What gives the housey feeling?

[steevio]

The only problem with your advice Steevio is that all the OG house and techno guys were making their records in professional studio up until the early 90's. All of the old Detroit and Chicago cats had access to professional engineers when they made their records.

If these kids had access to professional engineers to tell them how to do things, I would totally agree with your advice. Unfortunately, they don't and they have to wear every single hat in the record business. They are lucky the resources are there for free today. There is barely any business left to get professional people involved.

What house and techno really need are more musicians and less "producers." You walk down the street and trip over a dozen of these producers, but you can't find the real musicians and song writers to save your life. Dance music doesn't need more weird noises or immaculately sculpted kicks, it needs some first rate tunes. People don't respond to Goodlife or Shades Of Jae because of the engineering, those tracks blow up dance floors because they are great tunes with great hooks.

well i totally agree about the musician thing.
but its a bit too much of a generalisation to say everything was recorded in professional studios. if you're specifically talking about chicago house in the 80s maybe, but taking electronic music as a whole in the late eightees and early ninetees, there were a lot of people using their own hardware set-ups and letting the cutting room guys do the mastering.
i'm not saying dont learn about mixing or mastering, i'm just saying dont waste your energy trying to reproduce the past.

[Sphere42]

Yes and no.

As steevio said, there ware no tutorials back in the days and knowledge came with "hit or miss" kinda experimenting with equipment. And early detroit guys didn't had professional studios when they started making music. They had 909, 303, 808 and thats it, and they were able to make incredible music with it. Same applies to dub. Minimal resources, maximal outcome.

But I have to agree with you on lack of musicality in tunes. Machines can do wicked stuff, you can have thousands of vsti plugs, and studio worth thousands of dollars. But lack of your musical skills will always make your music sound like a sh!t.

Sadly, I do not own pricey studio, nor musical skillz :-( But I hope that "good things comes to those who wait" so I practice and practice and practice... And dig on forums :-)

[Martian Telecom]

silence.

[Martian Telecom]

but its a bit too much of a generalisation to say everything was recorded in professional studios. if you're specifically talking about chicago house in the 80s maybe, but taking electronic music as a whole in the late eightees and early ninetees, there were a lot of people using their own hardware set-ups and letting the cutting room guys do the mastering.

Granted, you have the bedroom records that sound like bedroom records. You started to see individual studios show up by 89-90 but before then most of the big Detroit, NYC and Chicago records were tracked in professional studios. Dudes had hardware at home to write on, but they brought everything into the studio and tracked and mixed it professionally.

You have to remember that you could sell 5-20,000 copies of a decent record back then. That is a stupid amount of money if you are running a small independent label with low overhead costs. The guys that were doing it at home had made enough money that they could afford to own their own studios. They had also come up through the studio system, so they already had had some experience with professionals.

[steevio]

but its a bit too much of a generalisation to say everything was recorded in professional studios. if you're specifically talking about chicago house in the 80s maybe, but taking electronic music as a whole in the late eightees and early ninetees, there were a lot of people using their own hardware set-ups and letting the cutting room guys do the mastering.

Granted, you have the bedroom records that sound like bedroom records. You started to see individual studios show up by 89-90 but before then most of the big Detroit, NYC and Chicago records were tracked in professional studios. Dudes had hardware at home to write on, but they brought everything into the studio and tracked and mixed it professionally.

You have to remember that you could sell 5-20,000 copies of a decent record back then. That is a stupid amount of money if you are running a small independent label with low overhead costs. The guys that were doing it at home had made enough money that they could afford to own their own studios. They had also come up through the studio system, so they already had had some experience with professionals.

i used to sell alot of records back then. even underground vinyl used to fly out in the early ninentees.

i also came up through the studio system, and i have to tell you that the first thing i noticed when i began releasing EDM music, was the fact that you didnt need a big professional studio to do it.
i used to be a sound engineer, as well as recording musician and the majority of work in a professional studio was more to do with how to mic up physical instruments, drum kits and amplifiers up to get a good sound with no overspill.
compare that to the fact that almost everyone was using the same drum machine, the TR909, which sounded good straight out of the second hand shop, and synthsesizers etc. professional studios became quickly redundant in EDM.
and it wasnt just people who sold 20,000 records who had cool home studios, it didnt cost that much to kit yourself out with a few drum machines and synths, maybe a mixing desk and a few outboard devices, and produce a passable tune and get it out on vinyl.
EDM back then was DIY and underground, for every big chicago producer there was an Aphex Twin or an Autechre.

[ewinz]

A drum machine is not necessary, not you have good vst and software instruments, isnt it ?

[ewinz]

now, so its not so expensive to make music. You just need a computer. Its more public, everyone can touch it. love it

[tone-def]

A drum machine is not necessary, not you have good vst and software instruments, isnt it ?

you don't need one but they can really enhance your music. a vst will sound very different to an analog drum machine and been able to get 2 hands and multiple fingers doing stuff is a major advantage.