Getting that raw / vintage sound?

[cmrn]

Hey guys

Sorry if this has already been covered but I couldn't find anything on this.

I was just wondering if anybody has any techniques they'd like to share to emulate or re-create that raw/vintage sounds for drums/synths/vocals/etc that are used on a lot of 90s house and techno tracks?

I know a lot of them were made with analogue drum machines and what not but I don't exactly have access to them and am mainly working within Ableton so if anybody could share any tips/tricks, that would be great.

Also I've heard a lot of people say "just resample the drums" but I'm confused as to exactly how this would help getting that old school feel because the only thing I know about resampling is creating another audio channel in Ableton set to 'Resample' and just record the tracks that you want into it... Not sure if this makes any difference or not so maybe I am missing something here?

I've also got a Maschine but I don't have it with me at the moment so I'm not sure if there is anything you could do within that to get that particular sound? ... A friend of mine has an MPC 2000XL and to be honest all the stuff he is making with it sounds PERFECT for that style that I'm trying to go for.. I'm pretty sure it's because of the 12-bit sample rate within the MPC but now I'm thinking should I sell my Maschine to get an MPC?

Oh and one more thing.. I noticed that when my friend was using the MPC to make and sequence his tracks and then record them into Ableton - they are all recorded as mono? I'm struggling to find out how this works/sounds good as wouldn't all mono recordings for each track/instrument just lack the stereo width that's needed to let your track 'breathe' so it gels better instead of being 'muddy' ???

Sorry for the long post but if anybody could help clear these things up for me that would be awesome

[markjones108]

A few tips on getting that raw feel below

Use bit crusher at 12 to give it some dirt.

Use an overdrive unit take the gain down to about -8/10 and push the drive to +8 ( works well on a drum buss )

get drumazon for 909 sounds

dont kill the sounds with EQ

dont clean to much of your mix

do your automation by hand not by mouse

roll of the highs on your eq all above 10khz

That should get you on your way to sounding more raw

[Nig]

Might want to check this out too

[cmrn]

Wow thanks for the replies. Extremely helpful

If anybody has any other advice or tricks/tips they'd like to share feel free

[Syncretia]

I was just wondering if anybody has any techniques they'd like to share to emulate or re-create that raw/vintage sounds for drums/synths/vocals/etc that are used on a lot of 90s house and techno tracks?

What would really help is some links to the tracks you like.

I like old acid house but that really gets its characteristics from the analogue synths themselves.

The truth of the matter, is that there's no one thing that makes something sound "raw" or "vintage". That really is the sum total of the synths used, the mixing techniques, and also the mastering.

[dark_virus]

This is exactly what I need for a track I'm working right now!

Thanks for the tips, guys!

Hey guys
Also I've heard a lot of people say "just resample the drums" but I'm confused as to exactly how this would help getting that old school feel because the only thing I know about resampling is creating another audio channel in Ableton set to 'Resample' and just record the tracks that you want into it... Not sure if this makes any difference or not so maybe I am missing something here?

They're talking about reducing the bit depth of your sounds. Like 16 to 12 bits, for example.

I never seen the practical results of this, trough.

[kritikon]

I know a lot of them were made with analogue drum machines and what not but I don't exactly have access to them and am mainly working within Ableton so if anybody could share any tips/tricks, that would be great.

Not that many were made with analogue drum machines. 909s were expensive then as well as now. Most of us used samples of 909s just like today. The main difference is the samplers were worse quality. Many tips already given above, as the most common samplers in the early 90s were Akai S900/950s. 12 bit and pretty crappy sound quality. I still have my 950 and still occasionally use it. Can't remember off the top of my head, but max sampling quality was 19KHz or somesuch. Might have been 20KHz. But often you used lesser quality as RAM was pretty tightly limited. So yeah, bit-reduce it and Eq off the highs and you're in the right ballpark. I vaguely remember not going over 15KHz quality for any sampled drums back in the day. TBH highs are overrated in sampled drums. Even with those type of hats - use an analyser and you'll see there isn't much in the range of that mystical "shimmer" that you hear about.

Oh and one more thing.. I noticed that when my friend was using the MPC to make and sequence his tracks and then record them into Ableton - they are all recorded as mono? I'm struggling to find out how this works/sounds good as wouldn't all mono recordings for each track/instrument just lack the stereo width that's needed to let your track 'breathe' so it gels better instead of being 'muddy' ???

Absolutely the other way around. More people should use mono tracks. The default within DAWs for many years now has been stereo tracks, and IMO it's not a good thing. If everything is in stereo, you have double the number of tracks to muddy up a mix. If it doesn't have to be in stereo, keep it mono. In terms of clarity, less is better. So keep channels down to a minimum, which means mono rather than stereo unless absolutely required. Almost every 90s track you probably listen to was recorded and mixed with mostly mono channels. All drums were mono, pretty well all basslines and monosynth lines were mono, and most pads also were mono unless they were via a Roland synth etc that had stereo chorus on it. FX were stereo return, but mostly they were even mono send. If everything has width, it becomes muddy.

You do know that loads of those tracks you refer to were recorded on 16 channel desks? Some of those desks would have been in-line (effectively doubling the channels to 32, but often they weren't actually used as channels as such. The in-line refers to multi-track recorder returns.) Some were recorded on 24 channel desks, but even those are small compared to the staggering number of channels we all have access to nowadays. Yet they made some great mixes with only 16 channels - makes you think about stereo channels not being all they are cracked up to be, eh? That 16 channel desk would be 8 stereo channels. Can you make a mix with only 8 channels?

Most synth plugins you have will default to a stereo output. Unless you specifically want to use its own FX, knock it down to mono, and use the DAW FX. And using send FX in a DAW reduces that eagerness to overload mixes with hundreds if individual FX. It's a good habit to keep down the number of send FX - again, we used to use 2 and up to 4 external FX units. Not that different to most other bands. Whole mixes were made with 4 FX and mainly mono channels. Same with tons of 90s dance stuff. Seriously.

[cmrn]

What would really help is some links to the tracks you like.

Here's a few examples of the sound I'm talking about

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Absolutely the other way around. More people should use mono tracks. The default within DAWs for many years now has been stereo tracks, and IMO it's not a good thing. If everything is in stereo, you have double the number of tracks to muddy up a mix. If it doesn't have to be in stereo, keep it mono. In terms of clarity, less is better. So keep channels down to a minimum, which means mono rather than stereo unless absolutely required. Almost every 90s track you probably listen to was recorded and mixed with mostly mono channels. All drums were mono, pretty well all basslines and monosynth lines were mono, and most pads also were mono unless they were via a Roland synth etc that had stereo chorus on it. FX were stereo return, but mostly they were even mono send. If everything has width, it becomes muddy.

Thanks for the helpful reply man.. So you're basically saying to keep things in mono rather than stereo unless I absolutely need to? For now the only thing I keep in mono is the bass, so you would recommend making drums, vocals, pads etc in mono too?

If I were to write (most) things in mono though, I wouldn't be able to do things like pan the hats or certain sounds to L/R though would I?

And when you say keeping channels to a minimum, I guess that would be okay if you were keeping things simple like the track examples above, but let's say I wanted to try write a deep techno track that uses a lot of one-shot hits and smaller intricate elements, how would this work if I were trying to keep channels to a minimum because as far as I know each individual sound should have it's own channel? Unless it's a channel with a drum rack for your percussion sounds etc? Maybe I am just confusing myself.. Sorry my technical knowledge is still learning so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks for the replies so far.. Has been a great help!