70s mastering

[Rachelle Productions]

Hi TRs

Listening to a variety of records from the 70s and early 80s, there seems to be a particular mastering sound where the records seem expanded, there is plenty of sound, depth of field, reverb ect and at the same seems to be expanded.

Many of these records were done before mixing desk comp/expansion modules on every channel.

Firstly anyone know how was this done?
sounds to me like either heavy use of noise reduction (which one?)
or sum and difference expansion/gating on the mix/mastering?

Secondly is this at all possible in the faux digital world?

cheers
Mark

[Drumstruck]

That sounds like my romantic memory of when analog and tape ruled the world..... when engineers strived for dynamic range.... when musicians who grew up listening to the innovations of the 60s were trying to recapture it..... when dolby only knew the first 2 letters of the alphabet and dbx was an infant.... and music was good

[Chris H]

Hi Mark, long time no see. Hope all is well with you and yours etc.
........Many of these records were done before mixing desk comp/expansion modules on every channel.......
might have something to do with it.

[peat]

Greg mentions width and depth in relation to the 70's in this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2jB3Y-Oy8U

great video otherwise too.

[rick]

Everything was Dolby A until digital turned up
Everything was tape copies of copies and
Rarely done perfectly .

All that said I think the west lake revolution
From 69 to 79 had more to do with the sounds of things
Then anything that ever happened in mastering

Practically nothing happened in mastering in the 70s
It was disc cutting back then
Try and cut the tape to disc flat if you could .

[Paul Maybury]

So Rick, what's your take on the West/ East Lake/ Tom Hidley school of studio design?
And the LEDE idea that kind of replaced it?
Cheers,
Paul

[Rachelle Productions]

Hi Chris

All good up here in Noosa!

Might be a dolby thing Rick

there arent any dolby plug ins is there?
given the trend to clone all the classics im amazed that someone hasnt done noise reduction yet

certainly a major contributor to the sound of the old records

[rick]

I reckon Tom set the evolution of recording studios
Back 30 years
But at least he did it professionally and consistantly
Everybody bought it at time .. Totally

I have worked at length in those rooms

I think Everybody got it wrong with the best intentions

So who knew ? How could they ?

A little bit of resistance here and there eventually
Won out .. That and led zeppelin insisting on recording in old houses !

Still lots if stuff out on the web like Sayers site
Holds dearly many of the principles
So it's must suit some people still .

[Paul Maybury]

Hi Rick, wasn't the general idea of Hidley's to achieve consistency from studio to studio, and as such, was a great idea.
It's just that 1; it is an almost impossible thing to do.
2; the few rooms I have been in that were "inspired by" Westlake rooms, were not good to work in, and the monitoring was very misleading. Maybe they were designed just based on photo's of slate and slat rooms....like a conversation pit on a cocaine dealers yacht.
Cheers,
Paul