I've been listening to "Love" by Lana Del Rey rather compulsively. I didn't expect to like her music...but it affects me. I feel it.

Her sound sort of reminds me of Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" (Below)

Anyway, does that sound come from using vintage recording equipment...or is it great engineering?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. No disrespect please--because I will disrespect you back.

Peace + Love.

 

Tell me more...I'm drooling.

 

The mid-range bump is similar but apart from that I don't hear the similarity.

Could you explain what similarities you hear.

The Lana Del Rey is a multi-mic recording with lots of air and some serious layers of pillar comps, the Jo Stafford recording is rather straightforward. Can you explain what you are focused on. Also, don't underestimate the obvious - that's what she sounds like with just // shit tons of reverb and some resonance between 610 and 880 cps.

 

Oh, similarities in "feeling" only (or is it colour?), not in the technical aspects.

What are pillar comps? And what is 610 and 880 "cps"...sorry dude.

 

pillar comps = 2-3 different character comps ?

 

Guessing cycles per second (Hz), no idea about the other stuff

 

sorry old man speak.....

cps - cycles per second = Hertz = Hz

Pillar comps are character comps that you feed the vocal through and squash the crap out of it, then you mix it back at low level into the original vocal. They make a bed of compressed vocal so that you get a steady low level that is the pillar of the vocal and the original signal adds the dynamic nature of voice. You Eq out what you don't want from the color, etc,... same as usual.

The feeling is just the performer for the most part - it's a stylistic thing that she's chosen for herself or something she has a proclivity to. The look, the tone, etc... its all throwback. That's her shtick.

 

Here's an article on October's issue of Sound On Sound about Lana del Rey. You might want to buy the whole article or browse around for it. Anyway, in a couple of months the whole article will be made available in whole.

 

She has a unique voice, some of her contents are dark and thrilling and i like some of them (borderline wanna sample)
High By The Beach
Freak
Religion

Most of her music is mid scooped & treated with Tube Love (which is a great trick for, mid Clarity) everything is so thick

P.s Why disrespect back? Clickbait is the only outcome, people love to argue.

 

I agree, there is something quite special about her music. To be honest I feel like it's a lot more about her producers instrument/chord choices that give it a vintage, very impactful feeling. And of course her voice and singing style is second to none.

She may very well record and have her songs processed with vintage equipment sure, nothing you couldn't get close to with things like Virtual Mix Rack, vintage modeled Waves plugins, all that jazz.

So the mids are scooped out, but then later treated with tube distortion, which add back harmonics to the mids? Kinda confused by that, please explain, I really wanna know how to get a similar sound if that is indeed how her songs are processed.

I agree, her track Carmen:

is incredible, very dark and moving.

 

Hey @Introninja...for some reason this thread duplicated...is there a way of combining the two? The other one has valuable information too.

 

She use iphone for that vintage feel, to call her producer, who make the track using reverb compression and EQ

 

There's definitely some mono spring or plate reverb on her voice which adds to the vintage feel. But that and the saturation on the voice are the only elements that feel vintage in this song. Honestly it's not that hard to get that kind of sound, even itb. The cinematic elements are a different story.

 

Rick Nowels... And I'm almost hesitant to say this, but I'll argue Lana does very little besides look fuckable & sing in her dopey voice. Which I'll also argue there are millions of other people in this world that could do it much better than her. Rick is the mastermind & creative genius & Lana's entire propped up hipster B.S. career owes everything to him.

 

You can use the sansamp psa-1 plugin in parallel to achieve some vintage vibe like Tchad Blake does

 

Done

 

Rick Nowels is a TOOL.

There are a number of musicians and engineers he uses that actually have the sonic mojo. He--as a songwriter and producer--is a pushy, impatient punter that is annoying as hell to work with... just ask around. I know the engineers that worked with him in London, and they all hated him and his work process. His song instinct is actually bad these days, but he's lucky enough to work with great artists because he has a good publisher that works it for him.

Lana brings a lot of sonic references to her writing partners that she likes... and the collaborators follow that direction. So, she is in control of her career and direction. Give her more credit and respect.

 

I work with a lot of producers in the TV biz and more often than not they are fucking talentless twerps who lean heavily on the creative abilities of the people around them to execute their bullshit "vision".... just sayin'

As for del ray I actually fell in love with some of her tunes, most notably "ride". Her story is a bullshit lie, the truth is she is some daughter of a rich daddy and is the Taylor Swift of the mainstream indie alternative pop genre lol. (as if genre means anything in this post modern haze we call this century) Not discounting her tunes with their excellent production. "ride" was actually a standout track for me from the past 20 years. lol. And I do not "like" much music these days...

In regard to her production, it is actually quite "alternative" most engineers would probably poo poo it for too much reverb and washed out, undefined elements. Obviously a style choice, but also makes it easy to cover up bad vocals... just sayin

 

Last edited: Dec 8, 2017

Yes, go on...I'm listening

Bruh, I'm not gonna lie I wanna fuck her too, and I'm mad as hell she doesn't wanna fuck me. I feel your pain.

See, this is the problem I have with the professionalisation of the "art" of making music. I mean, the "badly recorded" music of the 60's and 70's sounded rich and warm and colourful and soulful...until the professionals decided to fix it, then we got that horrible cold and clinical sound of the 80's.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!