Analog-ising

[Roqqert]

its funny really, most analogue producers spend their time trying to reduce the level of any noise/hiss to zero.

i think theres a lot more to something sounding analogue than adding a bit of noise. i really dont know why anyone would want to do that.

if you want a dirty raw analogue sound, get something analogue to do it.
why fake it ? i realise thats not what you want to hear, but its just the way it is.
the tone and timbre of any instrument is so important, use the right gear for the sound you want.

just my 2 cents.

This, in reality, is the best advice in this thread, and is the very reason I just got to saving money and buying gear.

some people don't have the money for analoge gear so imho .. this advice sucks bigtime ! no offense. You can send your sounds through tape decks or do it in other ways, but to say that you need to analoge stuff to get something analoge... thats bullcrap. That sh!t is in your head. You're just looking for some kind of character in your sound. Your analoge gear has that particular character, but why not adding a different kinda warmth character to it?

You can shape things to analoge imho. It takes some creativity. I can imagine people don't wanna spend that time.

[steevio]

its funny really, most analogue producers spend their time trying to reduce the level of any noise/hiss to zero.

i think theres a lot more to something sounding analogue than adding a bit of noise. i really dont know why anyone would want to do that.

if you want a dirty raw analogue sound, get something analogue to do it.
why fake it ? i realise thats not what you want to hear, but its just the way it is.
the tone and timbre of any instrument is so important, use the right gear for the sound you want.

just my 2 cents.

This, in reality, is the best advice in this thread, and is the very reason I just got to saving money and buying gear.

some people don't have the money for analoge gear so imho .. this advice sucks bigtime ! no offense. You can send your sounds through tape decks or do it in other ways, but to say that you need to analoge stuff to get something analoge... thats bullcrap. That sh!t is in your head. You're just looking for some kind of character in your sound. Your analoge gear has that particular character, but why not adding a different kinda warmth character to it?

You can shape things to analoge imho. It takes some creativity. I can imagine people don't wanna spend that time.

well come down off your soapbox and read what i said
' if you want a dirty raw analogue sound, get something analogue to do it.'

is sending your your sounds through tape decks not using something analogue ?? youre the one talking bullcrap bro, no offense.

i was refering to the mixing of noise into digtal recordings to emulate analogue, which personally doesnt do it for me. i dont think thats 'some sh!t in my head' its just science.

and all this 'some people dont have the money to buy analogue gear' whats all that about ?, but you do have the money to buy computers, software, controllers, etc etc. or are you using cracks ?

'analogue' does not equate to 'expensive' necessarily, there are plenty of cheap analogue solutions.

[loranga]

its funny really, most analogue producers spend their time trying to reduce the level of any noise/hiss to zero.

i think theres a lot more to something sounding analogue than adding a bit of noise. i really dont know why anyone would want to do that.

if you want a dirty raw analogue sound, get something analogue to do it.
why fake it ? i realise thats not what you want to hear, but its just the way it is.
the tone and timbre of any instrument is so important, use the right gear for the sound you want.

just my 2 cents.

This, in reality, is the best advice in this thread, and is the very reason I just got to saving money and buying gear.

some people don't have the money for analoge gear so imho .. this advice sucks bigtime ! no offense. You can send your sounds through tape decks or do it in other ways, but to say that you need to analoge stuff to get something analoge... thats bullcrap. That sh!t is in your head. You're just looking for some kind of character in your sound. Your analoge gear has that particular character, but why not adding a different kinda warmth character to it?

You can shape things to analoge imho. It takes some creativity. I can imagine people don't wanna spend that time.

I like to think of analoge sounds as I think of film and cgi. I mean its possible to make a movie of a running man just with a computer, but its easier to simply record a man running if thats exactly what you want.
If you want to create a flying dinosaure though, computers might be better
It might be possible for people to get some cheap analoge gear that are really good at some few things, ive heard alot of good things about the waldorf pulse and dsi mopho and these synths used costs something like a vst.

