categorically speaking?

Rob The Plant wrote: Seems a bit harsh to close off some great later prog. It may not be a s numerous, but it's there man.

i have an obsession with the 70s. such a serious one that when listening to non-70s music i feel like im "coming down". cant be helped

wrote: Welcome 70sSoundquality! Its nice to see somebody like you on the boards here, I may actually use you as a resource in the future... I'm just getting into recording myself, although I don't have near the resources you do so I'm going digital, which doesn't bother me as much as it may for you... although I'd love to get my hands dirty in that kind of recording . You really have a lot of retro stuff... like that 57 Wurlitzer, wow, thats ancient stuff... makes me think of Sun Ra and his Arkestra . If you don't mind my asking, how old are you and where do you live? And how long have you been recording what instruments do you play?

Well I had a little 16 bit studio thing going on and I found that track separation was next to impossible, and I mean to sound BIG like any Yes recording you've ever heard. Also digital gave me these popping and glitching noises which had to with the latency settings, but in the end I though digital was an aweful, rotten media to get into because to me, looking at a bright screen while trying to record is a little uninspiring. my age currently is 18 and i live near San Francisco, CA. I play all the instruments i have with equal ability and can play other things like maybe a little flute in my day. Ive been recording I guess since I was 12 because I got a four track then. But just recently (last 3 years) ive been diving into to composing, and I mean really arranging things like these ex-proggers did in the 70s. Im a one man band and drums usually go down first.
By the way that 57 wurly organ is very creepy sounding. I paid 60 bucks for it, but the tube amp in the back is the whole point of this organ! I will now use a 1957 tube amp to pre amplify my bass guitar, which would really give me a vintage bass tone.

wrote: In terms of digital vs. analog, I think you're too harsh on ditigal technology. Although digital can sound colder and doesn't have the natural warmth/distortion that tube analog recording has, there are some benefits. MIDI allows an amateur musician to be a pro one man band! Some may criticize and say that MIDI takes the skill out, but I think it creates a market for a new type of skill, namely musical programming/sequencing. Although most of the board here won't praise it too highly, newer electronica/techno/dance music incorporates pretty sophisticated programming through MIDI.

Well to me thats not really right. The 70s were great because recording time was at least $200 bucks an hour at decent sounding studio. That meant that only the best of the best would be recording in a studio back then. That also means i dont have to weed through a lot of bullsh*t to find something with quality

wrote: One question: from my limited recording experience, I've found that digital doesn't give much leeway to high signals while recording- any signal that clips on my recording program (Cubasis) makes the entire track straight static. You say digital is mixed at higher levels... you are referring just to the monitors levels during mixdown or what? Again, I'm new with this stuff, so I may have totally missed the mark.

Now what do you mean by straight static?? You cannot punch digital like you can with analog. +3db was always clipping for my digital bass guitar recordings, but only for the part that was played to heavily. To even these things out Id go with buying a decent compressor, maybe a DBX compresssor? ? That will take the rough edges off. But dont use the built in plug-in compressor. Just not worth it. As to digital being mixed to higher levels, i mean 0db fullscale is now the mastering levels for Cd. Thats means each instrument can be louder, where vinyl records have a limit to what volume can be placed on them.

Another problem with digital is ear fatigue. Ive been in digital land for 6 hours and my ears started to slip and I simply didnt feel to good. With analog i can go way longer than 6 hrs

wrote: Also, I agree with some of the other posts made here, you shouldn't limit yourself simply to the 70s, or even simply to prog for that matter. I firmly believe that the greatest musician is open to all musical styles and can draw from any style should he or she wish to. Other suggestions for you might be found in the Jazz-Rock (Fusion) realm... groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Larry Coryell, and Weather Report (althought WR is a bit of a stretch as its not really rock). I'm just discovering it myself, but krautrock groups like Can and Neu! might be of interest as well.

why though? There is enough stuff from the 70s to fill my plate. I dont want to become a chronic musical listener, I dont have the titles for styles of music like some do. I just know the 70s is the best so why would I try the rest? Even if it is decent? My approval of modern music is not that important. Besides, with 70s recordings your guarenteed awesome sound and tonal quality.

Best,
John
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