In and out of the box
>Most of the techniques you see here are based in the box, using your DAW and/or plugins to get the results wanted. But many people have a stash, of some size or another, of outboard gear. While you can use an emulation to get a great sound, easily, there’s nothing quite like capturing the real thing. If you have a record player, pop the needle to the end of any disc and record the noise you get. Or send an instrument track to an outboard tape delay. The other benefit to doing it this way is that it massively reduces the strain on your computer, so if you’re working on an older laptop, or you’re finding there’s some lag, especially when working on a master channel or a busy bus, you can still enjoy the results without taxing your system. Tape delays are particularly good and you don’t have to spend the earth on a vintage space echo. You can get an 8-track cassette-based model from the ’70s for the price of a couple of plugins and they do the job of providing authentic mechanical noise, tape friction effects and so on without the need to dial in software, which for many will make the whole experience more fun and feeds the continuing surge in lo-fi popularity.