Production trick with amiga

17 August 2011, 06:02

First of all I apologyze if my english is poor, but I think it's important to all the amiga musicians take know of this trick. I have tested in few modules and works 100%. You get an almost 90's-studio-like sound for jungle, breakbeats and even classic mods.

Amiga has a pair of 8bit stereo channels in a single stereo output, not much useful for production purposes. That's why Urban Takeover and some amiga musicians linked 2 amiga together, to get more channels to work.

But... if we work using the hardware as a pair of MONO CHANNELS with 2 MONO OUTPUTS?

So, tracks 0 and 3 in the left output, and 2 and 3 in the right output could be through different type of effects in pairs.

If you don't understand, please, listen this example mod and you will realise quickly.

[ Show youtube player ]

If you have any question, I can respond.

Thanks to all EAB for inspiring!!!

Coagulus · 17 August 2011, 09:07

my A500 was like that, had 2 mono phono outputs (left and right) on the back. Had to use a Y shaped cable to the modulator from these outputs.

Jope · 30 August 2011, 13:54

I can answer your question

Quote:

Now I Think...OMG How many 90's hits were made with this TOY !?!?!?

A shitload.

And even in the 2000s, Calvin Harris made his album with an Amiga using Paula output..

adrdesign · 16 December 2013, 20:56

I've converted and enhanced the module in this post to Protracker for convenient use. Download attached: Protracker and ADF Bootable Image.

Is still FX friendly. Left for the bass (add some phaser) and right for the accapellas & effects (add some flanger & pingpong delay with reverb).
Thanks for watching!

8bitbubsy · 18 December 2013, 18:51

This is kind of ridiculous. Of course you can get 'production sound' by using external mastering on the Amiga L and R channels!

Reverb, chorus, echo, equalizer, you name it...

The Amiga does the raw sample playback job (with some cutoff filters), and that's about it. It's more fascinating when people make good sounding Amiga stuff either with software or hardware mixing, without using external equipment, IMO.

adrdesign · 18 December 2013, 23:57

I also like amiga raw sound by itself, but no one used "raw sound" in a studio production. Let's talk about how they improved it, what techniques did they use. Don't think it's ridiculous!

Thanks for the feedback

Mark Wright · 19 December 2013, 04:09

When I was making music for commercial release using my Amiga back in the early 90s, I had it wired through an external mixer to give all four channels as one mono input (fader up to the top) and another input with the usual Amiga stereo image (fader about half-way up) which worked great. Adding an Alesis Proverb to the quieter stereo image gave a nice depth without drowning the mix.

Here's one of my tracks (from 1990 but released in 91) which was mastered *direct* from the output of my crappy old Maplin mixer. It's just an A500 running Linel's SoundFX without any EQ or post-processing but using the technique described above. Hear for yourself (in glorious YouTube quality) the scratchy result once it hit vinyl:

[ Show youtube player ]

I have tried several times since to update some of my ancient Amiga tracks, deliberately choosing ones that lend themselves to 2013-style post-production, but the results have always been awful. I've got various unfinished Pro Tools/Audition projects lying around because, even after recording all four channels separately using Delitracker and carefully adding pseudo stereo effects/delay/reverb/phasing/filtering to things like strings, synth stabs and so on, I just can't find the "sweet spot" to make the end result superior to the original.

I've tried EQing things individually, cleaning up original samples, attempted various processing/compression settings before mastering, but the eventual mixdown always sounds horribly over-produced and completely unnatural. Maybe it's because I'm so used to how they sound naked that I can't appreciate them covered in studio make-up. And of course, the old adage - garbage in, garbage out :-) It's not nice having your treasured archive masterpieces exposed for the ton of junk they truly were/are. So I've given up :-)

Anyway.

Here's the only experiment I considered to be at least partially successful, and that's only because I propped up the original with more contemporary overlays and FX.

