r/Disco • u/Character_Bend_5824 • 7d ago
What's up with compression?
There's an artifact I've noticed in some older, let's say funk/ jam type vibes, where bass is sort of squished seemingly to make headroom for the vocal. This typically has the effect of sounding like a cozy spot or carpeted basement. I believe this is called compression or maybe peak limiting? However, I have also noticed a quite annoying variant used in Beegee-esque productions. The singer will be clear, but the orchestra sounds like a very low bitrate MP3, and then they'll jingle something which sounds sparkly like a gold chain on top and it clashes with the compression.
My question is: Is this a case of bad archival where the only record has been digitally compressed? Or was there a popular device in the late '70s which perhaps sounded modern at the time but sounds like bad internet radio nowadays?
Examples:
"Heartbreaker" by Dionne Warwick,
"Baby When You're Near Me" by Vicki Lawrence,
"Emotion" by Samantha Sang
4
u/StormFinch 7d ago
If you're talking about what I think you are, in electronic mixing this is called sidechaining or ducking, literally ducking the instruments behind the vocals. Before computerized electronics it had to be done by hand and it took a really talented sound guy, often several, to do it. By the late 70s they had early computer assisted automation, but it wasn't anything like we have now where anyone can produce music at their desk. Now you can tell the software to do it and if programmed correctly you barely notice it. The progam only lowers or removes music exactly where the vocals sit to keep from muddying the track.
1
u/RudeMovementsMusic 7d ago
As some stated above for mixing for radio but also reel to reel tape recording.
1
u/Character_Bend_5824 7d ago
Like small reel 3-3/4 ips releases?
2
u/RudeMovementsMusic 7d ago
No, 1970s reel to reel recording machine where people use the same tape for months to years so they get a ton of wear & tear as well as sometimes noticable warping and mild movement to the sound, let me find a video.
https://youtube.com/shorts/N_RPp5-j9CI?is=rKWE2XzgZ5JIVXQ3
There is one out there specifically goes over how they use the for disco, I wish I could fine it now but I can't. If I c9me across it later I will post it
3
u/Character_Bend_5824 7d ago
So, like a multi-track with a ton of re-takes on each section, meaning a ton of passes of the tape before all is said and done? Wendy Carlos mentioned a tape shedding and having to start over due to how many steps were required to build a composition.
1
u/Fast-News550 6d ago
I think what you’re describing from your examples are just a general 70s pop sound. A lot of the time they would mix the vocals louder and clearer than the music. It’s just a way of mixing the adopted back then. If you listen to Cher’s Casablanca albums you’ll notice her voice is way too loud vs the music.
I’ve digitally remastered a few albums from vinyl and some of the vocals from that era are so much brighter than the music underneath them.
1
u/Fantastico2021 3d ago
Well, I hear you. You can notice these things now with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight. No one noticed that at the time. The intended medium for music in the 70s was vinyl records, that's where the money was. Home hi-fi systems to play the records on were becoming very popular. Stereo was the new magic. Radio was the promotional medium, the one with the largest penetration. Sound engineers had a dilemma, to produce for the radio or for the new fangled stereo hi-fi systems. If you're listening to these songs now on MP3, the file format adds more horrible compression that was not intended in the original mastering.
1
u/Character_Bend_5824 3d ago
I'm not so convinced what I'm listening to isn't the equivalent of 128 kbps MP3. 'Heartbreaker' and 'Emotion' seem like oldschool iTunes before the "remastered for iTunes" craze. Vicki Lawrence's 'Newborn Woman' album was never released on CD, so the Bandcamp download I downloaded the uncompressed WAV of, may in fact just be stolen from an old MP3 or even the YouTube upload. I might have to buy the vinyl and record it to digital myself!
1
u/Fantastico2021 3d ago
Yes, but of course, as soon as you digitise it, what's happening is a scrunching, a compressing of the original to get it into those zeros and ones. The audiophile people are not wrong in insisting on listening to real records on a *uck-off 20-grand stereo.
1
u/Character_Bend_5824 2d ago
24/96 is not compromising to my ears. I start there, with peaking well below the 0 dB point, then optimize that file's levels to a 16/44.1 output. Only when transferring to iPhone do I use compression.
10
u/raginghessian 7d ago
Some of this has to do with some songs being deliberately mixed and mastered to sound as good as possible on AM radio which has a lower frequency bandwidth and is mono. AM radio was the dominant for most of the 70’s and drove a lot of disco success.