How Do You Mix Like The 80s?<\/h2>\n
If you want to make music that sounds like the 80s, it’s simple; just use the instruments, gear, and production techniques that trended in the 1980s.<\/p>\n Of course you have instruments like guitars which had been used in decades prior, but the the new inventions were those of the synthesizer and drum machine. <\/p>\n These new instruments existed before, but they really saw an explosion in the 1980s and become more accessible and wide-spread.<\/p>\n And then you have all of the hardware gear that was used to produce 80s music, such as digital delays, reverbs, and the SSL 4000E console, which really revolutionized music. <\/p>\n If you want to pick up all of this hardware gear, it’s going to set you back several tens of thousands of dollars…<\/p>\n But the good news is that there are TONS of software plugins in existence which emulate these hardware units. <\/p>\n So when mixing, just be sure to use some plugins that emulate the gear and synthesizers that were used in the 80s. <\/p>\n If you want a list of my top 25 best FX plugins for making Synthwave and 80s-style music, then check out my article here.<\/a><\/p>\n Also…<\/p>\n Be sure to check out my 17 top free plugins for making Synthwave and 80s-style music. <\/a><\/p>\n Once you have the tools you need to make 1980s music, now you just need to know how to apply them. <\/p>\n With the rest of this article, I’ll break down 10 80s production techniques to help you mix Synthwave and 80s-style music.<\/p>\n Gated reverb is a staple of both 80s music and Synthwave, especially on snare drums. It’s what creates that “exploding snare” sound. <\/p>\n You can hear it prominently on “Drive” by The Cars<\/em>.<\/p>\n Gated reverb was invented in 1979 when producer Hugh Padgham, “discovered the sound accidentally when he opened an overhead mic, intended to be used as a talkback channel, above [Phil] Collins’ drum set when the pair were working on a track.” – Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n You can check out my video below which walks you through how to create a gated reverb sound on a snare, or you can follow the written steps further down. <\/p>\n Send the snare to an auxiliary return with a reverb placed on it. A long hall or plate reverb works best. <\/p>\n We want to chop off the reverb tail to create the effect we want, so add a Noise Gate next. Experiment with the Threshold setting to taste, and set a Release time of around 20ms to 700ms, depending on how long you want the reverb to ring out.<\/p>\n Adjust the hold\/attack to hold the gate open before letting the snare’s crack through.<\/p>\n Just click the button below to download them!<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“val”:”rgb(238, 113, 51)”}},”gradients”:[]},”original”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“val”:”rgb(19, 114, 211)”,”hsl”:{“h”:210,”s”:0.83,”l”:0.45}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ I want synthwave drum samples<\/span><\/span> <\/a> __CONFIG_group_edit__{}__CONFIG_group_edit____CONFIG_local_colors__{“colors”:{},”gradients”:{}}__CONFIG_local_colors__<\/p>\n 80s vocals are very distinct. The vocals were often sung rather dramatically with plenty of vibrato. <\/strong><\/p>\n Reverb was used liberally, so dial up the wet value of your hall and plate reverb plugins to create a \u2018cave\u2019- like ambience.<\/p>\n Lexicon hardware reverbs helped to define the sound of the era, so try and find emulations of Lexicon hardware if you can.<\/p>\n You can get the Lexicon 224 unit <\/a>(pictured above) <\/a>as a modelled plugin from Native Instruments (Reverb Classics) here.<\/p>\n If you’re looking for something free, I absolutely love the TAL-Reverb-4 plugin<\/a>, which is a plate reverb with a vintage 80’s character.<\/p>\n Slapback delay was also very common on 80s vocals, and you can hear it on ton of hit records.<\/p>\n Slapback delay is a little different from normal delay, as we typically think of delay as an “echo” where a sound is repeating several times. With slapback delay, you are just getting one single echo.