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Post by Ward on Jul 5, 2020 7:27:37 GMT -6
Did a lot of work on Studers at 15ips with Dolby SR back in the 90's (a lot of times 2 Lynxed together). That seemed to be a popular way to do basics then bounce to a 3348 for the rest of the overdubs. At mix we'd Lynx the drum 2" up with the Sony. I do not miss any of that! Best answer so far. God, tape wasn't fun and didn't sound great and still doesn't. Tape choice for me was always 499 or 996 as fast as possible and noise reduction as much as possible. And pray to God, you got back close to what you were hearing when tracking. And by the time mixing came around? More EQ necessary than not to overcome the limitations of tape. I don't get the obsession or hype with tape any longer. Maybe wire recorders will make a comeback. |
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jul 5, 2020 7:34:40 GMT -6
Did a lot of work on Studers at 15ips with Dolby SR back in the 90's (a lot of times 2 Lynxed together). That seemed to be a popular way to do basics then bounce to a 3348 for the rest of the overdubs. At mix we'd Lynx the drum 2" up with the Sony. I do not miss any of that! Best answer so far. God, tape wasn't fun and didn't sound great and still doesn't. Tape choice for me was always 499 or 996 as fast as possible and noise reduction as much as possible. And pray to God, you got back close to what you were hearing when tracking. And by the time mixing came around? More EQ necessary than not to overcome the limitations of tape. I don't get the obsession or hype with tape any longer. Maybe wire recorders will make a comeback. I think a lot of the love of a tape machine was the workflow. You had to listen and not look. You had to plan things out instead of having a million options. While I never enjoyed lynx-ing two machines together, an 827 in good working order was as close to a “digital” modern sound as you could get with a tape machine. And that machine is just an absolute joy to work on, maintain, punch in/out, align, etc. It’s amazing how many reels of 456 we get in for transfers that are just absolute junk. We don’t even bother putting them on the machine until they are baked. The 250 always holds up though for some reason. GP9 too. |
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Post by drumsound on Jul 5, 2020 12:52:02 GMT -6
Did a lot of work on Studers at 15ips with Dolby SR back in the 90's (a lot of times 2 Lynxed together). That seemed to be a popular way to do basics then bounce to a 3348 for the rest of the overdubs. At mix we'd Lynx the drum 2" up with the Sony. I do not miss any of that! That sounds like a total pain in the balls. I've never dealt with sync, and I'm glad. I haven't tracked on my 2" in a loooooog time. My 1/4" still sees action. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 5, 2020 12:56:19 GMT -6
Did a lot of work on Studers at 15ips with Dolby SR back in the 90's (a lot of times 2 Lynxed together). That seemed to be a popular way to do basics then bounce to a 3348 for the rest of the overdubs. At mix we'd Lynx the drum 2" up with the Sony. I do not miss any of that! Best answer so far. God, tape wasn't fun and didn't sound great and still doesn't. Tape choice for me was always 499 or 996 as fast as possible and noise reduction as much as possible. And pray to God, you got back close to what you were hearing when tracking. And by the time mixing came around? More EQ necessary than not to overcome the limitations of tape. I don't get the obsession or hype with tape any longer. Maybe wire recorders will make a comeback. Maybe I just need to employ a LPF lol. |
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Post by johneppstein on Jul 5, 2020 13:09:30 GMT -6
Back in the day? Well, I guess that depends on what you mean. I still have an A800, and use it from time to time.
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Post by Mister Chase on Jul 5, 2020 13:56:44 GMT -6
Best answer so far. God, tape wasn't fun and didn't sound great and still doesn't. Tape choice for me was always 499 or 996 as fast as possible and noise reduction as much as possible. And pray to God, you got back close to what you were hearing when tracking. And by the time mixing came around? More EQ necessary than not to overcome the limitations of tape. I don't get the obsession or hype with tape any longer. Maybe wire recorders will make a comeback. Maybe I just need to employ a LPF lol. I mean in the end these plugs are mostly just doing EQ a little comp and saturation. Sometimes it works out famously for me. Other times it just screws everything up and I may really like one aspect but none of the others. |
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Post by christopher on Jul 5, 2020 14:49:48 GMT -6
I never had to deal with the nightmares of the tape years. I’ve been pretty unlucky with computers though, Hard drives dying, latency issues, plugins not living up to promises, software coding problems, update issues, .. that feeling of responsibility to the client, so I know all too well the feeling of not having the equipment do it’s job is soul crushing! Speaking of... both my Mac and PC have hardware issues I need to deal with right now. So the only thing actually working currently is my console and 2 track : /
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Post by Blackdawg on Jul 5, 2020 17:26:31 GMT -6
Yes, many times. But honestly John, we weren't recording to tape as an "effect" to get a type of sound. We were just recording to document and capture the musicians. In large part, more often than not, we were trying to get tape to NOT sound like tape most of the time. During the "transition" period between Analog tape and Digital tape, we started to think about what analog tape was doing to the sound, and often we would try to maximize that particular "sound" because the digital mediums weren't giving that back. Throughout the years, we mostly recorded at 30IPS due to noise issues that would build up, but there were times we did 15IPS. Generally NOT 15IPS on a Studer though, cause anyone going 15IPS was either trying to save money on tape, or going for the 15IPS head bump / compressed tape sound, and mostly, those folks were going to Ampex or MCI machines - not Studers. For whatever it's worth.... I know it's not normal but I loved the sound of an a810 at 15ips. The head bump and tightening of the low end was magical. Just awesome. |
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Post by sirthought on Jul 5, 2020 19:45:08 GMT -6
On the UAD plugin's slower speeds, I don't think you are losing top end as much as it's add low end. It just seems like adding mud for tracking. I do like it sometimes during mixing for adding weight to maybe an acoustic or vocal.
