Hi

What do you think? why this 1979 track sounds so punchy, the groove and transients make you wanna dance...
In what ways was it arranged, mixed and mastered differently than todays 'popular' music?
For sure, the tracks wasn't squashed for loudness, but other differences than that?

cheers

 

Great musicians, great songs with great arrangements where the tracking process was meticulous. Also, 100% analog gear!

 

people nature movements v. machines

 

The meticulous process of recording takes to tape ensuring a musician had really practiced their parts to play them their best. Recording many musicians in a band at one time keeps the music played tightly but with still a little variance unlike digital quantization; so it has the groove of a jam and not someone doing single part recordings.

The sound of tape and all analog can help with the actual sound quality; but musicians recording to tape play their best and most accurate takes to avoid musical mistakes, because rewinding tape and doing retakes is not exactly fun. They are also expensive, in theory; and no-one wants to be the band member who keeps screwing up their parts.

 

People today are obsessed with trivial things wasting way too much energy on minutiae rather than on art
this guy will explain better than me

 

I dunno, it's so tight, yet so sloppy

 

Many reasons, but mostly balancing. No way a snare that 'weak' would be left alone by current producers, who are addicted to loudness, punch and snap.

 

drugs and lack of quantize

 

In 1979....
...real musicians, playing real instruments, being recorded to analog tape with minimal facility for do over's. which means "takes" are re-run in their entirety not note by note. sure there's the capability of "punch-ins" and physical tape editing (with a razor blade and splicing block) but the digital fix-it-in-the-mix attitude was unheard of back then. this makes a stage for a lot of happy-accidents, but not so talented players/singers were unable to forest-gump their way thru a session. if you sucked as a player or a singer you simply sucked. which is the way it should be IMO... if digital was taken away tomorrow, you would see at least 85% of the so-called "artists" of today disappear from the media stage. good riddance as far as I'm concerned...

++ engineers who recorded and mixed audio did so in order to make a final product that sounded good. they weren't not involved in stupid competitions to see who could make the shittiest tracks sound as loud and distorted as possible...

 

Last edited: Jul 23, 2025 at 1:22 AM

that song in particular is timeless and stands out from that era for a reason. theres tons of songs that were recorded in similar ways in the same style by skilled musicians and engineers with similar gear: who didnt write anything that infectious or stuck with people the way that did, a lot of it majority of people havent even heard - you could do everything they did and not get that result, ive listened too a lot of older funk music, most of it isnt like that

nothing wrong with curiosity and interest though, i also love that song; just what i think from experience

like this song is similar in style and considered a more modern mainstream classic, the groove is also infectious and it will probably be timeless - that just comes from songwriting and understanding groove in relation to melody and rhythm. you could use all the recording techniques The Whispers did, if the groove doesnt hit, it wont hit. their song was most likely as infectious before they even put it to tape

 

There was a different spirit back then; people were very motivated, lively, and full of love for music. It was system magic; today it's digital calculation. What you hear is the zeitgeist of that time, which is almost impossible to recreate today.

It usually depends on the equipment used and the sound engineer. If a sound engineer has the right equipment, expertise, and professional experience, music can sound great.

 

Last edited: Jul 23, 2025 at 8:36 AM

Yep, that's definitely a big reason of why the music from those decades felt so deep, the way of looking at the mixing and mastering was always in favour of the best way to preserve the original microdynamics and macrodynamics of the recordings and the music. Sadly we don't see this anymore, now everybody is tainted by the mentality of "competitive" volume or loudness, which is notting more than "let's see how much I can destroy the the transients and how red my volume meters can go so the song is now more competitive than the rest" BS.
I myself have mastered my own music with the mentality of preserving the most dynamics possible (it's electronic intense music!) and oh man, I couldn't be happier of listening and feeling the same things you feel when listening to this funk song from 1979's.
I really hope that music streaming platforms decrease their loudness standards so the dynamic music can shine even more.

I also love Tame Impala, however, curiously one one of the things that made me NOT enjoy this album was it's heavy compressed and limited mastering. If only they were more influenced and inspired by the good mixing practices of the past then maybe we could be witnessing a great album.

 

No, just generating lots of transients.

 

No lack of drugs in studios today. It just seems that Coke & Quantize isn't the winning formula.

 

Nothing better than live bands & todays robot music has no swing & sounds monotonous repetitive.

 

Analog devices yes,but most important..back then they got inspiration and feeling..nowadays dem dont have a lot....dem do lots of covering,nuttin new under the sun.One cant turn cold made music sound warm pon digital wise either

 

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simply the times...

 

theres A LOT of music and songs from that era that are absolutely forgettable. a LOT of them also from this band and from these sessions.
It's a well written track that would still sound good today even if recorded track by track.
we can discuss analog gear and recording together bla bla bla but the fact of the matter is that not all of the songs these guys have from the same era same studio same engineers will sound as good as this. so let's not gloss over that fact. otherwise it would be smash after smash, right?
hey johnny cash has amazing songs from the beginning of his career as well. but half of the records didn't sound as good as the hits and are as equally forgettable.
just something to think about. there's still good music being done today, but maybe not under the major spotlight if you will.
I absolutely love this era and i love the vintage sound, but some songs even very well played and sounding amazing are absolute fillers. elvis is another. love him to death, but some songs not as much haha