Have you produced 70/80's disco or funk back in the day ?

[route-electrique]

Hello,

I love the 70/80's sound and i listen a lot of it, and now we're kinda doing record with heavy influences from that era, but also bringing our own new ingredients to the project. Our only live instruments will be guitar and electric bass.

I'd like to know what was the main reverbs, delays used back then and what do you think are the pieces of gear you would use to process sounds to achieve that classic beautiful sound.

What comes to hardware, we're using hardware synths mainly. We've Chandler Germanium Compressors, Avalon 734+2055, Eventide Eclipse and Korg SDD-2000 delay. I lately grabbed Roland space Echo RE201 for the project. We're very interested about amping, but we don't have much information about the amp / speaker combination we should use.

So, i would be glad to hear some gear suggestions or just good general information from those sessions .

[ott0bot]

I would say....don't use any of that gear. Just print your mixes on braided locks of sweaty chest hair using a pure mix of coke and you'll be fine.

[jkelly222]

I would love to know about this as well!

[ott0bot]

ok....on the serious side....it would be interesting to hear some insight regarding the sweet sounds of 70's funk.


In the meantime....
have you looked at the Classic Tracks section at the Sound on Sound site? I seem to remember them featuring a few 70's disco and funk songs.

[2leftears]

The tools we used were drums, Fender bass, Fender Rhodes, electric gtr, clavinet, Hammond organ and mono synths, (Arp 2600, Mini Moog). Vocals were usually sung into a Neumann 87 or equivalent. Compression was usually LA2A, 1176. All of this to a 16 or 24 track tape deck. Ardent in Memphis, Ctiteria in Miami and The Automatt in San Francisco.

[Bob Olhsson]

...I'd like to know what was the main reverbs, delays used back then and what do you think are the pieces of gear you would use to process sounds to achieve that classic beautiful sound...

The very same gear used to create the classic rock records of the same era.

The difference was who was in front of the mikes.

[Nick Sevilla]

[SNIP]
We've Chandler Germanium Compressors, Avalon 734+2055, Eventide Eclipse and Korg SDD-2000 delay.

That right there is part of the problem.
None of that gear existed back then.

Now, without going into a gear war etc. I say you need to really sit and listen, LISTEN to the albums you are trying to emulate.

Most of it was done pretty straight forward with not a lot of equipment, and with GREAT musicians.

The secret is : better musicianship, and less high frequencies, at least to start.

Add in some distortion on some high peaks to simulate a tube mic or other tube gear crapping out sometimes, and there one sound.

But... you gotta remember, the 70's was an entire 10 years worth of really RADICAL changes in music styles, recording equipment, and production styles. You really do have to narrow it down a lot, for any answers to be meaningful to your own project.

Cheers

[route-electrique]

Good points fellas!.

[guido]

WoW! What a great tip about the Classic Tracks at SoS!!!
I have been looking for something like that for a looong time!!
Thanks!!

[snatchman]

Also, Lots of that era's music was tracked spontaneous..It was the "soul" of the music that made it, not so much the gear. ( even though the gear was great also).. Nothing like a funky slap Bass player grooving with a dynamic/controlled drummer... ...Nobody worried that much about overdubbing or dead locked timing as the musicians believed/mastered their craft..."What you got, is what you get" sorta speak of to a certain degree.. ..That being said, I kinda miss it..

[Snarl 12/8]

I tried using my home made "reamp" device on my neighbors digital keyboard to "warm up" some of his digital patches of old analog keyboards. His organ, clavinet, rhodes all sounded too crisp and clear to me. I really think running them through that transformer smeared the sound in a very good way.

I've come to think that a big, huge part of "that vintage sound" (whatever vintage, almost-anything pre-digital) was transformers. Didn't almost every piece of gear have trannies in them before a certain point? Certainly when everything was tube, right?

Anyway, I think the magic of analog lies in all the transducers that we skip in the process these days (mics, speakers, pickups, etc.) thanks to plugins and modeling.

[jgimbel]

I tried using my home made "reamp" device on my neighbors digital keyboard to "warm up" some of his digital patches of old analog keyboards. His organ, clavinet, rhodes all sounded too crisp and clear to me. I really think running them through that transformer smeared the sound in a very good way.

I've come to think that a big, huge part of "that vintage sound" (whatever vintage, almost-anything pre-digital) was transformers.

I just got my first KM84. I swear I can just hear the transformer, it's the whole sound of it. I have a very nice API 312 clone as well, and the transformers in that give it a nice heft too. I'm starting to think I might be drawn more to just the sound of transformers than tubes. I'd love to have a bunch of little transformer boxes to run things through.

[route-electrique]

Hey guys, thanks for the input .

[vvv]

I been playing a fair amount of organ and piano on my Yamaha S03. I've found that running it thru a tube amp (I use a Quadra-Sound into Electar 10w. into a Celstion 2x12" open-back) and mic'ing that up sound ever so much better and "real".