Mixing and Production Ideas from Classic Albums of The '70s

I put on Steely Dan and couldn't stand it....there was something special going on in the mix though. lol Really popped out even on my shitty TV speakers.

Amazing, thank you for sharing!!

That’s exactly what I was thinking about when listening to that 70’s sound. These guys didn’t have all those crazy surgical eq options like we have today so instead their mixing decisions were based off of a wisely selected sonic characteristics of the instruments. Something we lack of today.

The doubling of parts instead of notching eq's is a lot like the orchestration of Mozart, where a single part might be doubled by another instrument for certain sedtions to make them stand out. No one did that before Mozart. It was considered bad harmonization. But, that was in the time of smaller ensembles where it would sound awkward to have one part heavier than the others. But, as the group, or sound, gets larger, it is less of a bad idea, and more of an arrangement enhancement.

If you‘re looking for that tight 70‘s kick try to find an old AKG D12.

Do they give high pass for vocals too at the high end?

This was first used by Alan Parsons I believe. Also, the arangement was so one instrument occupied it's own octave at any given time.

This is absolutely my topic - what an amazing video! your insights are invaluable

This is awesome

Cool

i would love to hear someone who knows what they are doing mix one of my songs or be able to witness this to see what i am doing incorrectly which is everything . (nothing) taste is what it comes down too . having someone else tell you you can not do something simply so they can exert dominance over you is something i do not tollerate nor would i pay for this dis-service . i do not wish for my music to sound like steely dan . no matter how perfect they sound . my music is mine , not gauchos . i listened to your sound cloud . great job , your music sound phenomenal ! hats off pal .

Wow that was fantastic. I actually been trying to figure out how Jeff Lynne gets. Those sounds his mixes are incredible. You know the traveling Wilburys in everything that he does. How does that happen? I want to do that. Thanks for this video. I'm gonna try some of your techniques I really really appreciate it.

Wow man great video. I have always thought the years 1976 to 1982 had a special sound…

Cool vid! I feel like those are the tracks that will stand the test of time. And I feel also like DAW's should have a visual for the dominant freq range of every track so you could just look at in and get a sense of what bus contributes what primary freq range. After watching your vid, I may have to change my color system, maybe with ROY G. BIV. Or maybe I'll label the busses. Really nice explanation you gave us. Thanks!

Yeah, for me, the production on Steely Dan albums from the mid-late 1970s is the best sound.

It's very interesting, but, nowadays, no one (just a few) will get near a Neve console, and for me, plug-ins and the 'real stuff' doesn't sound or act the same. Instead of starting with a modern sequencer with unlimited tracks, I would advise to start with a 4 track tape (or K7) recorder, so you're confronted to the problems of mixing, right away. Thanks for your efforts!

Great info! I remember reading an interview in Mix magazine (is that still around?) with Chris Lord-Alge back in the late '90s where he was saying many of the same things — especially about separating frequencies in the pan. He would also EQ so as to make a safe space for the different instruments which would keep them from mushing together.

So not boring at all, my dude. Thank you for your revelatory insight on an era of recording the likes of which shan’t nigh be recreated. Everything you were explaining made perfect sense to me and your visual analogies really helped get the point across. Now I know what high pass and low pass are actually for.

Another important thing: the most part of the time in studio, they played together.

top tier!

That’s an E series SSL Channel Strip…. Not a G series

Literally such a dumb take. The frequencies DO overlap, that's what makes it so fucking good. You can't cut out all the interactions between the elements of a song. There needs to be overlap, the interaction between instruments is the glue man. Yea cut out things that are in the way and causing issues. But the relationship between the elements is the magic, that's the glue.