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Post by donr on Jul 6, 2020 8:43:50 GMT -6
On the UAD plugin's slower speeds, I don't think you are losing top end as much as it's add low end. It just seems like adding mud for tracking. I do like it sometimes during mixing for adding weight to maybe an acoustic or vocal. There oughta be a knob labeled "mud." |
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Post by EmRR on Jul 6, 2020 11:44:21 GMT -6
Wasn't Sonic Youth - Goo a record they used a 7.5 ips mix dub for the master? Max the mud.
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Post by christopher on Jul 6, 2020 19:44:57 GMT -6
I thought in one of the Eric Valentine videos he says he uses his Studer J37(iirc) at 7.5ips for Grace Potter’s newest stuff? So that might be a good place to check out the tone. That’s a tube deck though (just looked, uses 52 tubes) , and he likes his fairchild clones. It’s a great video to watch anyway, I forget if they track through the deck to PT or track to PT and print stems.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 8, 2020 11:38:36 GMT -6
Did a lot of work on Studers at 15ips with Dolby SR back in the 90's (a lot of times 2 Lynxed together). That seemed to be a popular way to do basics then bounce to a 3348 for the rest of the overdubs. At mix we'd Lynx the drum 2" up with the Sony. I do not miss any of that! Best answer so far. God, tape wasn't fun and didn't sound great and still doesn't. Tape choice for me was always 499 or 996 as fast as possible and noise reduction as much as possible. And pray to God, you got back close to what you were hearing when tracking. And by the time mixing came around? More EQ necessary than not to overcome the limitations of tape. I don't get the obsession or hype with tape any longer. Maybe wire recorders will make a comeback. There is something to the sound of a well set up tape machine, the way it softens the transients and the way things help together. Is it worth all the BS ? HELL NO! Do any of the emulations get you there? HELL NO! I think a lot of the modern tape hype isn’t the sound, it’s the work flow and how the limitations make you work. The limitations of editing and processing made you get it right ( yeah you could pitch shift note by note with an Eventide but it was a bitch and doing another couple of takes is just faster). You had to use your brain with tape during tracking, it forced you to make choices rather than letting you have a hundred tracks of hand claps at mix to choose from. I’ll say it again any idiot can record with DAW, but you have to have talent to work with tape. Unfortunately we have a generation that thinks “Tape” is this silver bullet and that it’s all equal or they seam to join the cult of a certain machine. The dirty secret is even the Rolex of tape, Studer had their flaws and required TLC just like the Rolex I inherited from my dad ( early 1970’s stainless Oyster datajust the only one I have ever seen with the same face is the one Carrie gives MR Big in Sex and the City). I look at all the Tape emulators as distortion boxes, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Just don’t fall into the trap of “ this is my sound”. It’s not the real thing and anybody can get it! |
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Post by EmRR on Jul 8, 2020 12:07:27 GMT -6
I always thought the absolute best part of tape was the smell 3M 2” tape made when running combined with a pot of coffee in the room.
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Post by ericn on Jul 8, 2020 12:17:09 GMT -6
I always thought the absolute best part of tape was the smell 3M 2” tape made when running combined with a pot of coffee in the room. Yeah but it was always cheap coffee! |
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Post by the other mark williams on Jul 8, 2020 16:45:50 GMT -6
I always thought the absolute best part of tape was the smell 3M 2” tape made when running combined with a pot of coffee in the room. Yeah but it was always cheap coffee! It had to be to afford the tape.  |
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Post by ericn on Jul 8, 2020 17:00:57 GMT -6
Yeah but it was always cheap coffee! It had to be to afford the tape. Having been one of the top sellers of Ampex, I resemble that remark! |
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Post by Ward on Jul 8, 2020 18:02:25 GMT -6
I always thought the absolute best part of tape was the smell 3M 2” tape made when running combined with a pot of coffee in the room. ...and cigarettes. Man, the clouds of smoke. Been quit for years, but now I want some black tar coffee and a pack of Marlboro Menthols Lights. |
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Post by mrholmes on Jul 8, 2020 19:03:16 GMT -6
Studer machines had a distinct smell. I imagined it was the smell of Swiss quality. They looked great anyway. Take a breeze of Studer1970 - before hitting record on your new UAD Studer-Plug-In. Authentic sound without the authentic smell? Impossible. Be the first one, order the original Studer1970 fragrance @14,99 a month. Don't forget to sign up for the original Abbey Road toilets smell. We captured to 100% the original Lennon .... |
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Post by ericn on Jul 8, 2020 20:03:41 GMT -6
I always thought the absolute best part of tape was the smell 3M 2” tape made when running combined with a pot of coffee in the room. ...and cigarettes. Man, the clouds of smoke. Been quit for years, but now I want some black tar coffee and a pack of Marlboro Menthols Lights. There was some other scent I remember people smoking... Wait I just had it ... Then I completely legally ate a gummy! |
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Post by chessparov on Jul 9, 2020 21:06:22 GMT -6
Whilst I'm getting a crave for some genuine "Mountain Groan" coffee...
Chris
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