[Dusk]

i was refering to the mixing of noise into digtal recordings to emulate analogue, which personally doesnt do it for me. i dont think thats 'some sh!t in my head' its just science.

Think Roqqert lost the plot a bit there but i agree with him to an extent.

You say here that the typical sound of analogue is ultimately down to science (and not some magical pixie dust) well, if it thats the case, then it IS possible to emulate.

Maybe its beyond the CPU capability someone has, or the effort they're willing to put in, but because its science (for example, the characteristic harmonics imparted by overdriven tape and tubes which we might call "warmth", the amount of noise in the signal, etc) I definitely won't stop trying to achieve "that" sound with all the digital tools I have at my disposal.

And who cares if the end product isn't exactly like an analogue desk or compressor, Ive still put some of my own warmth and character into my recording :-)

All imo of course...

[damagedgoods]

i was refering to the mixing of noise into digtal recordings to emulate analogue, which personally doesnt do it for me. i dont think thats 'some sh!t in my head' its just science.

Think Roqqert lost the plot a bit there but i agree with him to an extent.

You say here that the typical sound of analogue is ultimately down to science (and not some magical pixie dust) well, if it thats the case, then it IS possible to emulate.

Maybe its beyond the CPU capability someone has, or the effort they're willing to put in, but because its science (for example, the characteristic harmonics imparted by overdriven tape and tubes which we might call "warmth", the amount of noise in the signal, etc) I definitely won't stop trying to achieve "that" sound with all the digital tools I have at my disposal.

And who cares if the end product isn't exactly like an analogue desk or compressor, Ive still put some of my own warmth and character into my recording :-)

All imo of course...

+1 on all of this except the bit about noise. DSP analog emulation has come a long way and often noise is the only thing missing in terms of the actual sound.

For the record, I'm not saying that people shouldn't go out and buy analogue gear to get an analogue sound, just that if you want the extreme effects of lo-fi analogue recording, there's more to it than simply using an analogue synth or two, and that some of these grungey effects can be done very effectively in the digital domain. Maybe I shouldn't have called the topic "analog-ising". I'm on about making things sound rawer, more organic, less clean. Analog gear is inherently more like that, but you don't necessarily need an entirely analog signal path to do it.

But in any case, I wasn't just asking for digital methods!

[tone-def]

I'm on about making things sound rawer, more organic, less clean. Analog gear is inherently more like that, but you don't necessarily need an entirely analog signal path to do it.

don't process things so much and it will be a lot rawer and less clean. it's raw in the first place, unless it's from a sample CD. it sounds like your trying to uncook a meal.

if you want organic get some mic's and record acoustic instruments.

maybe your definition of raw, organic and clean are different to mine.

[steevio]

ok i think the point i was trying make was that its real easy to analog-ise by actually using analogue kit to do it, and it doesnt have to mean buying expensive gear, and it makes alot more sense to me than messing around adding noise to your pristine digital recordings.

i'm not saying dont use saturation plugins etc, i was reacting to the notion of adding noise. what kind of noise are you going to add ? the noise you get from analogue gear is often rich and almost musical and is related to the gear. for instance in the noise i get from my sherman filterbank i can hear all sorts of weird musical sounding artifacts coming from the filters etc.
it doesnt sound like noise, it just sounds like what happens when you use a sherman.

noise isnt just noise.

anyway ive said my bit now.

[damagedgoods]

maybe your definition of raw, organic and clean are different to mine.

I think that must be the case. What I mean by raw: old acid house records, complete with noise, vinyl scratches and crackles, overdriven channels. Omar S is raw. Basic Channel is raw. Joey Beltram circa 1993 is raw. I would probably describe most of these as "organic" too - by organic I don't mean acoustic, I mean "not sterile".

By clean I mean, well, clean. This can be good (Monolake, Sahko, Sleeparchive, etc) or bad (er... most modern minimal techno ).

By these definitions, when you're working with a digital setup, no processing generally means leads to clean, not raw.