How Mac Demarco Became a Legend with a Tiny Bedroom and a Microphone
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- čas přidán 17. 04. 2023
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Mac Demarco is the king of lofi indie production, but how did he get to this point? And what gear did he use to get that ultra smooth, chill tone? Let's see if we can find out, and recreate it ourselves in this lil' mini-documentary :)
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Mac is unreal , he’s back touring this year . The song my old man is so touching
He’s awesome, gotta see him live at some point
@@AudioHaze can’t wait
Regular. It’s like being impressed by Pepsi.
Just saw him at Webster hall. It was… UNREAL!!!
@@Exaltation-heliacal I love Pepsi
Really enjoy this type of content!! like the music "history" aswell as the technical and creative process artists went trough plus the overview from a sound engineer standpoint, really tics all boxes!!
Thanks man!! I'm trying to make a video essay genre for the audio engineers out there, seems like there isn't much out there for that kind of content!
@@AudioHaze please do!
In the 90s I used to record with a cassette 4-track. It had a pitch/speed dial with a really natural sound. My wife is a really good singer (she has released 4 albums so far) and I used to record her singing and pitch it down. The resulting sound was one of my favorite male voices I have ever heard. Too bad the thing broke down and I eventually threw it away.
Is there anywhere I can find her music?
@@clementinelives Hi, She has music on all major platforms, here on CZcams as well. Her name is Anna Kokkonen
@@clementinelives fr we need to know
What machine did you use?
@@marshalllittle2098 I think it was Fostex XR-3
This is great! It's amazing the amount of work involved behind the scenes. You really don't know how time consuming it can be until you get down to business. Very rewarding tho ❤
Man I remember hearing this dude back 2012 in Brooklyn and now, thinking of how there’s videos like this explaining his “phenomenon” is mind blowing. Great video.
I absolutely love how you are putting in techniques testing in this "artist exploration" videos, it's very inspiring and gets me exited to explore what is possible to achieve with basic equipment.
Hey you might like a band called The Doublejumps if you like Mac Demarco. They have a similar homemade style
That's the goal!!! In addition to exploring music history and production, really the goal is to show what amazing things have been done outside of a $$$$ studio
cool video! one of my old projects was super into collecting vintage gear and analog home recording with it. Through a friend I've had the chance to hang with Mac around the country several times over the years. Super nice guy in person, and a super fun performer. I feel like he's also a great example of the fact that you don't need all the most expensive, flashiest gear to make art-- master what you have, push it, break it and do weird stuff with it, and then upgrade as necessary. Tape nerds unite!
This is super interesting. I honestly had never heard of Mac before this but I am super intrigued. Another home run, my dude! You're turning me into an audio nerd.
Thank you my friend!! Good, the more audio nerds in this world the better lol
These videos are some of the highlights of the week. You have helped me and inspired me so much. I think my music and my confidence in my home studio and what i can create in it is on another level since i discovered you. I hope you continue creating a long time :)
Dude this comment made my day thank you so much!! That’s always the goal with these type of videos :)
The hard work you put into making this video is appreciated...... Thank You !!!!!! 😄
I had a real eye (ear) opening moment a few years back while making digital transfers of cassette audio. Bass guitar parts that had been recorded direct into my mid 90's Fostex 280 cassette multitrack without any compression sounded surprisingly huge, full and smooth.
so many years put into making this video behind the scenes work, you thanK!!!!!!
I found out about Mac randomly on Spotify and been a fan of him ever since. Just love that sound and similar like it; I've been even trying to incorporate it into some of my own productions. Also, really digging your content man, you got my follow!
Takes me back a few years to the 70s and my bedroom recordings on a TEAC 4-track. The limitations forced me to think outside the box and I was way more inventive back then than I am now on my unlimited functionality of my fave DAW, PreSonus Studio One Professional.
Enjoyed this content. 👍🆘
The beauty of limitations :) thanks for checking into the vid!! I’m a fan of your work 😁
It looks just like my studio from the 80s. I have had three Fostex A8s over the years. Using this gear forces you to make choices early on a lot of the time. A great education even if you ultimately end up using a DAW
Nice!! I had an old fostex that I never got around to using myself, I always just went straight into the daw. I wish I gave it a chance back in the day to be honest
@@AudioHaze I used to master on to a Tascam 32-2B 1/4 inch 15 IPS reel to reel and when I got it right it added it’s own magic to the final mix. I used an MD-421 as my mic of choice because it took my whole budget at the time. :-)
When I can, I'm going to pick up some hardware for this purpose, like an SP303, a turntable, and a simple Tascam recorder. It seems like the endless freedom of the DAW can actually take away a lot of the focus I have when I'm just playing an acoustic instrument that has more limitations.
Unreal video! Thank you for sharing so many insights!!
