Thread: Reel to reel recording...

haha no its not true. analog and digital are both equally good...but in different ways.

like with digital- digital has a lower noise floor, and (to me) its easier to edit. quality i think is just as good and sonicaly is almost impossible to hear the difference between the two.

analog- you get a slight compression form the tape which is nice. but you get tape hiss from using analog.

i mean a lot of these "great artist of the days" used analog because digital was still in the works or wasnt as good as analog at the time. but now a days theyre both as good. but in different ways as i said before.

Well written songs + well played instruments + good recording technique + good mixing and mastering = A GOOD SONG.

There is more to making a song sound great than the difference between recording it on digital or analog. It is the whole package from the concept to the final mastering.

At one time I had both analog and digital recording equipment coexisting in my studio. Everything from an Otari 8 track 1" machine to a Panasonic DAT machine to an Ampex ATR102. They were all used for different purposes but the "trick" was knowing how to use them and for what. Now with us doing a lot of restoration and mastering work we have three analog R to R decks and 4 DAT machines and a DA-88 all for playback only.

Lots of people seem to think that by going back to analog it will make all their stuff sound GREAT! It may help or it may not but if you haven't got all the other stuff in place then it really will not make as big a difference as you think it will.

Best of luck!

Here are my thoughts on analog versus digital and what makes a good album a good album.

1 - Analog is great. Caveat: You must be able to bleed the most out of the system to make analog great. If any part of the analog chain is deficient, the whole final product suffers. This means that your tape machines MUST be calibrated, demagnetized and cleaned regularly. Your tape has to be in great condition (you can't overdub it 30 times and expect it to sound the same as it did brand new).

1A - Analog sucks. Okay...before anyone grabs any weapons, bear with me here. People that LOVE analog site its flaws as its benefits. The noise, the distortion, the non-linearities and all of its other limitations.

2 - Digital is great. There so little that can go wrong in digital. You get a pristine transfer from even modestly priced converters and once it's digital, nothing can happen to the 1's and 0's to degrade it (other than poor mixing...). There is no terminal point to digital - it should last forever as long as the medium is stable (unlike analog).

2a - Digital Sucks! - Because of its clarity and precision:
1 - poor engineers have nothing to hide behind.
2 - as human beings, we are not accustomed to hearing music (even live) without distortions, non-linearities, noise...digital seems fake.

There are lots of people who record to tape then dump into digital or vice versa and I think that, if you're looking for an analog sound, this is a great way to do it in the modern world. No need for razor blades and isopropyl and band-aids.

Personally, for the work that I do, I like digital and there's not a chance I'd be going back to analog any time soon. There's too much maintenance and headache with analog not to mention a much more lengthy editing process.

As usual, Tom is right. A good recording is a good artist, a good performance, good recording, mixing and mastering techniques. The messenger (or the format) should not be a concern other than for the purpose of effect.

Anyway...rambling over.

Slap your friend for me.

Somebody should put all of this stuff down in a book there is some great advice being given here.

I think the biggest thing with audio in the "olde" days was you were looking at VU meters and you got to know what you could and could not do by staring at the meter. Now days everything is LED peak meters or the computer screen version of them and people have nary a clue to what they are doing when it comes to levels. In the old days 0 dBu was also 100% modulation on the transmitter ( before the days of Orban Processors and limiter compressors stacked three high in the chain) so if you worked in radio you tried NOT to go over zero or your boss could get a nasty letter from the FCC for over modulation. When you were doing recordings you tried to stay below O dBu on the meter otherwise you would be in danger of distortion and you tried to keep it above -15 dBu other wise you would have too much tape hiss. There were some limits and professional audio engineers knew what they were and kept things in the normal range. Today many people misunderstand the whole recording and mixing operation and think that by simply running things though an analog tape deck it will make badly recorded music sound good.



LONG LIVE THE VU METER.....!

Remy...your response was a little too loud. Can you keep an eye on your output levels please or you'll get a letter (and possibly a fine!)

Perhaps you could check your keyboard's Optimod settings and dial them back a little.

Just don't have a wardrobe malfunction and show a nipple or you'll incite an FCC meltdown!