Am I supposed to go back in time to fix a recording?

[ACWhammy]

Hey guys,

When there is a listing looking for authentically vintage recorded songs from past decades, why do screeners bother telling the artist how to improve the recording? I'm not a recording or mixing engineer so I am genuinely curious. How realistic is it for you guys to re-mix an analog recording from past decades? I can understand that it may be possible to do some edits, but I had one screener suggest that the delivery of the song needed minor adjustments. I thought delivery referred to the recording process itself - but could deliver also mean mix or master?

AC

[cosmicdolphin]

Sounds a bit odd as these vintage tracks are often not possible to easily tweak. How vintage are we talking ?

I guess if it's from the era of multitracks it's possible people might be able to go in and fix something - I still have ADAT tapes from the late 90s and I've transferred them to my DAW and mixed some of them again

AI stem splitting has given us ways to rebalance tracks and fix any imbalances even if we only have the stereo masters. And you can always add or remove reverb, remaster etc. if you have the right plugins.

But by " delivery " I would take it to mean vocal delivery - hard to say without seeing the listing / feedback and hearing the track.

[ACWhammy]

Ok. This listing called for vintage 90s songs that were authentically recorded in the 90s: S240711HR

Yes I thought delivery could mean vocal delivery as well - but that's strange because if I fix the vocal delivery it would no longer be a track recorded in the 90s.

Thank you for the input!

AC

[cosmicdolphin]

if I fix the vocal delivery it would no longer be a track recorded in the 90s.

Precisely - and I don't know about you but my voice has changed in 30yrs