People get so tripped out by how good their records sounded! No shit! It was a bunch of musicians, who COULD PLAY THEIR INSTRUMENTS, recording through the best gear. The recording engineer is so familiar with the music , and makes tremendously important moves on. The spot. Recorded well, played well, the mix has to sound good. No magic

It's very intersting and good things you tell about in the video. I often notice that many that makes music try to solve many sound problems afterwards in the mix instead of producing and arranging instruments and vocals within different octaves when recording, then the sound image becomes clearer. instead of trying to make it sound good with EQ and panning afterwards. That with dubbing of instruments and vocals and bringing out an effect or filling up weak frequencies it's perfectly ok. But to avoid several instruments being played in the same octave. The ear is sensitive to too much eq because the sound then does not sound as it should. The listener will subconsciously not like the music because it does not sound natural.

Spectacular information! I had never considered panning frequencies before.

Man so few people have had the benefit of running sound for a band or operating a keyboard workstation where they're the only musician there so they have to make it sound rich and diverse by careful and accurate placement of frequency strata throughout the mix this would have been old-hat to anybody in the professional recording studio in my parents generation they are first gen baby boomers born in the late forties and I was introduced to Steely Dan in the backseat of their car driving down I-10 on cloudy overcast winter days in West Texas it all fit together so perfectly The Melancholy Blues R&B in the scenery and Landscape and the fact that both my parents were professional musicians. At that point I didn't know this yet and I couldn't have understood it but somehow I absorbed it. I am just grateful to have been alive before the great collapse so I have some actual original memory of what the greatest Century in the entire history of human artistic expression was like. Cael Jones look me up if you want to come on down to Texas

Steely Dan, yep Rupert Neve console, the Eagles Fleetwood Mac, pretty much every band on the radio between 1977 and 1987, it was done at Sound City. Rupert Neve, thank you very much

Yes mixes from that era are the golden standard, however a lot of the decisions in mixing had cutting to vinyl in mind, and mixes like we have now with subsonic Lows and super highs would make the needle jump of the record. The amount of loudness deepness and wet and load a high extension we achieved nowadays was simply not even imaginable back then

one of the best (sonically speaking) is Saturday Night Fever sound track album. who ever did the mix and the equipment used on that record is on another level entirely. And i have spent years trying to emulate and capture that sound in my own mixes

what about multi-band compressors?

I guess they had to remove it also because of vinyl because the needle would jump out if there were too much lows.

Man, what a lesson in under 15 minutes! You nailed it precisely. Some of those records that came out around that time that you mentioned, had a wholesome sound to them. Things, these days are way overdone. I am fortunate enough that I spent the late 70's to the mid 90's in the New York studios watching the masters pull off miracles. I also feel that a lot was lost when the hair bands started to emerge and the doubling of parts had to be identical. It became mechanical sounding. Gaucho is one example that I often reference when I'm mixing in my home studio. If you're not careful, the kick and bass can rub against each other causing certain notes on the bass to not penetrate through the mix. Then, add a vocal to that center spot from a baritone male singer, and everything disappears. Great explanation on your end. Every kid with a computer and pro tools should watch your video.

great understanding and spot on , im mixing all the time, and this is where you end up mixing frequency as much as mixing instruments/voices etc,, its not easy though once you have your head around it you WILL hear space ; if that's possible [;][;];

While this video addresses a couple of points/methods. There are soo many variables within techniques that it would take a weeks worth of videos to cover. That said I will address a few things from comments here and also in the video. Firstly there are alot of 'stories' about how great albums were recorded. Some myths, some half true, some accurate accounts of the recording process. So bear that in mind when reading all these comments below and above. The most important and overlooked setting is gain structure. If you overlook or ignore this you are already starting with a shitty tracking session. Remember that following this there are soo many variables that will add to a quality mix that a well seasoned experienced engineer will recognize and use or leave out depending on the artist and their own 'sound'. I could write a laundry list of all of them, many unique per the studio used, but for brevity I will keep my comment simple. Overall the person behind the console is where the magic happens , the gear is just a vehicle for him/her to get to where they want to go.

