The digital music revolution brought inexpensive hardware and software with it, taking the music industry away from analogue recording methods in the process, but it’s fair to say that the lure of the old ways has never really gone away. Whether it’s the warble of tape or the richness of a vintage synth, there’s something irresistible about the sound of analogue, and many musicians and engineers prefer to use a hybrid approach of both methods to get the best of the two worlds.
The benefit of digital is its precision and potential for optimisation, but the sound can be slightly sterile in comparison to its elder relative. From a recording standpoint, analogue sound is “warmer” and possesses slight imperfections that give you a retro studio feel. Analogue equipment and recording gear is expensive, therefore it’s a vastly less common working medium for most producers today, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve analogue feel in other ways. In this article we’ll take a look at some techniques that can help you to bring colour and warmth to digital sounds, as well as reviewing some of the plugin solutions available on the market.
Getting an analogue sound
There are a few different elements that contribute to an old school analogue sound. Used independently or in combination, these effects will create some of the rich quality and imperfections of analogue circuitry in your sound, so let’s take a quick look at exactly what they are.
Read more here:
NOTE: Some of the links you click on may be affiliated. Clicking and purchasing using these links helps support and fund The Beat Community. Thanks for your support.
