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[Mikendher]

Does anyone know how sam from iron & wine gets the sound on his earlier albums? both his voice and the guitar (and other instruments) sound very intimate and kind of scratchy in a way that i really like. I'm trying to find out how to get that kind of sound myself (with my guitar, mandolin, and mic, and mixer). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Jolouie]

Hm....

On the earlier stuff it was recorded on lo-fi equipment.

On the newer stuff, he turned his mic up way, because he isn't a very loud singer. You get to hear his breathing and stuff, that's probably a big part of it. He might've used a compressor too. All of it isn't really heavily EQd either, it's just the natural sounds.

[TheoristB]

Does anyone know how sam from iron & wine gets the sound on his earlier albums? both his voice and the guitar (and other instruments) sound very intimate and kind of scratchy in a way that i really like. I'm trying to find out how to get that kind of sound myself (with my guitar, mandolin, and mic, and mixer). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The early stuff was most likely recorded on a four track.  I have no idea what kind of mic he used, but if you want to recreate that you can get a four track for cheap and a sure sm57 mic and record with those.  That will give you that kinda raw unproduced sound you are looking for.

If you are recording with your computer you can always add some really light distorion to tracks to give it ath feel.  You have to be caaareful doing this though so you dont over distort.