A 2007 mix of a track I originally made in 1990, produced entirely digitally using unenhanced WAV recordings from WinUAE and sexed up within Adobe Audition:

http://www.radiofriendly.co.uk/trueenergy2007.mp3

And the original, from my 1990 Silents UK "Full Power Music Disk" written using Linel's SoundFX (I had my Amiga wired mono through a mixing desk at the time - and the voice you hear is a 16 year old me):

http://www.radiofriendly.co.uk/trueenergy.mp3

Sorry for the off-topic ramble - maybe I should start a "Remastering Amiga Audio" thread :-)

17 August 2011, 06:02	#1
adrdesign Posts: n/a	Production trick with amiga First of all I apologyze if my english is poor, but I think it's important to all the amiga musicians take know of this trick. I have tested in few modules and works 100%. You get an almost 90's-studio-like sound for jungle, breakbeats and even classic mods. Amiga has a pair of 8bit stereo channels in a single stereo output, not much useful for production purposes. That's why Urban Takeover and some amiga musicians linked 2 amiga together, to get more channels to work. But... if we work using the hardware as a pair of MONO CHANNELS with 2 MONO OUTPUTS? So, tracks 0 and 3 in the left output, and 2 and 3 in the right output could be through different type of effects in pairs. If you don't understand, please, listen this example mod and you will realise quickly. [ Show youtube player ] If you have any question, I can respond. Thanks to all EAB for inspiring!!!

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17 August 2011, 09:07	#2
Coagulus Gets there in the end... Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Wales Posts: 862	my A500 was like that, had 2 mono phono outputs (left and right) on the back. Had to use a Y shaped cable to the modulator from these outputs.

18 December 2013, 18:51	#5
8bitbubsy Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norway Posts: 1,711	This is kind of ridiculous. Of course you can get 'production sound' by using external mastering on the Amiga L and R channels! Reverb, chorus, echo, equalizer, you name it... The Amiga does the raw sample playback job (with some cutoff filters), and that's about it. It's more fascinating when people make good sounding Amiga stuff either with software or hardware mixing, without using external equipment, IMO.

18 December 2013, 23:57	#6
adrdesign Registered User Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Spain Age: 45 Posts: 314	I also like amiga raw sound by itself, but no one used "raw sound" in a studio production. Let's talk about how they improved it, what techniques did they use. Don't think it's ridiculous! Thanks for the feedback

19 December 2013, 04:09	#7
Mark Wright Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Hove, actually Posts: 218	When I was making music for commercial release using my Amiga back in the early 90s, I had it wired through an external mixer to give all four channels as one mono input (fader up to the top) and another input with the usual Amiga stereo image (fader about half-way up) which worked great. Adding an Alesis Proverb to the quieter stereo image gave a nice depth without drowning the mix. Here's one of my tracks (from 1990 but released in 91) which was mastered direct from the output of my crappy old Maplin mixer. It's just an A500 running Linel's SoundFX without any EQ or post-processing but using the technique described above. Hear for yourself (in glorious YouTube quality) the scratchy result once it hit vinyl: [ Show youtube player ] I have tried several times since to update some of my ancient Amiga tracks, deliberately choosing ones that lend themselves to 2013-style post-production, but the results have always been awful. I've got various unfinished Pro Tools/Audition projects lying around because, even after recording all four channels separately using Delitracker and carefully adding pseudo stereo effects/delay/reverb/phasing/filtering to things like strings, synth stabs and so on, I just can't find the "sweet spot" to make the end result superior to the original. I've tried EQing things individually, cleaning up original samples, attempted various processing/compression settings before mastering, but the eventual mixdown always sounds horribly over-produced and completely unnatural. Maybe it's because I'm so used to how they sound naked that I can't appreciate them covered in studio make-up. And of course, the old adage - garbage in, garbage out :-) It's not nice having your treasured archive masterpieces exposed for the ton of junk they truly were/are. So I've given up :-) Anyway. Here's the only experiment I considered to be at least partially successful, and that's only because I propped up the original with more contemporary overlays and FX. A 2007 mix of a track I originally made in 1990, produced entirely digitally using unenhanced WAV recordings from WinUAE and sexed up within Adobe Audition: http://www.radiofriendly.co.uk/trueenergy2007.mp3 And the original, from my 1990 Silents UK "Full Power Music Disk" written using Linel's SoundFX (I had my Amiga wired mono through a mixing desk at the time - and the voice you hear is a 16 year old me): http://www.radiofriendly.co.uk/trueenergy.mp3 Sorry for the off-topic ramble - maybe I should start a "Remastering Amiga Audio" thread :-)

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