<\/p>\n It’s more similar to when you clap in a large empty room and you hear a very quick repeat of your clap. <\/p>\n The ultimate impact of slapback delay is that it adds a sense of space to your vocals, without pushing them back in the mix or muddying up your sound. <\/p>\n Creating a slapback delay is very simple:<\/p>\n The use of harmonies, especially on vocals, was very popular in the 80s. <\/p>\n Layers of harmonies and the recording of multiple tracks (double tracking) of the same melody created big and lush vocal lines. <\/p>\n You can hear this in the chorus of “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” for example. <\/p>\n However, double tracking wasn’t the only way to get this effect, as artificial double tracking (ADT) was also prevalent. <\/p>\n While popularized in the 1970s, artificial double tracking underwent a transformation in the 1980s as digital delays largely replaced tape delay. <\/p>\n This resulted in a “shinier” and less colored sound. <\/p>\n ADT is technique that allows you to create the illusion that you’ve recorded multiple versions of a performance that are then blended together. <\/p>\n This was used often on guitars and vocals in the 80s, and creates a wide and glossy sound. <\/p>\n The easiest way to achieve this is simply to record multiple takes of whatever it is you want to double. <\/p>\n If it’s a vocal melody, say for the chorus, then sing the chorus (the same way) at least 3 times, and pan one performance hard left, one hard right, and have the third go down the center. <\/p>\n To make your vocals even bigger, add in some harmonies, and double track those as well.<\/p>\n “Hardware synths like the Roland Juno-60 featured onboard arpeggiators. You can hear the effect on tracks like Limahl\u2019s NeverEnding Story and Take On Me by A-ha. The classic up\/down pattern was common, and often had a ping-pong delay effect added to lend further life and movement to the sound.<\/p>\n You can mimic this easily using the arpeggiator in your DAW or synth, along with a basic delay.” – Music Radar<\/a><\/p>\n ’80s drum tracks featured some very unique sounds. Samples from drum machines like the Oberheim DMX and Linn LM1\/ LM2 were ubiquitous. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/a>This isn’t so much as a production tip as it is a sound design tip, but valuable nonetheless. <\/p>\n You can grab some free Linn drum samples by clicking the button below.<\/p>\n Just click the button below to download them!<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“val”:”rgb(238, 113, 51)”}},”gradients”:[]},”original”:{“colors”:{“3e1f8”:{“val”:”rgb(19, 114, 211)”,”hsl”:{“h”:210,”s”:0.83,”l”:0.45}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ I want synthwave drum samples<\/span><\/span> <\/a> __CONFIG_group_edit__{}__CONFIG_group_edit____CONFIG_local_colors__{“colors”:{},”gradients”:{}}__CONFIG_local_colors__<\/p>\n When it comes to programming the drums, use plenty of synthetic (almost laser gun-sounding) toms, cowbells and delayed claps.<\/p>\n Kicks and snares were seldom used in a basic 4\/4 arrangement, but peppered throughout rhythms on the offbeats. <\/p>\n Synthwave, however, is the exception to this rule, as it tends to follow more an EDM pattern, with 4 on the floor kicks and snares hitting on the offbeats. <\/p>\n If you’re wanting a more authentic 80s sound, then only use light compression on the drums. <\/p>\n If it’s a more modern sound you’re after, compress the drums hard, perhaps even with parallel compression. <\/p>\n Kick drums in the 80s often didn\u2019t sound as weighty as they do now, but when it comes to making Synthwave, it’s common to use more modern-sounding drum processing. <\/p>\n Finally, if you want to push your drums back in the mix and give more of an 80s sheen, add in some chamber or plate reverb.<\/p>\n The British SSL consoles of the 1980s revolutionized music, and provided a brighter sonic character to the tracks produced on them. <\/p>\n IK Multimedia’s British Channel emulates the E Series console strip<\/a> (click here to learn more).<\/a><\/p>\n You can even switch between the earlier “Brown Knob” version, which made more broad adjustments, and the later era “Black Knob” which created more precise and tighter curves. <\/p>\n With the British Channel, you also get a dynamics section, which you can use to really tighten up your sounds, and add punch. <\/p>\n You can hear this plugin in action in my video here. <\/a><\/p>\n You can’t talk about 80s music production techniques without mentioning saturation. <\/p>\n Literally everything in the 80s was saturated because every song was mixed and produced using hardware gear, as DAWs as we know them weren’t invented yet. <\/p>\n Therefore, use plugins that model analog gear when using compressors and EQs.<\/p>\n However, the saturation doesn’t end here. <\/p>\n Tape and vinyl saturation were also present.