Everyone in the creative field asks that question. Especially when it is the first time we are encountered with it. Actually in most aspects of the professional world people may ask that question, but we will stick to Music Production.
I recently finished working on a reggae song and the client wanted a Bob Marley type sound on it. So to oblige my customers request I went to doing my home work. I listened to the songs on Itunes (which i had recently discovered degrades the songs just a bit but we will talk about that later ;)), borrowed my brother’s cd and listened to radio to get as much reference points as possible.
For the most part it was pretty consistent on all mediums . Then I asked myself the title of this blog.
I tried various eq’s in the song and also tried the different mediums to my disposal to get that sound.
And then I stumbled upon an article that I wish I had copied for you guys to see for yourself the results.
An engineer who’s name I cant remember anymore told me about tape saturation. Now this term is pretty well known in the music industry but it is still not that well documented for easy retrieval.
The short of the long story is to get that sound you can use a plugin like the one in the waves bundle and work with your bias setting. Small alternating settings will really emulate the mechanical personalities of the real tape machines.
Some high end studio still have the original Tape machine to run their audio through but those things are very big, cumbersome, and expensive to maintain. Did i mention that to repair them requires a special patience and is not for the faint of heart?
Every genre of music has it’s own unique sound and every single person working on that project is unique . All these things come together to get the end result so don’t kill yourself over copying to the exact detail something that is already done.
Going for the feel or idea is fine and the journey even though frustrating is worth it at the end.
Once your client is happy and pleased with your results you have done your job and …Empowered……their dreams.