I have started watching your videos every day, they are just WAY TOO GOOD!
WOW thank you mean that means a ton!!
So cool to see you find your format, keep up the great stuff.
Thanks man! We found one winning format I think, now we gotta brainstorm some more :)
Just found this channel and I love it. Great job!
Great content bro 👊 keep up the good work
Great video! Love the work put into this
Absolutely awesome content man! Subscribed 🤙
Great video and analysis on Mac Demarco’s process.
This is the first video I've seen of yours and I'm so interested to see what else you've made music on.
I found your channel very recently and I love it so much, keep it up!!!
I’ll do my best!! Thanks for watching :)
Legendary! Working on an album now, this has me inspired to use tape
Great video but oh my god is the video edit is so clean and easy to watch. Subbed just for that
Great videos. Thanks man!!
Limitation and constraints creating legends, thanks for the video!
Wich is really important to say is: cheap doesn't sounds good or cool, it sounds good or cool because behind there is a huge work of production. I'm working with tapes (Tascam 424 and an Akai reel to reel), and it's a pain in the ass to make them sounds at least well. Ableton, you plug your stuff in.. and that's it. So i basically use tape and i blend it to a digital recording. That way i have a cool tape blend so i can flex on it, but i have the advantages of the digital recordings
"It's garbage but fun to make" - Mac Demarco.
This is amazing! Just subbed
Really digging this essay-technique videos. Kudos
Appreciate you saying that! They take a ton of work to make so I'm glad you like it
Nice vid! I'm a big fan of Mac. A little side note: If you tune your guitar to 432hz, you can play along to the song Salad Days and it will sound great.
Great video! Didn’t know much about Demarco at all previous to this, so I decided to check him out and I like it! On another note Fostex gives me a warm feeling inside, while I didn’t have a tape recorder I did have a MR8 HD 8 Track with a 40gb harddrive I think. Very simple, but I really loved the sound of it.
Glad you liked it! I had a foster way back in the day that someone was going to throw out haha I don't remember the model, I would have been too young to remember. I don't think I ever even gave it a chance, just used by audiobox USB instead. I regret that lol
Sooo inspiring. Love this idea of basically stop chasing expensive equipment thinking that will make it ‘better’ These are the vids that keep me going. Thank you 👍
Yes sir
Perfect timing, my goal is to have a hybrid studio at home by the end of the year using both analogue and digital, I see the the merits of both so why not :)
Dope video dude!
Dope content! Thanks a lot
Great video as always! I'm enjoying these specific album recording method videos a lot. Would you be interested in doing one on early Tame Impala, like Lonerism or maybe Innerspeaker? He does really interesting stuff with drums, like crazy compression and saturation. And on Innerspeaker, at least, used a very limited drum mic setup.
GREAT idea!! I’ve got a few artists in thinking of doing that are already in line, but no series like this would be complete without Tame Impala. I’ll write it down :)
@@AudioHaze Awesome! Thanks for listening :)
Man, I really like your channel!
Thanks dude! I try my best
Mac Demarco is one of my favorite artists!
He’s becoming one of mine too!!
I love seeing behind the scenes in the world of music. Thanks for this.
Awesome video, unique content keep it up 👌🏾
Ey thanks man!
AWESOME VÍDEO MAN, LOVE IT
Thanks dude!
Super dope video bro, def earned a sub!
Thanks man! Welcome to the channel my friend :)
Sped up sounds have shorter durations. So they exit that composite sound sooner. Slowed ones linger longest. Kinda like how tighter top heads decay fast and looser bottoms create that pitch bend down effect because they are lower but also longer... Cool vid thx!
Love the Mike tip
Great video. While I can respect DeMarco’s recording lofi techniques, I don’t think it explains his streaming counts. It’s more about the songs. The attention of admiring producers and copy-cat musicians might get you 50,000 stream but millions of streams means a huge audience that just like your songs. Given the top 100 today, these simply songwriting tunes fill a void - and Mac does it well.
Totally! I don't mean to imply that everything magical about Mac is his gear, just an exploration of his production style :)
Spot on. I still think it's useful to take techniques from all around because they might come in handy when trying to work on your own song. Producing is problem solving and there's no harm in taking other people's solutions and seeing if it solves your problem. But yeah hundred percent, a songs success comes down to producing and songwriting. Mixing and mastering is just a cherry onto and doesn't make or break anything.
Ha, how weird. I have the magazine of that PDF next to me; loved that Tape Op edition when I bought a crap ton of them in bulk. Love his cassette reference
So crazy that you released this just days before One Wayne G
IKR, total happy accident
I don’t miss this stuff honestly. I know people who are really into Tascam424s and such but as another commenter said it’s the songwriting and arrangement. Listening to Elliott Smiths last record vs his first or Heatmiser stuff I still hear his singular gifts much more than whether he used a tape machine or was in a studio or Larry Crane was mixing. I hate $30 guitars personally. Despise them. I think it can be argued someone could be great just using Logic and a good interface. There’s a varispeed in Logic Pro as well. But more power to anyone who manages to make records while trying to live in a one bedroom situation. I certainly know the struggle!
