Old skool sound tutorial

[Skornsteen Profile Website]

Hey for people looking for an old skool sound, I've made a small tutorial.
Required:
DAW
Tape deck
Optional: Analog Delay (hardware)
Optional: Analog Mixer


Think old skool.
If you want an old skool sound, you should use plugins that either emulate an oldskool sound, or are a bit lofi.
If you want an old skool track, remove all your plugins from your DAW list. (Don't remove them from your computer)
Now first off make a list with the most essential plugins.
Don't use more than 2 synthesizers, preferably freeware with a blank option.
Beat Slicers are ok, but making your beats from scratch samples is more old skool because that's how it used to be done in drumcomputers etc.
For the FX don't use more then simple Delay, 10 band EQ and maybe some cutoff filters and ofcourse some different distortions.
Compression can be used but not to much because it'll just make a wall of sound.
Ok, well open your DAW and start making some beats, process them a bit so they are nice and punchy, distort if you like to.
The drum samples you are going to use must be or slightly lofi, or from drumcomputers, or sampled out of music.
Make some synths out of the plugins you have allowed yourself vocal samples can be used too ofcourse.
Make sure the synths are mono.
When your track is finished it will sound a little bit old skool.
Now this is where the tape deck comes in, record your total drum track on a tape.
When you've done this, afterwards record it back to your computer.
Try to get the second recording clean and with a good amount of gain.
Now record your synths and stuff trough the analog delay, if you do not have a analog delay you could just let them run trough anything analog.
This will make your sound thicker yet also more old skool.
Record the vocals trough the tape deck.
Now put it all together in an audio editor.
And export it, if you like master it a bit.
This method might take some time, but your sound will be a lot fuller and have a curtain feeling to it a lot of music now a days doesn't have.
If you have a oldskool synthesizer in your studio, that's oufcourse always better then using software synths.

[deurquiza Profile]

thanks nice tips!

but for me in this days is really cool make tracks with the estyle and the format of the oldschool but not make a copy of then.

i mean. make the tracks with the same essentia but without limitations or whatever. i thinks thats its really really cool.

[Ruffatron Profile]

thanx
nice idea with the tapedeck, although (without having really tried it) i'd say it may blur out the sound more then necessary. i was thinking that maybe if one can get the tapedeck recording running along with the original computed shit avoiding serious phasing, a 60-40 or 70-30 mix of both could sound nice and fat. i'll try it and get back to this post for further commenting.

[producer_snafu Profile Website]

i heard Evol Intent bounces all their tracks to tapes to give their tracks that warm analogue feel

[Skornsteen Profile Website]

:idea:
thanx
nice idea with the tapedeck, although (without having really tried it) i'd say it may blur out the sound more then necessary. i was thinking that maybe if one can get the tapedeck recording running along with the original computed shit avoiding serious phasing, a 60-40 or 70-30 mix of both could sound nice and fat. i'll try it and get back to this post for further commenting.

Hmm wel the technique does work, but the idea of mixing the sounds is a good iIdea.

[Antispiral Profile]

If you have a oldskool synthesizer in your studio, that's oufcourse always better then using software synths.

Will a Moog voyager do ?
I have this tape deck with 2 taperecords in it so you can bounce from the one tape to the other, it's great to bounce sounds like 10 times you do lose a lot of bass.
If you want a cheap analog synth I would reckon the roland analog
sh 101. Using the samples from the roland T909 808 are also very usefull.