matters before the human that is emotional.
Get high, get horny, get good in whatever way necessary so that enthusiasm at 100% gets conjured and thus recorded through whatever way one is expressing themself.
Back in the day, labels invested big money to supply the artist(s) with whatever necessary to get them horny, high, enthusiastic etc etc.
Nowadays, everything is robot.
That's the difference.
Digital recordings today sound crystal clear, immaculately polished.....and it’s horrible.

[vurt]

The question is: Why do these old songs from the 70s always sound so good?

This may be hard to accept, or be understood, but the emotion invoked in the human is what is important. No physical instrument...heck, no physical ANYTHING matters before the human that is emotional.
Get high, get horny, get good in whatever way necessary so that enthusiasm at 100% gets conjured and thus recorded through whatever way one is expressing themself.
Back in the day, labels invested big money to supply the artist(s) with whatever necessary to get them horny, high, enthusiastic etc etc.
Nowadays, everything is robot.
That's the difference.
Digital recordings today sound crystal clear, immaculately polished.....and it’s horrible.

dont forget they used to get witches to do rituals over the master tapes

[Ah_Dziz]

All garbage advice. Doing it all ITB is going to sound "thin" or "narrow" because it's all done ITB.
Versus spreading the circuitry out to individual outboard gear which allows the recording to "breathe".
When the computer motherboard does all the work, you're not going to get the characteristics of individual components which may shape a song. So a separate EQ, a separate compressor, a separate limiter, a separate reverb etc etc will spread out the work so each does a particular function, versus one CPU taking the whole load.

This is wrong in every way..... It's so wrong it has basically nothing to do with audio at all let alone making better mixes. Sorry there Voodoo.

[vurt]

This is wrong in every way..... It's so wrong it has basically nothing to do with audio at all let along making better mixes. Sorry there Voodoo.

indeed, there are several people here, who post all kinds of advice, but ask them for evidence of their successes, with the techniques, in the form of a track or something, never happens.

never listen to advice, from anyone who cant show an example.

[VOODOO U]

dont forget they used to get witches to do rituals over the master tapes

The book Music Of Time mentions something where a Native American (iirc) was hired to send positive vibes to a recording. So he would transmit his thoughts onto a track of the tape or something like that.
One song I do remember the book mentioning that had this done was Touch Me by The Doors.

This is wrong in every way..... It's so wrong it has basically nothing to do with audio at all let alone making better mixes. Sorry there Voodoo.

No need to apologise. You do you.

indeed, there are several people here, who post all kinds of advice, but ask them for evidence of their successes, with the techniques, in the form of a track or something, never happens.

Speaking in context with this thread, I could also ask for evidence where a pro recording, meaning a signed artist/band invested by a label that markets the song(s) for commercial purposes, was all done ITB.
And we know that if a recording completely done ITB could live up to the standards of a label investing large amounts of money for commercial purposes, the labels would go with it because they would save money in studio costs (mainly those that have their own recording studios).
But it's frivolous because no one can prove that a commercial recording was completely done ITB. Even if som big wig claimed it, I would see it as nothing more than a ploy to assist consumerism (I won't go deep into the politics of why some artist or engineer would do that).
Basically get the laymen to believe they can "create a pro recording with an iPhone" and thus buy buy buy.
Anyhow, if one likes their recordings done all ITB more power to them. Strive for perfection accept excellence and sure, one can get an excellent recording ITB. But don't feed me BS that it's better than going with outboard gear in a studio.

[Ah_Dziz]

I've had things released by a major label which were produced entirely "ITB". I don't really see what it has to do with anything though. I don't believe there's nothing inherently better about working with hardware or software for production. I used tons of hardware starting out and I vastly prefer software when working on my stuff. There's plenty of terrible outboard gear just like there's plenty of terrible software. Working hard on your music and learning to use what you have access to is pretty much always the key.

[VOODOO U]

By "major label" if you mean some dance label, then i suppose you can get away with that.
I say "suppose" because i doubt you got any major commercial play (top40 radio as an example).
Maybe a spin here and a spin there in some clubs.
Anyhow, to get "that sound", what you hear by the majors, good luck getting it all ITB.
If you feel you can do it with some plugs in a laptop so be it.

[Ah_Dziz]

I mean Sony/ATV. I can guarantee they didn't give a f**k what gear I used.

[VOODOO U]

Sony/ATV is publishing. They buy songs not recordings. If they did use your actual sound recording then it was for Dance Dance Revolution. Nothing wrong with that of course but just sayin'.

[legendCNCD]

So for example Serban Ghenea mixes everything ITB, his mixed tunes are chart topping pop tracks. Most of them are completely made ITB too...

[whyterabbyt]

All garbage advice. Doing it all ITB is going to sound "thin" or "narrow" because it's all done ITB.
Versus spreading the circuitry out to individual outboard gear which allows the recording to "breathe".
When the computer motherboard does all the work, you're not going to get the characteristics of individual components which may shape a song. So a separate EQ, a separate compressor, a separate limiter, a separate reverb etc etc will spread out the work so each does a particular function, versus one CPU taking the whole load.

Hmmm, interesting, inspires a lot of questions.
ie, what's the cutoff point? Is it okay just having anything outside the box, or does it have to be multiple bits of gear? If so how many?
Is there a ceiling on it, ie is it pointless beyond a certain number of devices, or does it just keep getting better as you add more separate gear?
And what about that gear, does it matter what it is, or does it just have to be 'separate' as you say. Is there perhaps a tradeoff regarding the cost of the gear, ie would 5 cheap bits of gear contribute as much as 1 expensive bit of gear, or more. Or is it the other way round, is cheaper, less precise gear better because it 'spreads' more?
I mean more devices are better than fewer, I presume. What about multifunction gear like a channel strip, where all the functionality of EQ, compressor, limiter etc might be on the PCB, is that going to be worse than separate devices?
What if I use multiple computer motherboards, as that will obviously help with the problem with just having one. Like one for each type of effects device, one for EQs, one for limiters? Or would I be better with a mix of effects on each motherboard?

[donkey tugger]

What if I use multiple computer motherboards, as that will obviously help with the problem with just having one. Like one for each type of effects device, one for EQs, one for limiters? Or would I be better with a mix of effects on each motherboard?

Wrong sort of electrons, you need outside box electrons.

[whyterabbyt]

What if I use multiple computer motherboards, as that will obviously help with the problem with just having one. Like one for each type of effects device, one for EQs, one for limiters? Or would I be better with a mix of effects on each motherboard?

Wrong sort of electrons, you need outside box electrons.

Yeah, but what if Im not using a box, just the motherboard?

[donkey tugger]

What if I use multiple computer motherboards, as that will obviously help with the problem with just having one. Like one for each type of effects device, one for EQs, one for limiters? Or would I be better with a mix of effects on each motherboard?

Wrong sort of electrons, you need outside box electrons.

Yeah, but what if Im not using a box, just the motherboard?

Who has the box then?

[whyterabbyt]

What if I use multiple computer motherboards, as that will obviously help with the problem with just having one. Like one for each type of effects device, one for EQs, one for limiters? Or would I be better with a mix of effects on each motherboard?

Wrong sort of electrons, you need outside box electrons.

Yeah, but what if Im not using a box, just the motherboard?

Who has the box then?

Brad Pitt, I believe. He wanted to know what was in it.