Does tape detune guitars slightly?
Jul 26, 2024 20:08:52 GMT -6
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Bob Olhsson, jmoose, and 1 more like this
Post by damoongo on Jul 26, 2024 20:08:52 GMT -6
In a word? No. Any good real world, well functioning tape machine shouldn't make anything sound "out of tune" or even slightly detuned. If & when we did hear something like that? Sessions stopped until the problem is fixed.
And if / when there was any doubt -- OR -- just doing varispeed tricks -- Standard practice was to record A440 tuning note off a synth... plugged into the nice rack or strobe tuner (we do all have good tuners in the studio yes?!?) - and look at the output of the tape machine to verify that its actually in tune and not wavering.
The vast majority of 'tape plugz' I've tried, including the UAD stuff are almost like cartoon versions of tape machines. We get an exaggerated effect, kinda like kicking on a tube screamer or right... someone said dimension D. Actual tape is much, much more subtle. So subtle we shouldn't notice it much if at all.
Back in the day, and I came up at the very tail end of when making records on tape was the only option... we all busted our balls trying to keep the tape machines as well aligned as possible. Both physical transport & playback electronics would get tweaked & touched up daily. Not much unlike a racecar or a prayer ritual... or some of both really...
The goal was always to have the tape machine output, what's coming off the repro head sound like what was being fed INTO the tape machine input with as little coloration as possible. If there was a big drop, like a 2 or 3dB difference in top end... level... tuning wasn't stable? The machine has a problem. Work stops.
Prime example? Steely Dan. Black Cow. Roger Nichols. That's some of the cleanest, most digital sounding west coast shit we've ever heard and it was 1977 analog tape. Not dirty. Not out of tune. Love it.
This is true. My mm1200 is pure and there is no audible wow/flutter. And the later Studers are even more linear. Although there are examples of amazing records where it was noticeable. (Neil Young - On the Beach comes to mind.) Enough of a problem that they invented the Plangent process to restore classic (or otherwise) recordings that suffered from it. They take the original master tapes and use the ultrasonic bias signal as a reference and use some voodoo to stabilize the tone at its precise frequency. (100k on mm1200, but different on each machine design). This brings the information in the audio spectrum back to stable as well…
(A bit of an over simplification of the process, I realize)
