Analog Vs Digital. Would it be possible to make a score recorded today to sound like it was recorded in the 1970s?

[Mr. Gitz 85]

Film scoring aesthetic & history fascinate me. How different eras produce different sounds. One thing I’ve always wondered is do different eras sound so different due to technology or technique? In the 1940s film scores had this certain sound to them. It was like they were recorded using smaller orchestras. There was a lack of woodwinds used it seems. It was all very brash and harsh.

 

But my favourite era is the 1970s(for the sound produced). There’s something about the sound of some of those John Williams film scores. It sounds as if the recording equipment can barely contain what’s being produced. For example the end of Close Encounters when all those violins/strings just go nuts, you know the moment I mean? Or in Jaws and the cue “The Great Shark Chase”. I love that cue. The music is so happy and the juxtaposition is odd. It reminds me more of music you’d hear in Willy Wonka than a thriller about a killer shark. It’s wonderful. And the sound, the aesthetic, is so specific and unlike anything you’d hear today.
 

Or even something like Jerry Goldsmiths beautiful Chinatown score. You can tell when it was recorded just by listening to the aesthetics. I can’t quite describe it. There’s a warmth to it. Is it just an analog Vs digital thing? Is it that simple? Or did were recordings done different beyond the technology?

 

I have this dream, which will never happen but it’s a dream none the less, of making a film using only techniques and technology available up until 1984. Everything. From cameras, filmstock, audio, visual effects & editing and music. Nothing used past 1984. Why? The limits, the aesthetics, the discipline. Think about how different films are now that anything a filmmaker can imagine is possible. Sometimes it’s wonderful. Other times…not so much. You realize limits fuel creativity. Star Wars is an amazing example of that. Had CGI existed in 1977, that would be a very different film. Limitations made Star Wars a better film. Lucas couldn’t do so much of what he wanted so he had to reimagine it to fit the limitations of the time.  
 

i don’t hate digital or anything. But there’s something about analog that just feels different. In almost everything. Digital cinematography Vs film, CGI Vs Optical effects, in animation especially. I look at the older Disney movies and the colours produced in the tradition ink & paint era have such beauty and richness to them. I miss that look. Just because a process makes something look cleaner, brighter and is easier/cheaper doesn’t automatically make it better. Analog has its place. But very few seem to appreciate its aesthetics. 
 

So would it be possible to make a score sound like it was recorded in the 1970s/early 1980s? How would that work? 

[Faleel 5,359]

Probably

 

 

[Bespin 8,484]

This is weird but why not.

 

The best thing would be to listen to your music using a modern lamp/tube amplifier (they sold that on Amazon).

 

Digitally, nothing can reproduced the warm illogical compression and reverb of a tube (when a tube gets hot, it reproduce the sound differently).

 

Another option, to maybe get a sort of grammophon or mono vinyl sound would be to convert a very much detailed stereo mix in one mono channel first.

 

Then I would divide it in stereo channels and add it stereo wideness (only about 15 %).

 

Then I would play that mix using an EQ adding a bit of trebble (or removing a bit of bass).

 

Listen to an album with speakers using the Atmos filter can change the color of a recording too... not always bad, it depends what you listen to.

 

Many things to experiment!

 

 

[Mr. Gitz 85]

1 hour ago, Counterparts said:

Probably

 

 

that sounds like a 1950s composition but it doesn’t reproduce the sonic qualities, the aesthetic. At least to my ears. Thanks for sharing tho, that was cool to see. Is that a video you made or found?

58 minutes ago, Bespin said:

This is weird but why not.

 

The best thing would be to listen to your music using a modern lamp/tube amplifier (they sold that on Amazon).

 

Digitally, nothing can reproduced the warm illogical compression and reverb of a tube (when a tube gets hot, it reproduce the sound differently).

 

Another option, to maybe get a sort of grammophon or mono vinyl sound would be to convert a very much detailed stereo mix in one mono channel first.

 

Then I would divide it in stereo channels and add it stereo wideness (only about 15 %).

 

Then I would play that mix using an EQ adding a bit of trebble (or removing a bit of bass).

 

Listen to an album with speakers using the Atmos filter can change the color of a recording too... not always bad, it depends what you listen to.

 

Many things to experiment!

 

 

So you think it’s definitely a technology thing?

I guess it’s part technology, part technique. The recording process and the actual orchestrations/composition.

 

For example, you’d never hear a cue like “The great Shark Chase” from Jaws in a contemporary 2022 film. It’s definitely of it’s time. Which is a pity because it’s a wonderful cue. I imagine modern audiences seeing Jaws for the first time are taken aback when that music kicks in. Perhaps audiences in 1975 were taken aback as well since it’s so jarringly different from the rest of the score. 

[Bespin 8,484]

I just say that you can add the color you want to an existing recording, if you don't like its color.

[Edmilson 7,470]

Wasn't Michael Giacchino's score for The Incredibles recorded with analog equipments to make it sound like it was from the 60s?

[Faleel 5,359]

3 hours ago, Mr. Gitz said:

that sounds like a 1950s composition but it doesn’t reproduce the sonic qualities, the aesthetic. At least to my ears. Thanks for sharing tho, that was cool to see. Is that a video you made or found?

 

Its a mockup of a piece of music by Angela Morely.

 

I found it.

[Bespin 8,484]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Wasn't Michael Giacchino's score for The Incredibles recorded with analog equipments to make it sound like it was from the 60s?

 

For one Giacchino's score to sound like a score of the sixties, it would take much more than that.  It would have to be composed by someone else!

[Mr. Gitz 85]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Wasn't Michael Giacchino's score for The Incredibles recorded with analog equipments to make it sound like it was from the 60s?

is that true? Interesting. I’ve never heard that.

 

i still find that far and away his best score. The sequel score was such a let down. Granted a lot of his work has been disappointing since his promising start. 

[Edmilson 7,470]

12 hours ago, Mr. Gitz said:

is that true? Interesting. I’ve never heard that.

 

According to Wikipedia:

 

Quote

Giacchino noted that recording in the 1960s was largely different from modern day recording and Dan Wallin, the recording engineer, said that Bird wanted an old feel, and as such the score was recorded on analog tapes. Wallin noted that brass instruments, which are at the forefront of the film's score, sound better on analog equipment rather than digital. Wallin came from an era in which music was recorded, according to Giacchino, "the right way", which consists of everyone in the same room, "playing against each other and feeding off each other's energy". Many of Giacchino's future soundtracks followed suit with this style of mixing, which has divided critics who feel that the recordings sometimes don't sound natural. Tim Simonec was the conductor/orchestrator for the score's recording.[38]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredibles#Music