Does anyone still slate takes?

[drumsound]

Hi all,
I've been listening to the third Chicago album a lot lately. It starts with the last bit of an engineer slating the take. You hear a very distinct "One" followed by tuning, warming up etc.

It got me to wondering if people still slate takes, on the multitrack, and/or the mixes. Does anyone here do it? I think I may start, especially on my newly rebuilt 2".

 

[anonymous]

Yep. Every one of them. That way when I listen to the 'tracking takes' later in another environment, I know which take is which.

Same with mixes, I may have 10+ "printed mixes" of a song, with a slate I know which one I'm hearing when I'm listening to them in another environment...like the car. Then again, I don't yet have a CD player in my car, so perhaps if I ever get a car with a CD player I won't need to...but until then...slates work wonders.

[I don't bother with 'slate tones' as I'm pretty anal about leadering everything (analog domain stuff)].

 

[alphajerk]

fletcher, you sound like a joy to work with in analog [no sarcasm intended]. i bet it would be cool with digital too, dragging out all those cool toys, learn a thing or two about compression.


no i dont "slate takes" now that im fully digital. i did when i used analog but i muted them out fairly soon after tracking. i do label my mixes digitally now with applicable comments. i even include notes in the markers of different takes, so visually all the information is included and then some.