Beautiful warm round fat low end.
Dynamics, width, depth, clarity, instrument separation, no harsh mids/highs.
Ok, i know its a specific production but to me this sound is what many of us are after when working ITB.
Also no quantization just pure groove, modern day producers are obsessed with the grid.

 

I totally agree. There's a mix of great production, great music chops, and great writing. And consider that it is a busy mix from the instrumental content perspective. However, everything has its proper space.

 

also, its the first eccojam (vaporwave track) in history!

 

As someone obsessed with the grid isn't considered a good thing when a musician plays on time? So why is it now that we use computers keeping time is shunned.

 

they just used cubase

 

On time doesnt mean 100% on the grid.

 

I remember listening to Toto a lot as a kid. I agree. However, it's to be noted the average output level of the song is 50% and only jumps up on portions that are less busy. Even ITB everything's gonna be open and pleasant on the ears if they're only pushing it half way like this. What people wish they could achieve ITB are the modern boxy joints that hold at zero the whole way through but still sound free and cozy on the ears.

 

I think the problem with ITB is exactly the same problem analog production faced. They face limitations, we dont. There are far less limitations to what you can do today, number of tools you can use, number of tracks and routings you can have, fx, etc and of course, modern producers tend to go overboard too many times.

 

It's overwhelming to see how the perfect grid kills the pocket in a lot of music. Such music become lifeless and unexpressive. Being in the pocket means an ebb and flow of the music (just a few milliseconds on and off the grid in a rhythmic, natural way) that only the great performers with countless hours perfecting their craft can achieve.

Hey, mate. Are you Peruvian? I'm from Lima.

 

Exactly. The hybrid hardware/software configs removed so many boundaries. Latency remains the biggest issue with software. And as long as hardware rules the game when it comes to signal processing.. it'll continue to be a rich man's sport where those limited to cheap hardware or everything ITB need to be 10x as talented to achieve something competitive.

 

@von

FU for making me feel so old now haha!

 

Old and special, man

 

As long as you don't hear clashing transients, you can play sloppy. Faster than the pulse for energetic tunes (rock, dance tunes etc), behind the pulse for slower or sad ballads, reggae etc.
Mechanical quantized beats are not emotional and expressive.

 

http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/classic-tracks-totos-africa/375305

 

“One other cool thing about the record is something we need to go back to,” Ladanyi says. “The lack of compression used on the final process for the record to be pressed was not an issue like it is today, so the great dynamics of Toto as a band were really felt and heard by the end-user. Today, almost every record you hear is so compressed. A musician's ability to play with their feel is all about their dynamic range, and when that gets taken out of the mix, the end-user has no relationship with the musician or artist and how they feel things. That record had all that. That was a great record, and it's still the record that I hear on the radio when I travel the world, even in places like South Korea or South America.”

 

he should be made saint, immediately, saint of the Sound Church

 

Most of the problems I have w/ that vid is all to do w/ the abhorrent facial har, VS. But not just that. The crash & the toms are nearly as offensive to my delicate sensibilities. Ditto that bg synth brass. And (less so) fucking endless koto or whatevs.

I dunno. The ending of Shovel Knight still makes me cry. Twice. Mostly with relief triumph, tho ;__; plus the score: it's an emotional rollercoaster, anyway.

Couldn't agree moar. Always try to avoid compression, it just makes no sense to me. Especilly now, w/ everything (except maybe human voice) ITB.

 

I play live as much as possible and also use the nudge function to lock in the instruments for push, pull and eliminating latency, etc. The random (humanise) midi function is also useful if used sparingly.

 

Yeah that was true 15 years ago.

 

Yeah, they're awesome. But I don't think that the mixing is the main point here. They have very good writing skills, rich vocals timbres and so on.