Hey man, thanks for sharing ur musical production journey for the benefit of all us wanna be F-ing loser musicians. You’ve put a-lot of work into making these productions, I hit the like, and subscribed, trying not to be an ungrateful bastard in life ! Thks man.🙏
and just like that he puts out a 9 hour album today
dude your hair is amazing
Now I’ve heard of him - insightful essay
Thanks glad you liked it!!
Man this is all I wanna watch on CZcams 😮
great video. I loved the mac in high school
I discovered him kind of late!! But he’s awesome
The desk for ‘2’ wasn’t Fostex. It’s an Allen & Heath FYI 😊
Great vid
this deserves so much more views
why?
@@henriqueyoh because it's trash....... because it's a good watch?
Super cool technique. Wanna try it now haha
Do it!! Its honestly a much cooler tone than I thought, definitely very lofi though
Great video, subscribed!
Thank you my friend! Welcome to the community
I just wish I was able to have a drum set and record real drums lol. My apartment complex would evict me if my neighbors didn’t kill me first.
Haha same man! I feel this on another level
@@alexraia1377 I hate mixing because I spend too much time trying to get my drums to sound real. lol. I think having real cymbal loop would help but it’s impossible to find some that are basic 8th notes and quarter notes.
@@wheresallthezombies Try this, it sounds corny but might help you... A friend came over to my studio the other day and we started tracking a new song. Instead of starting with a drum beat, after the guitar was laid down, he insisted on adding a percussion track with the shaker. Then he proceeded to find random objects in the room that could add a textural layer to the groove that he had going, and then asked me for glass and some spoons. He tapped out a "hi-hat" section on an empty wine bottle with two metal spoons, lol. And honestly, the layers of all these percussion things sound sick. Just experiment and don't be afraid to try things, even if they appear silly at first glance.
Great video!
Can't help but think this is Anthony Fantano with a red haired wig.
While he does use plenty of old and "affordable" gear, you failed to point out some things clearly visible in the pics and videos, including: a Focusrite ISA desktop preamp ($500 used, not terrible), 2 DBX 160s ($2k used each), a Teletronix LA-2A ($4k used, maybe $3k back then - you can tell it's the real deal by the knobs), and you can clearly make out a Genelec monitor . . . Dude is using plenty of elite tier gear.
Hey! So much of the B roll isn't actually the gear mentioned in the script, its footage from future releases where he had much nicer gear, better budget, etc. etc. If you read the PDF I linked in the description, it outlines all the exact gear used on those albums, and that is the gear I'm referencing.
He definitely has elite gear now for sure, but he didn't on the records being discussed :)
Very well done 🤝🏼👌🏼👍🏼
Thank you my friend!!
Awesome video Dude!
Thanks man! Takes a lot of effort so I'm glad you enjoyed :)
@@AudioHaze Well, you're killing it man, keep em coming
Ironically videos like these save me money.
Hahaha good, the drum recording method near the end of the video is really affordable actually :) One cheap mic is all you need
@@AudioHaze Oh yeah definitely! I only have 3 microphones though. I don't play drums and I no one here that plays drums unfortunately. But is still a recording method for the future. You never know!
Great video👌🏾
Thanks man!
hey man you should do this kinda video but on bands like daft punk or cerrone, or something older groups - would lvoe to see this type of video on that .... the depth
Continues to use ableton after Mac says not too
Just stumbling across this. Gotta mention the giant brown Tascam 388 (doing the lion's share of recording during Salad Days era) and the DBX 165 (same compressor used by Tame Impala), which is sitting on top of the 388 in Mac's video.
our roadmap.
How do I get the PDF you mentioned around 4 mins? Cheers.
josh fudge does music history now :D
Thanks for the video and research. I enjoyed watching it, must admit I don’t know the artist in question. I do find that when I turn off the visual aids I make better music. That goes from picking cymbals for drums, to mixing a song. However you achieve that, be it tape machine or facing away from your monitor now and again I think it helps make better music.
