using tape and DAW?

i57dwun4yb1pt8

note - im not tape friendly so please bear with me

I was wondering if there would be any benefit to obtaining some class of a tape deck with maybe 8 channels
one for a click and the rest for drums - to add a little analogy goodness to the home studio drum recording .

the files then dumped into reaper to work on .

is it worth the hassle ?

if so any idea what tape deck tape to use and tape type / speed noise reduction required ?

cost ?

PaulBrewer

DaDumTish wrote: »

note - im not tape friendly so please bear with me

I was wondering if there would be any benefit to obtaining some class of a tape deck with maybe 8 channels
one for a click and the rest for drums - to add a little analogy goodness to the home studio drum recording .

the files then dumped into reaper to work on .

is it worth the hassle ?

if so any idea what tape deck tape to use and tape type / speed noise reduction required ?

cost ?

This is an old Chestnut that comes up often!

It's a trap I've seen at least 2 guys a year fall for, only to be disappointed with the results.

Unless you're thinking of a quality Machine such as Studer or Ampex in pristine mechanical and electrical condition it's unlikely there'll be any sonic gain.

Then there's the quality of today's tape which is, in general, considered inferior to tape's heyday.

The classic mistake I've seen over the years is the guy buying an old 1/4 and 1/2 inch Tascam or Fostex machine that, even when new, didn't perform well and expecting it to out perform even a reasonable digital system.

But then, that's what the whole industry is based on......... dreams.

Here's some interesting viewing ....

http://www.recordproduction.com/mpg-event-june05.html

iquinn

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Here's some interesting viewing ....

http://www.recordproduction.com/mpg-event-june05.html

I watched that when it came out, the only thing is there aren't enough details as to what was involved in the conversion process.
for example Nuendo can run on any soundcard that has asio drivers.

Or what Pro Tools hardware were they using?

does anyone have any detailed specs?

PaulBrewer

iquinn wrote: »

I watched that when it came out, the only thing is there aren't enough details as to what was involved in the conversion process.
for example Nuendo can run on any soundcard that has asio drivers.

Or what Pro Tools hardware were they using?

does anyone have any detailed specs?

Don't know - I'm going over there in a couple of weeks and I'll ask.

The general point I was making is that even 3 years ago at the high end it was considered that (some) Digital was better than (some) Tape.

iquinn

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Don't know - I'm going over there in a couple of weeks and I'll ask.

The general point I was making is that even 3 years ago at the high end it was considered that (some) Digital was better than (some) Tape.

and it's a good and valid point.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

grand , that solves that issue for me then !

I had a feeling it may be a lemon .

PaulBrewer

DaDumTish wrote: »

grand , that solves that issue for me then !

I had a feeling it may be a lemon .

Spend the cash on a weekend in Amsterdam ..... that's more likely to improve your drum sound.

RealEstateKing

Record digitally and stick a little PSP vintagewarmer on it instead.

Far easier, and would probably sound better than a cheapo analog deck with misaligned/worn heads, cheapo tape, noisy circuirtry, wow and fluttery motors and all the other pain-in-the-arse things of yesteryear we now longer have to worry about.

For many things simulated oldness is far preferable to real oldness!

trackmixstudio

http://www.smassey.com/au.html
massey's tape head is a cool plugin and free!
I used to have a tascam msr24 tape machine and when I went digital the clarity was much better.
As Paul says, a quality 2" machine sounds really nice but tape is expensive and hard to get and maintenance is a pain.

iquinn

I demo'd vtape a while ago, that was nice also.
http://www.virsyn.de/en/E_Products/E_VTAPE/e_vtape.html
(due to working with really bad 1/4" RMG tape and getting constant drop outs!)


I find with those kind of 'emulation' pluggins running a copy of the track in parallel with the tape pluggin on an insert, then mixing it with the clean track gets me where i want most times.