<\/p>\n In the 80s, Tape was king for multi-tracking and mixing down, even though digital formats started to become popular at the end of the decade. <\/p>\n Most records were made entirely on analog tape, so consider using a tape emulation plugin to add tape saturation.<\/p>\n One example is the IK Multimedia Saturator X<\/a>, which allows you to apply various types of saturation, including Tape.<\/p>\n Speaking of Tape, Saturator X actually comes with two tape saturation modes:<\/p>\n Tape 1: This mode reproduces the classic character and high frequency compression of an analog tape machine reaching saturation when pushed above normal recording levels.<\/p>\n Tape 2: Similar to Tape 1 in terms of typical uses, this mode reproduces a more “Lo-Fi” analog tape response with more pronounced distortion and high frequency roll-off.<\/p>\n The result is a very flexible and powerful saturation plugin, and you can get it here. <\/a><\/p>\n If you want to add some vinyl warmth and grit to your production, then consider getting the free Vinyl plugin by iZotope.<\/p>\n Even though the 80s were basically 40 years ago (WHAT?), the production quality of songs from that era is still great, and has surprising clarity. <\/p>\n This is in part due to the Solid State Logic 4000 mixing consoles I mentioned earlier, with their clean-sounding EQ and punchy master bas compressor. <\/p>\n This signal path has since been modeled by IK Multimedia in their Bus Compressor (below). <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In addition to compression, there are some other mix bus processing you might want to apply to get that 80s sound.<\/p>\n There was typically an emphasis in the 8-9kHz range to add bite and sheen, and low frequencies were often turned down.<\/p>\n If you’re wanting to make more modern Synthwave, I wouldn’t remove too much of the low-end though. <\/p>\n On the master channel, brickwall limiting as we now know it was not used, but subtler compression was common. This created more dynamic range in the music than modern tracks. <\/p>\n I still recommend you use a brickwall limiter, but use it lightly and don’t squash your mix. <\/p>\n After all, in our age of streaming, how loud your track is doesn’t really matter.<\/p>\n You can check out my article here for how loud your mix and master should be. <\/a><\/p>\n Lastly, use a tape emulation plugin to \u2018glue\u2019 the track together and mimic two-inch tape recording.<\/p>\n The Kramer Tape plugin by Waves is great for this. <\/p>\n You can get 10% this plugin by using my link here. <\/a><\/p>\n![\"how](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mixing-80s.jpg\" "\\"mixing")
<\/span><\/p>\nInstruments & Gear of The 1980s<\/h3>\n
Production Techniques of The 1980s<\/h3>\n
1. Gated Reverb<\/h2>\n
How To Create Gated Reverb<\/h3>\n
Step 1:<\/h4>\n
Step 2:<\/h4>\n
![\"noise](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/noise-gate-gated-reverb.png\" "\\"noise")
<\/span><\/p>\nFree Synthwave Drum Sample Pack<\/h3>\n
2. Long Vocal Reverb & Delay<\/h2>\n
![\"Reverb](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Reverb-Classics-Lexicon.png\" "\\"Reverb")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n3. Slapback Delay on Vocals<\/h2>\n
![\"how](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/batman-slapback-delay.jpg\" "\\"batman")
<\/span><\/p>\nHow to create Slapback delay<\/h3>\n
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4. Harmonization & ’80s Style ADT<\/h2>\n
How To Create A Double Tracked Effect<\/h3>\n
5. Ping-Pong Delay On Arps Or Guitar<\/h2>\n
6. 80s Drum Machine Sounds<\/h2>\n
Free Synthwave Drum Sample Pack<\/h3>\n
7. Console EQ & Compression<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/British-Channel.png\" "\\"British")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n8. Saturation<\/h2>\n
![\"IK](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IK-multimedia-Saturator-X.png\" "\\"IK")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n![\"izotope](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/vinyl.png\" "\\"vinyl\\"")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n9. Master Bus Processing<\/h2>\n
![\"ik](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bus-comp-scaled.jpg\" "\\"bus")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/kramer-tape.png\" "\\"kramer")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orpheusaudioacademy.com\/stagingnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Rapid-Song-Finishing-Checklist-1-3-scaled.jpg\" "\\"Rapid")
<\/span><\/p>\n