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Here is some helpful information regarding vintage/retro listings that I received via e-mail from head screener Andy. This should be a sticky.

There are essentially four different categories of Vintage/Retro characteristics, and once you know this you should be able to pick which ones apply to any listing you may be reading. (I think this might be why you have the impression that the screeners are inconsistent; I hope they are not, but please don't hesitate to contact me should you think this to be the case on your submissions.)

1) Vintage:
These are tracks that were originally recorded and copyrighted back in the time period specified. They may have been recorded as good quality demos and never released, or they might have been released with some success but all copyright deals have expired and reverted to the original owner, so they are back sitting on the shelf.

2) Vintage Sounding:
Vintage sounding tracks will be recently written tracks that are produced to sound exactly as if they are authentic, back in the day recordings. They would have the style, feel and sound of a vintage track, but would be a recreation, without an original copyright date from the time period.

3) Retro/Throwback:
These are songs that are 'in the style of' but are not produced to sound authentically 'old.' They will have lyric themes and songwriting/composition styles that are of the required period. Production will be crisp and contemporary, while still giving an obviously throwback feel.

4) Influenced/Inspired:
A lot of contemporary music at the moment seems to be heavily influenced by older Soul, Motown and R&B - Sam Smith, John Newman, Pharrell Williams; there's even Avicii's Americana influenced electro. The music is clearly very contemporary and cutting edge in all respects - songwriting, arrangements, production - while remaining very recognizable in its roots (the familiarity of which amongst the audience is an important part of its success).

As you can appreciate, a vintage 80s song would not be attractive to a TAXI client who is looking for contemporary 'influenced' tracks; and vise versa of course. Hope this helps.

Helpful and clarifying, thanks for sharing!

Nice. Thanks for sharing this!

Excellent! Thanks for sharing this!

Well done Terrell. Thanks for posting!
Cheers/S

Thanks, Terrell. Very helpful information.

It would be great to do a TAXI TV show on how to create vintage-sounding (that would be category 2) cues.

Take the listing for the noir orchestral cue that was up about a month ago. My teacher and I looked at the track in my DAW and noticed how narrow the EQ frequencies were compared to a contemporary track.

I suspect for vintage sounding stuff - not that I've ever attempted it - you need to limit yourself to techniques of the time. I remember Michael once talking about LCR panning schemes, and saying that "back in the day" panning was operated by a three-way-switch that wouldn't permit anything BUT LCR. If you were mixing a tune to sound "of that time", you would have to think about things like that (I guess).

You're right, should be a Sticky. Thanks for posting!

MattCurious wrote:I suspect for vintage sounding stuff - not that I've ever attempted it - you need to limit yourself to techniques of the time. I remember Michael once talking about LCR panning schemes, and saying that "back in the day" panning was operated by a three-way-switch that wouldn't permit anything BUT LCR. If you were mixing a tune to sound "of that time", you would have to think about things like that (I guess).

Matt - I don't know that you'd need to get that deeply into it. Just avoid using anything that makes it sound modern and high fidelity. For a little experiment, A/B a Bee Gees hit against any of today's EDM songs, and you'll probably hear big differences in overall compression, reverb, EQ, and types of instruments used. Compare drum sounds, bass sounds, and synth sounds, and you'll see what I mean. A real kick, a real bass (more often than not), a real snare, and fewer layers of synths, less compression, etc. You'll definitely hear less tracks used and more dynamic range in the older stuff.

Hope this helps,
Michael

Thanks Terrell

Very useful info

Don