Unless it's an ADAT I don't know of any way to accomplish that task, ADATs used a vhs form factor for their tapes but they were specifically made for ADATS.

If you are talking about using a SVHS tape deck/or camcorder the end result would be a stereo analog recording.

8)

Well yeah, many of us have. That is to say, on the decent industrial VHS machines, we could have a primary stereo track embedded in the hi-fi video track and then we could also overdub, 2 voice overs on the linear analog tracks. I certainly wouldn't consider trying to do that with any musical instruments however because of the crappy quality of the linear audio tracks.

Now if you are speaking in terms of the Alesis ADAT digital multitrack audio recorder, there's thousands of people here and elsewhere, who have been doing just that since 1992.

Now what exactly is your question?
Ms. Remy Ann David

I didn't realize SVHS was ADAT, sorry. My bad. Nevermind. I was going to ask if anyone thought SVHS sounded more organic than HD, but I have no interest in the maintenance hassles of an ADAT machine. Thanks.

That reminds me of the time a producer told me that the "old" MDM ADATs were "better" than the RADAR rig we had at the time because the ADATs were "tape", and "tape" was "warmer" than the "HD". Go figure...

Actually, once upon a time we used the Sony F1 (or its Nakamichi equivalent) to record digital stereo tracks onto VHS or BETA tapes (in the area where picture info - chrominance & luminence - is stored) using the composite video input, and a loop back to the digital recorder with the video out, to check tracking, PB, etc.

And if it was a HIFI machine (which wasn't always the case in those days), we used the stereo tracks there as well. There would be an obvious time delay between the two sets of tracks on PB, but it was good in a pinch. In most cases, we recorded the same stuff on them both, the HIFI tracks were mostly just a backup for the F1 digital.

I have to add that the F1 stuff was always a bit more sterile and brittle sounding (a bit brighter, too), while the HIFI tracks always sounded a little warmer, rounder, etc., due to the fact it was the analog tape portion of the recording. VHS HIFI was often referred to as the "Poor Man's Digital", but like so many other quirky things in those days, it really was not bad in a pinch (provided there was no auto-level going on, etc. The better machines would let you disable that with a switch somewhere on the front panel.)

And we thought this was pretty cool at the time. :roll:

CoyoteTrax wrote: I didn't realize SVHS was ADAT, sorry. My bad. Nevermind. I was going to ask if anyone thought SVHS sounded more organic than HD, but I have no interest in the maintenance hassles of an ADAT machine. Thanks.

Well, the ADAT used the same transport, so there you go.

Digital is digital and it makes no difference sonically what the storage mediem is.

If you want organic, you want analog (distortion). The greater the distance between analog tape tracks, the wider the head gap, the better the sound (most of the time). 2" 8 track, 2" 12 track, 1" 16 track are pretty beefy.

Hey, I once had a Toshiba VHS machine -DX something- with built-in Sony F1 PCM stereo plus two vhs hi-fi tracks plus one analog track. It ended up in my kids room so she could watch Barney. 8-)

I think the Toshiba model S were DX-7, and a DX-9. (Not unlike the Yamaha Keyboards of similar names....) I remember these, they were truly the last of the great ones of that era. (I think they even had input volume controls on them?) VERY cool machines, indeed, and not cheap at the time.

It was the beginning of the end; VHS had nowhere to go after SVHS (which never really took over anyway). Now that it's all DVD-R, it's just a fuzzy, low-res memory. ;-) )

JoeH wrote: Actually, once upon a time we used the Sony F1 (or its Nakamichi equivalent) to record digital stereo tracks onto VHS or BETA tapes (in the area where picture info - chrominance & luminence - is stored) using the composite video input, and a loop back to the digital recorder with the video out, to check tracking, PB, etc.

And if it was a HIFI machine (which wasn't always the case in those days), we used the stereo tracks there as well. There would be an obvious time delay between the two sets of tracks on PB, but it was good in a pinch. In most cases, we recorded the same stuff on them both, the HIFI tracks were mostly just a backup for the F1 digital.

I have to add that the F1 stuff was always a bit more sterile and brittle sounding (a bit brighter, too), while the HIFI tracks always sounded a little warmer, rounder, etc., due to the fact it was the analog tape portion of the recording. VHS HIFI was often referred to as the "Poor Man's Digital", but like so many other quirky things in those days, it really was not bad in a pinch (provided there was no auto-level going on, etc. The better machines would let you disable that with a switch somewhere on the front panel.)

And we thought this was pretty cool at the time. :roll:

Ahhh...those were the days! I cut my digital teeth on a similar set up! As you put it though, the analog almost always actually sounded better (we had some very nice pro Panasonic HiFi decks) but we still used the digital cuz it was "digital."