because of talent
Honestly I would have watched more, but you had an ad in the first 2 min? Cmonnnnnn
I love the video. I did think it was funny how it kept switching to the video of Mac at the drums with all the stuff in his face because the mic over his rack tom in that video is around $3000 ish lol 7:50 Cool mice tho. The Beatles used to use that mic as the overhead for Ringos drums on the late 60s
Great video. Obviously a lot of effort. These days Mac seemed to be on reverb buying high end stuff. But yeah those old tape machines were fun. Teac is pronounced. Tea. Ack by the way
Thanks dude! And yes sorry about that one, definitely slipped up there
The best way to re-create it is gather your own odd ball crap and make something great out of it
This Old Dog is his best and best sounding record imo
I’ll sit down at some point and check it out from start to finish :) I haven’t heard the whole album in sequence
One word: genius 😂
Hi i really like how you explain your critic of if you like the sound of the mic... But is stuck with some choices here. Id like you to help me choose between senhseiser e835, se v7, shure sm57/sm58, and last but not least audix i5. My purpose is i need a mic to sing in a completly untreated room and this type of "handheld" dynamics are the choice for me, and rarely to record my guitar. You'll be the judge and thanks for making these incredible videos! Cheers!
edmonton alberta represent
super cool video wow
Love this video
Thanks man :)
Early car seat headrest next?
Some of my most rewarding stuff was on a cassette 4 track. Good vid.
Is the kb2 really that good? Everybody tells me I will love it because I love my dark 2035 and if I can get a similar sound with less self-noise... I guess I must
Thanks man! Yeah the King Bee 2 is killer, I think if you're looking for a darker, smoother mic at a low price point there isn't any better. That little of self noise on a condenser as affordable at the kb2 is insane :)
You should enjoy Macs music on vinyl. It goes was the LoFi vibe 🤷🏻♂️
It feels like you need some sort of "Wow" effect before you slow it down. In the video of Mac in studio it's amazing how much this effect is enhanced by especially slowing the tape this would definitely make the slowed take seem less fat which to my ear is where a lot of the cohesiveness is lost when summing the drums
Yeah I totally agree with you here! The drums definitely needed to be tightened up a bit, if I were thinking of this outside of the context of this video, I probably would have led with the "sped up" take, cut the "slowed down take" and had the original take support the sped up one, it would probably read a bit more cohesively
This video makes me feel ancient. I realize his methods are unconventional today, but they really aren't any different than what a bedroom producer would have used in the 90s. The thing that has changed is that all the character and shortcomings of the equipment he uses were something that people used to try to hide and work around, whereas now they're being used to impart character. It's like people using sidechained compression to create a pumping effect. In the past pushing the compressor that hard would have been unheard of, and you would have been laughed out of the studio for doing it. His music is cool and all, but is it really groundbreaking?
Nice! Yeah I get where you're coming from, people definitely get nostalgic for that analog tone, I fall into that category sometimes myself. I think his music isn't really about being groundbreaking! Its just a really cool vibe that resonates with a lot of people :) part of that is the equipment he used to do it. I suppose the novel part is using this kind of gear in the context of the digital era.
@@AudioHaze Yes, I totally agree with you. And don't get me wrong, warble-y tape sounds get me every time, even when they're overused. Never gets old. Makes me wonder what comes next. CDs don't really impart any character so how could we be nostalgic for the sound.
Stuff like the A8 and that wasn’t cheap back in the day. The original lofi movement in the 90s would have had Fostex or Yamaha 4 track tape, a mic or two, possible one PZM, and some basic effects. In comparison this is an embarrassment of analogue hifi riches not too far from what many successful artists would have had as a demo studio at home.
@@gunark Fair point. I guess I was more focused on working around and hiding limitations of tape in comparison to using tape's inherent character as an effect itself. You're right none of that stuff was cheap, and it's really not even cheap today.
@@ThePurpleSnork I mean, technically it is lower fidelity than what people have now, so the lofi tag is correct, it’s more of a reaction against the quality of modern tools than the lofi of the 90s which, while still that to a small degree, was more about getting stuff recorded without fanfare and polish. Arguably the modern lofi movement is entirely aesthetic, whereas a closer analogue to 90s lofi would be Cloud Rap, regardless of its artistic merits.
3:10 challenge accepted LOOOL
Hahaha please no lol
Mac Demarco, Mac Miller, Fleetwood MAC. You see where I’m going with this right? THEY’RE THE GOATS
Not to forget the BIG MAC
My favorite SpongeBob-core artist
That mixer or “desk” is actually an Allen and heathe Zed R-16. It is an analogue board, BUT has a built in FireWire interface as well
Thanks! Must not have been the desk mentioned in the PDF as I thought, regardless I appreciate the clarification :)
I love Mac and happy he is at this level …. Still, 5 years without a major Vocal album, even with this years demo style releases, he may start to fade away if can’t deliver a solid Ali in in the next year or 2 - his tour sales are probably already starting to go down
he’s probably exactly where he wants to be in terms of an audience
and a vintage fairchild, a ton of original neve 1073s, original neumann mics ... list goes on)
Not for the records I mentioned in the video, some of the B roll is from when he got the gear you mentioned, but if you check out the document I linked in the description it outlines how he recorded the albums mentioned in the video :)
awesome vid
Thanks man!