Vocals, very low quallity/ 50's-70's music

[cmgoodman1226]

I love that mowtown sound. I'm assuming you don't like any boom bap style hip hop virtual mark? You can say what you will about music nowadays, but frankly, contemporary soul songs just don't sound the same to me.

At the op: It's not necessarily that the vox in that video were cleaned up, it's just that they were placed decently (I say decently because the song is mixed pretty badly), in the mix and in context with everything around it. Rather than focusing on just "cleaning it up", why don't you try and pinpoint which parts of the sound you want, and which parts you don't want and move along from there. I know it sounds a bit obvious but try and figure out what it is about the sound that isn't clean. Is there too much background noise? if so, what frequency range is it in? Secondly hi pass those vocals, because you most likely don't need the bass from the original tune in your track. Also try doing a google search for "cleaning up vocals". I can guarentee there's a ton of information on the net about different techniques.

[nowaysj]

^ and sometimes, nothing will work and you've got to cut your loses.

[cmgoodman1226]

^ and sometimes, nothing will work and you've got to cut your loses.

Oh for sure. Some things are too fargone. You can only "clean" something up so much.

[wormcode]

It's funny you should say all that.. because I feel like music has gotten shittier (with some exceptions ofc) than the past. You always here people referring back to those 'classic' records/bands/sounds, not referring to anything current. Does that have to do with what equipment was being used? Indirectly yea I think so.

Equipment can add character yeah, but I think the methods used and being very limited is a large part of it too. Anyone who wants to make music right now pretty much has no limits except for the initial learning curve. They can get software that can do pretty much anything without having to pay a cent. Back then if you wanted to record some songs you had to slave away and pay up big time. So people who were lucky enough to have studios knew how to work their equipment like magic and I think it was reflected in the music. Kind of like how King Tubby couldn't afford to get his equipment fixed, so he fixed it himself in his own way or built his own delays and it pretty much gave birth to a lot of effects and sounds we now take for granted. A lot of pop music today IMO mostly seems like a pissing contest to churn out single after single of largely devoid music. Not all of it of course...

@VirtualMark
Yeah it can definitely be gimmicky too. I'm not trying to complain though as without the digital takeover I couldn't have such nice equipment and software. It's made it possible for anyone to make music easily now. It's probably largely to do with nostalgia as well. I miss how music sounded when I was a kid listening to my grandparent's record collection. On the USB stick versus room full of records... guess which side I'm on lol. I just can't make that same physical connection with digital media. It does of course have huge benefits though and I do appreciate it.

[nowaysj]

People also didn't have shit to do back in the day. Most of you were probably born into the bosom of the internet, but back in the day, shit like never happened, and people were ignorant as fuck. But what they did do, they did helluv well. People just SERIOUSLY played the piano, or sang. It was like the only thing to do. Take your excess wasted time daily, like 4 hours spent on nothing substantive, and put that into learning the trumpet, day in, day out for 10 years... you're going to play that trumpet pretty damn well... when it came time to record, those players could play their instruments. And not too long ago, a band would work all summer to pool up money to record a demo in a cut rate studio. They'd work hard for that money, and work hard on those songs...

Anyway, those old motown songs just drip with vibe, but I think it has little to do with compressors and eq's.

[Huts]

wormcode summed up how i feel

[Lucifa]

I don't get this.. why would a 'motown sound' be sought after? Surely the technology used to record this old music was inferior to the stuff available today? They used it because they had no option, yet people today want to go back to a low fi era? Baffles me.

Because a lot of modern music sounds really cold and cynical. Music loses a lot of character when the sounds are blatently digital. Roughing up the edges makes everything more alive and imperfect, making it easier to dissociate from 'oh well thats clearly a sawtooth ran thru a flanger' etc. etc.

[frankiegrimes]

How about buying the 12"/7" and sampling from that instead of some shitty mp3?

Also, use multiband compression as a sidechain to take out the backround etc behind the vocals.

i think you mean gate

Nope, I mean multiband compression.

[Today]

I don't get this.. why would a 'motown sound' be sought after? Surely the technology used to record this old music was inferior to the stuff available today? They used it because they had no option, yet people today want to go back to a low fi era? Baffles me.

That era is not lo-fi... lo-fi is like shitty punk and indie.

the 50's through 70's had some of the most beautiful sounding gear ever made, and some of the limitations combined with amazing tube amps and real reverb tanks resulted in an iconic sound
Things have really plateaued, the only real benefit now is we can make shit smaller.

[VirtualMark]

That era is not lo-fi... lo-fi is like shitty punk and indie.

the 50's through 70's had some of the most beautiful sounding gear ever made, and some of the limitations combined with amazing tube amps and real reverb tanks resulted in an iconic sound
Things have really plateaued, the only real benefit now is we can make shit smaller.

Lol of course, technology gets worse with time, we all know that, right?

I think you've totally missed my point. You know that i'm not referring to punk or indie in the context of this discussion, dont you? For the record this is the definition of high fidelity:

high-fidelity - characterized by minimal distortion in sound reproduction; "a high-fidelity recording"; "a hi-fi system"
hi-fi
accurate - conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a standard or performing with total accuracy; "an accurate reproduction"; "the accounting was accurate"; "accurate measurements"; "an accurate scale"

And the definition of low fi:

Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response. The term "low-fidelity" is used in contrast to the audiophile term high fidelity or "hi-fi", which refers to stereo equipment that very accurately reproduces music without harmonic distortion or unwanted frequency emphasis or resonance.

Perhaps you could provide an example of a hi-fi 50's recording?

[Today]

tech didn't get worse but industry backing has. back then if a group had potential they got to record in the best rooms with the best players and microphones
shit just sounded sweeter

just sayin that sound isn't generally referred to as lo-fi.. not that it's literally high fidelity. i'd call it neither. Just a beautiful and highly sought-after sound that's impossible to replicate

[lloydy]

Not getting involved in the technical speak going on here just dropped by to say there is a pack of mo town acapellas knocking around the interwebs,i have it but it is easily found through the use of google and ones fingers.
It is brimming with classics and some are damn fine quality if anyone is interested.
Sorry to butt in as you were.

Edit:i just read the op and realised how off topic my post was,oh well i'll shut up then.

[nowaysj]

Are you being English? If not, yeah most relevant post so far, yeah?

[DiRTyHAiRy]

EQ plays a good part. youtube will probly be your answer. either for tutorials or maybe quality.

[cmgoodman1226]

How about buying the 12"/7" and sampling from that instead of some shitty mp3?

Also, use multiband compression as a sidechain to take out the backround etc behind the vocals.

i think you mean gate

Nope, I mean multiband compression.

he wasn't referring to the compression; he was referring to using gating as opposed to sidechaining.