Sounds of the 90s

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
Reverend
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Sounds of the 90s

Post by Reverend » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:42 am

People talk a lot bout music from the 70s and 80s having a sound and the tricks and equipment they used to use to get thouse sounds.
What does the 90s sound like to you now?
Is there equipment that you used then that you would never use now or do you still use pretty much the same thing?
What tricks did you think kicked ass back then that now just sound dated and silly?
I'm just wondering if recording technics have changed that much.I know that the technology has changed but do you use the same technics with this new technology?
THANKS Reverend

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by tiger vomitt » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:37 am

piccolo snare and super punchy bass drum, splash cymbals, china cym's

LOTS of chorus on guitar solos

i liked lots of new music in the 90's but grunge was totally annoying

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:50 am

many of my favorite rock bands are from the 90's..the whole "shoegazer" sound was going on..4track.."lo-fi"..DIY..etcetc..seemed to have just blossomed and sounded fresh..I feel like there were so many more awesome bands than now.. pavement, Dino Jr., MBV, Swirlies, Helium, YLT, were coming out with consistantly amazing records and touring, etc etc etc. I feel like the whole spirit of the late 80's + 90's is now gone and been replaced with this wannabe majorlabel sounding BS with no soul..of course there are a few great bands doing things now but the whole music scene seems withered in spirit to me..I am too young to have been recording then..so i couldnt comment on that..short of cassette tapes were the delivery medium and now cd is that a huge shift imho..then the phasing out of the 4 track..a lot more people were using those..just some random thoughts..the Kali Yuga of indie rock came at the turn of the millenium..
Last edited by I'm Painting Again on Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Rigsby » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:50 am

The beginning of music being compressed to death, doubled and hard panned guitar parts, lo-fi double-tracked vocals, electronic drumbeats and distorted guitars together, angsty vocals, swirly logos, lots of chorus like TV says, 'ethnic' electronica, probably lots more, but that's what comes to mind so far.
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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by AstroDan » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:46 am

The Enigma/white bread/hip-hop beat infused with ethno-urban acoustic/adult contemporary/coffe-house folk guitar singer-songwriting.
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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by tiger vomitt » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:53 am

AstroDan wrote:The Enigma/white bread/hip-hop beat infused with ethno-urban acoustic/adult contemporary/coffe-house folk guitar singer-songwriting.
i still get people asking me for that. unfortunately it has not be eradicated yet.

if im facing the speakers when asked for it i do this :roll:

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:14 am

tiger vomitt wrote:
AstroDan wrote:The Enigma/white bread/hip-hop beat infused with ethno-urban acoustic/adult contemporary/coffe-house folk guitar singer-songwriting.
i still get people asking me for that. unfortunately it has not be eradicated yet.

if im facing the speakers when asked for it i do this :roll:
you guys are crazy that stuff is the best..

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Reverend » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:36 am

Its funny that 4 tracks are so out .I got my first 4 track in 1987 when I was 14.I wanted to record my band "THE UNSEEN" and we didn't have the money to go to a studio.
When I was 16 I bought a Teac 3340s and a 12 channel Ross mixer from a pawn shop I still use the 3340s all the time.
I guess I'm kinda lucky because I never tried to make my recordings sound like songs on the radio I just want them to sound as good as the punk and hardcore stuff I was listening to and that wasn't too hard to do with what I use.
There were a lot of great bands in the late 80s early 90s that sound real good to me like Helios Creed,BALL,Helmet,Flaming Lips,MBV,Sonic Youth,Butthole Surfers,Mudhoney,Dinosaur jr , ect...
Thanks REVEREND

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by JGriffin » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:45 am

BEARD_OF_BEES wrote: I feel like the whole spirit of the late 80's + 90's is now gone and been replaced with this wannabe majorlabel sounding BS with no soul..
Major Label wannabe BS with no soul...sounds like the late '80s/early '90s to me...couldn't swing a dead cat in the late '80s without hitting some cookie-cutter pop metal act whoring out their newest power ballad.


...re: cliche sounds of the '90s. A negative review of a CD I put out in 1996 said that the "DJ breakdown" was the "big gooshy gated snare" of the '90s...funnily enough, there was no DJ breakdown on the CD!
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I'm Painting Again
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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:57 am

dwlb wrote:
BEARD_OF_BEES wrote: I feel like the whole spirit of the late 80's + 90's is now gone and been replaced with this wannabe majorlabel sounding BS with no soul..
Major Label wannabe BS with no soul...sounds like the late '80s/early '90s to me...couldn't swing a dead cat in the late '80s without hitting some cookie-cutter pop metal act whoring out their newest power ballad.
yeah true but im thinking from a different pov than that..you know..

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by joel hamilton » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:16 am

Nothing changes. There are people that want the exact sounds they are hearing "on the radio" in the time frame they are making the recording, and there are people that make music that lives outside of this "flavor of the month" type idea of "what music sounds like."

I enjoy working with the latter.

There are things I did in 1994 that still sound great to me, and not in a nostalgic way, because the band was so into sounding like themselves, rather than making a flavor of the month recording that would sound dated in a few years. It is now 11 years later and that stuff sounds cool still. Timeless.

I hope to always get something happening that has a fingerprint, one that says something about the band and not the current approach to sounds in general.

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Jay » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:31 am

Ooh! DJs in bands!

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Milkmansound » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:37 am

there seemed to be only one drumbeat circulating around in the 90's. You can hear it in that Enigma track - in the Heavy D and the Boys Track "Now that we found Love" in "That Girl is Poison" and Sinead O'Connors hits, Seal's hits, the list goes on and on.

Another thing the bugs me about 90's rock music is the sterile digital ADAT/Tascam sound. Everything was super clean and lifeless. Thank God people do not do that anymore - I mean I have many many albums from unsigned bands in the 90' sand they all sound the same. Or the first release on a major label - like Phish's "A Picture of Nectar" or Pearl Jam's "Ten" Alice in Chains "Dirt" Stone temple.... the list goes on. There was an aesthetic there that is similar to the pop stuff with that one drumbeat.

In conclusion - I think the 90's was all about formula, and I think thats one of the many reasons why now a decade later the industry is completely fucked and the game is changing daily.
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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Zoltar » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:40 am

The 90s were high school and university for me, so lots of recording with not much equiptment. The bands and albums I remember are the likes of Eric's Trip, the flaming lips, modest mouse, but also the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana.

So the production I realte with is the Lo-Fi, use speakers as mics on the drums, basement recordings. If you don't know, 'sunlight' by Eric's trip, and can't think of a better example.

But then there is the great studio work of Butch Vig, who made Nirvana sound like the 80's and the Pumpkins sound much better.

I think MBV Loveless really stands out. For years, people have been reaching for that, it is a benchmark, compared to so often in reviews and bios. People still use too much compression, if only someone could make an album that sounded that good on vinyl (the mix is dead but that doesn't show up on cd because all cds sound dead)

Lo-fi is more than just crappy gear, it is the whole 'mobile studio, everyone can write songs and play them' and 'music is accessible' approach. Even though the recording is quite nice, Neutral Milk Hotel's 'in the airplane over the sea' captures the 90's Lo-fi vibe perfectly.

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Re: Sounds of the 90s

Post by Knights Who Say Neve » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:45 am

Milkmansound wrote:there seemed to be only one drumbeat circulating around in the 90's. You can hear it in that Enigma track - in the Heavy D and the Boys Track "Now that we found Love" in "That Girl is Poison" and Sinead O'Connors hits, Seal's hits, the list goes on and on.
There were only two beats in electronic music- amen, and 4 on the floor. Entire styles were defined by which beat you used. :wink:
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