"vintage" and "modern"
are just two words.
they are meant to be a shortcut, but to clearly speak about them in the type of topic you present here, you have to get into the details of what kind of shortcut these words are describing.
when dealing with audio signal you have either a clean transparent path where the gear is invisible as possible(modern)
or you have the gear used imparting a quality to the audio .(vintage)
it does this with artifacts or adding harmonics adjusting impedance and loading clipping saturating and compressing ,all in ways that have non-linearity based on the voltage and shape of the incoming signal.
when you begin to look at this reality of what makes vintage gear what it actually is
we can see that modern times have not excluded "vintage" gear, modern times have just added the option of going transparent and invisible.
in conclusion we just have more options now, we can do anything that was done in the past " recycled materials and quality of tubes and tape in modem times is another matter and factor" but all things equal we can use vintage or use a more transparent set of tools.
these are tools that your mind does the real work.
there is no magic push one button and done, or plug into one chain or piece of gear and done.
you have all kinds of options and if you seek the knowledge to do so, you can get the results in your vision.

 

I am very impressed by some of the posts here. There is a real understanding of what vintage gear was and the clarity of audio we are blessed with today. I originally started this thread because I was perturbed by plugins trying to emulate the crap sound we were not happy with as engineers in the 60s.
Thank you. Spencer

 

Is melda stuff really that better from the competition? Who is behind that company, how long have they been around?

 

I must say that I have worked on both the MTurboEQ and MTurboComp. I had serious input to both of these.
But technically I find Vojtech the owner and creator of Melda the most competent coder thats out there.
He actually understands HiFi. All their stuff has a Sonic quality that is very pleasing and you know you are not degrading your sound by going through their plugins.
The thing that is absolutely fabulous about the Melda plugins is they use a central engine. This makes CPU really low.
Unlike the quality of anything built by softube that seems to have a plastic sheet over it.
I am not saying I like all the Melda plugins. I just don't like the distortion or amp simulation. But Vojtech just does not like the CLA type of distortion and wont add it.
I see Melda as the HiFi version of Waves.
Spencer

 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2017

Please explain why these Melda plugins that I have never heard of a so good?

 

http://meldaproduction.com download a demo. See for yourself.

 

i don't have to explain anything to you,you have to start explaining things to yourself my friend,peace.
To the OP greetings to Australia ! & to every other magnificent place of our Planet Earth !

 

I Love U Allan Watts xxx

 

Cheers I've just downloaded the bundle, thanks for your help!

 

@spencer26
As studio owner /producer, I wouldn't dare going back to tape recording.
But it is certainly not because of the hiss... It's mainly because i find that the exceptional musicians i used to work with in the yesteryear are no longer exceptional. And finding top class musicians with a personal style, touch and sound is becoming more hard as time goes by. You see, from my pov, evolution is nice but it has also given birth to certain defects. Digital has given people a tremendous ego boost. They can do it all in the box and alone. So imho, we 've gained a myriad of conveniences but the ethos, dedication and passion that made musicians stand out from the other artists is now a rare commodity.
I hate how, not only young, but even older guys have now become sloppy players. I hate how singers don't make the effort they should. Not because they can't play or sing, but because they know you 'll edit it, i mean wtf, some of them edit their stuff at home lol. Perhaps its just me getting older and grumpier. I seriously doubt it though. 99% of the music i hear is just polished turds. I can enjoy it but even at its best it feels like a premature ejaculation, you know? And yes, i blame digital for this and of course the human mentality. And in a strange way, my lust for new cool and exciting music to listen to, is turning more and more to artists who aren't really musicians, in the traditional way. At least they sound fresh and not like microwaved cans from WWII.
As for the Beatles example, i believe it is quite misleading. Here is something that was recorded in 1958 :

Lastly... Nothing beats open reel sound. It is saturated to perfection and makes for a cool sociological survey too, for the "never-heard-my-shit-sound-like-this dude" younger gens, if you know what i mean. Digital, while relatively close, it still has a long way to go. Anyone who has A/B 'd even a simple Otari multitrack vs. what may the best digital like ProTools or Pyramix etc knows the score. Everyone else can rest assure that their digital soundcards are the shiznits.
With respect
Cheers

 

You are not wrong M8 - anyone remember the hotlixx? This is actually how people are making music these days, pushing a couple of buttons triggering a few samples, mashing shit up that doesn't go together. These scumbag producers of today should be slapped for uploading their vile and pathetic tracks to the cloud. It was better in the old days when labels would tell these talentless morons to "Fuck Off and Die"

 

You can indirectly blame the CD for the state of affairs.
When CDs first came in everybody rereleased there old catalog on CDs creating huge sales in CDs.
Sony saw this and bought heavily into the record industry not realizing this was a one off situation.
Then the bosses at Sony started complaining they wern't making the money they expected, so the Accountants talk over.
That is the situation today the music industry run by accountants.
Spencer

 

I never heard it put that way, man that is VERY insightful! Makes a LOT of sense too...