Incredible recordings have been done in the most unlikely places as well as the most modern equiped studios. There is no set formula nor are there rules one must abide by other than basic console tracking via snapshot setups so your track(s) remain useable thruout the recording and mixdown sessions. After that is acomplished, you can begin to experiment and break rules to achieve a unique outcome. So dont stifle yourself into thinking 'well I'll do this because thats what so and so did ' etc . Creativity knows no limits.

btw Plug-ins can get you close but they cannot duplicate exactly the 70s methods and sound. Its a Physics impossibility. In order to get that you would have to inch for inch recreate whatever studio the album was recorded in, get the same gear, the acoustic designs, the Mics & monitors, and then get inside the brains of the Engineers, their assistants etc. and even then you wont get even near exact results. BUT again that is not the goal - to create a clone, but rather to do your own thing with those methods and recording the the same vibe of 70s styles of music you like.

I know nothing about sound recording or mixing, however I find this subject fascinating. I have the albums you are reffering to and I really enjoy hi fidelity and "leaving space" in the recording mix makes perfect sense. I would like to add one album to your list of well mixed recordings; Supertramp's Crime of the Century, hopefully you can find the original pressing or recording because as you know some "re-mixed" re-issues turn everything up to 11.

I would think that most musicians who play together should already know this. You always try to find your own pocket to hangout so that you don’t end up cluttering the mix and in turn it makes the job of the mixing engineer much easier

💯

Love your enthusiasm.

This is an awesome video.
Do you remember what song had that Rhodes in the center-channel and vocals panned-out?

I thought it was Steely Dan Aja that people most often used as reference but it’s probably Aja and Gaucho

You’re definitely on the right track. but you can’t put it in peoples head that all they have to do is use numerical positions on the clock to try to space out everything. And especially not rely on visuals to apply low pass and high pass. You got a really dig in to find the essence of the instrument and always use your ears.

The real magic with panning happens when you throw your mix into mono! It’s not about just tossing an arbitrary position on your pan knob you’re literally finding space in your mix where that instrument shines the best and when you do it in mono it sticks out like a sore thumb and then you can start playing with EQ once you’ve found a space for it. Some of the most incredible mixes you’ll ever get is after playing with things for a half an hour in tweaking in mono and then you popping into stereo for the first time.

It’s absolute magic.

I have to agree on most you are saying right, It's the same for me, i agree on the mixing in the mid 70's to mid 80's and smooth jazz from the 90's. That said, i have to explain something you kinda missed. Me as a musician and mixer I am very aware of the fact that music basically degraded to the stone age again...haha and we talk about music from the US right?! I am stunned by the fact that nobody in America seems to care about the diffrence between music from the golden age and the music that is produced these days. I have no word to express how stupid yet what a shame it is that it turned this bad. But what i wanted to say about music from then, is that the composition were so rich in chords and musical expression. It has to do with the choice of chords in a progression, tension and resolvement, and chords extentions. and group the chords in cadences. like they do in Jazz. See a Jazz song can be modern even in todays standards. But the artists today only seem to want to complain and whine over the same chord progression no matter who it is and the song always goes about being duped. it is litterely killing me to have listen to this shizzle that's playing these days.... I understand it is better to not listen to death metal, i get it, but there is so much between that and classical music. the 80's showed that extravagance bands could do anything the big bosses wanted, if you had the looks and attitude the band could be something, that is good for creativity, no so much for the message in the music, anyway people/artists should look at the music and write lyrics they like, they will be impressed by their own lyrics if they start writing on the golden songs.

Steely dan used quad eight, mci and harrison. Neve was used on very few overdubs to my knowledge.

here i am again after a year, still down the 70's mixing rabbit hole...

Thank you so much for this content.
I always thought this things about "any major dude " clarity and asked myself how is this become the way it is.

Great tips

Really helpful!

100% spot on. It's all about carving out space, both in frequency and across the stereo stage.

I mean, you're totally right. But EQ'ing and Panning are basics in any mix, I don't see how that has anything to do with classic 70s albums specifically.

Excellent explanation. I have been in the studio for most of my life and your clear-cut explanation hit home. It reminded me of a lot of “tricks” I had forgotten (or set aside with all the new technology getting in the way). Excellent video!!!!