[arpodthegreat]

i´ve been trying to understand why old records sound great. i listen to a lot of 60s stuff like the velvet underground, pretty things, 13th floor elevators, old dylan, etc... and i noticed that sometimes you can barely make out the drums. it´s just the hi hat or the snare that you hear. everything is "muddy" and it sounds like someone just rolled off the high end. the weird thing is i don´t mind it and it actually sounds great. so i´m wondering how these old records "get away" with that sound. i have recorded stuff using a 4 track fostex to do the drums and even tried doing some gtrs and stuff with it but everything just turns to mush. or the drums sound great but then when i fill out the track with everything else i can´t really hear the kick. sometimes i think o well it´s cool to not hear everything perfect it´ll be like the velvet underground but i always think it just sounds amateur.
how come old records (even really old) sound great and not my stuff. is it the mastering or what? will my stuff just sound fine once it´s been mastered?