 

The sound in my head is a band playing live together in a room with microphones strategically placed so that the bleed enhances the overall sound. The drums are recorded with just three mics on the kit, one being a good mono mic a few feet in front of the kick. A reference track for the main vocal taken live but could be redone later, no problem. The band needs to keep doing takes until there is a good one. Played to a click, editing is facilitated during mixing. And no, the band is NOT allowed in the control room when the songs are being mixed but their feedback for revisions by ONE MEMBER OF THE BAND that represents their wishes is welcome and can be there as long as they do not feign to be a professional producer and tell me how to do my job. The drumner needs use my kit which is tuned for each song and sounds killer. They can bring their own snare.

 

Hello here

I like this subject, and I'm going to put in my little grain of salt I've read some relevant and wise things, if I may say so,

For me, it is indeed a problem the work of the instrument, effort and effort and must bleed...

how many times have you heard, we'll fix it in the mix? mmm? I said it myself (ok it was a very long time ago)

very frustrating, isn't it? There is no such thing as a miracle in this field, digital effects are sometimes extraordinary, I think of melodyne.

computer music allows both creative approaches (sound design) and corrective (eq compression reverb etc.) for me the vsti are sound design eh, there is no drummer or violinist under the hood.

everyone has something to say about it, but where the hell are the musicians?

I'm probably going to get rotten, but beatles the sound is not their first quality for the simple reason that the standard material to listen had the size of auratones; o) and that it was the kids who listened that it was on a radio (loudspeaker 3 centimetres) the sound of their concerts were so bad that they didn't want to do any more. but damn it, they were writing unforgettable songs.

Let us not forget that the neumann U87 dates back to the 60's, to mention only this one.

the best classical music and jazz recordings date back to this magical 50/60 period, the recordings were made in multi microphones and two tracks.

I took my first slap while listening to this vinyl album and I don't like the genre at all, just the crack crack crack crack there was no hiss.

It's in digital that it because of the support, so for me, all the digital effects tape etc. add a subtle harmonic distortion and if you put the package it makes the ears bleed and adds a ton of hiss, but it's another subject.

all this to say what?

that it's always made me laugh the title "sound engineer."

for me it's a craftsman's job, we have tools, we mix it and we cut a diamond, (or a zircon depends)

tools x or y is the secret of the "sound engineer. each sauce tastes different.

we have to work constantly and get back on the job, and when you think you know, you don't know anything, at least that's my motto.

and last but not least, we live in a great time and I love it, you can discover the music of a small band from northern equatorial Tanzania, you know those who rehearse just behind the bakery? if they have internet.

Thank you for reading so far.

kisses from Spain

 

I must say the reason I added the Beatles track as a reference was that so many companies are trying to emulate the in-house EMI Abbey Road hardware.
Listening to the result of that hardware and having used that hardware extensively, it had the same problems as all hardware from those times.
Distortion, Head Room, Noise, Hiss and what went in one end did not come out the other.
Every engineer wanted to start with the original sound uneffected by the artifacts of the technology.
How many times have I listened to playback of tape as soon as I put it down and asked what happened to my sound.
Adding the artifacts of the old technology is a relatively new technique.
Engineers were striving to get the fullest most accurate reproduction of the source.
If you listen now to Classical Orchestral Recording out of Europe we are hearing the dissapearance of the Decca Tree as the sole source of the recording. We are now seeing Multimike technique the same as we do now in Film. The sound is extraordinary.
Great Conductors With incredible recordings.
One example.

Enjoy modern Technology.
Spencer

 

Devil's advocate:
>Engineers were striving to get the fullest most accurate reproduction of the source.
Photorealism meant something totally different before photography.
> the same as we do now in Film
can't stand HD/60fps vids (which is not to say adding Vegas scratches/flicker/LUTs -- "film effects" -- is the answer).

 

hey ted, cover up yer titts you are giving me a cartoon boner.

 

Neither.

 

Was alluding to your analogy, assumed you'd see the connection. My bad; I'll rephrase:

Are we talking about burning IRL tape with an IRL Studer, or downloading ̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶n̶s̶t̶a̶g̶r̶a̶m̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶t̶e̶r̶ a VST & watching an animated gif of tape rolling in your DAW of choice?

Not to say noise is always a bad thing -- when the original is garbage, adding noise can hide some of the horror & ...well, make its failings less irritating/noticeable. A bit.

 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2017