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anonymous 12 January 2006

they say that Terry date who produced successful CDs of limp bizkit,deftones etc... used tape for recording or tracking.

therefore i was interested in tape recording.
but i am absolutely novice about tape recording..therefore i didn't buy any tape recorder...
BTW i found the following link... the element is that magnetic tapes is better store format than burned CD

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/10/73755_HNCDlifespan_1.html?STORAGE

so,, if i buy a tape recorder, can i use it for data back up as well as tracking or recording

if it's so, what tape recorder is fit to me?
i hope to buy one which have professional recording quality but very cheap,it might have only one trak channel but the play speed should be controlled in detail number such as 1X, 2x, 0.5x or 100%, 200% or rpm etc..

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JoeH Fri, 01/13/2006 - 00:44

sheeesh....time to break out the ten foot pole here. :-)

Seriously, I've been burning, distributing and storing CDr's for over ten years now for clients, and they're all doing just fine, thanks. Chicken little is alive and well; don't believe everything you read out there. For every "Study" that proves something, I'm sure you can find something that says exactly the opposite if you try hard enough.

I keep several versions of our masters in storage (Cool, dark, climate controlled, in sealed bags with cilica gel in each), and we've never had a problem. Depending on the project, we also keep a backup on CDr, Hi8 (DA-88) digital Tapes, and now (of course) the hard drives themselves. (Oh, there's those nasty ol' DATs as well.)

We've never depended on just one brand of CDr, but we've tried to keep things consistent before making big changes. (Right now, we're using Verbatim for Data, and Discmakers brand of Premium CDs for our bulk stuff. Errors have been all but nonexistent for a long time now.)

Tape is a whole n'other situation, and you'd better do some research before taking the plunge as either an audio storage/work medium, or data backup. The days of tape storage/backup are quickly coming to an end, since it's a linear (non-random access) way of finding & retriving data. It takes a long time to write, verify and retrive, not to mention what COULD happen if those tapes get sticky, flakey or just damaged. (MUCH better off using HD's for the foreseeable future, IMHO).

I wish everyone who began working in the digital realm-only today, could go back in time to 20-30 years ago and experience the whole analog tape thing as some of us "Older" vets have done. You'd probably see things in a much different light. (No offense to any newbies!)

Analog was/still is a GREAT medium for recording, but it's not the holy grail that so many think it is. It takes a LOT of TLC to do it right, and many times the better route is digital when all's said and done.

The lessons learned from analog are priceless, though, and they WILL help you understand much much better what goes on in the digital world. It's great as a "Plug in" to warm up a drum track or rhythm section, but putting all of one's eggs in the analog tape basket seems a bit counterproductive in the long run of competitive audio production. It's a great concept, and everyone SAYS they want it, but few are REALLY willing to pay for the extra cost involved, and aside from impressing your other techie friends, it's not going to get you much return for your investment in the long run, unless you're doing it for something crazy and wonderful like LOVE of the sound. ;-)

Having said all that, there's very little chance I'd invest in an analog format these days, for audio OR data storage. Just too much hassle. It's great for archive retrival, but that's about it for me. (And I've lived through 'em all, trust me. I don't EVER want to have to align another 24 track Studer or Otari or JH-110 as long as I LIVE! :twisted:

And as always, YMMV.

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