Mastering to cd or Teac reel

[Jillchaw]

I have been recording some tunes on a Tascam 38 with an m30 mixer. The recordings are coming along ok and im about to master them. I was wondering if i should either master direct to cd or to a two track reel then to cd. I know that the extra step will change the sound a little, but i still want to put it on reel before cd. Can anyone comment on this? (recording to a reel before cd as opposed to just straight to cd)

Also, are there any 2 track teac/tascam reels that run at 15 ips besides the 32, 42, and 52? What differences can i expect in sound/performance using an older teac as opposed to a 32? Thanks for any help.

 

[FALKEN]

I have been going to 1/4" before the AD conversion lately. I think it gives a more accurate representation of what is coming off of the multitrack than the conversions do.

 

[Jillchaw]

Are you

supposed to drive the tape hard into the mastering machine, or do you do it as clean as possible?

 

[jpmorris]

Also, are there any 2 track teac/tascam reels that run at 15 ips besides the 32, 42, and 52? What differences can i expect in sound/performance using an older teac as opposed to a 32? Thanks for any help.

There's the BR-20, of course, but they aren't cheap. There's also the 22, but it only takes 7" reels, which may or may not be a problem for you. Soundwise, I think they're around the same..

I do the 8track->2track->PC thing myself. Generally there's less to worry about when going to tape. Digitizing the tape afterwards was a total disaster, though.. the M-Audio Transit just would not play ball under Windows. I could not get the little bugger to sample an entire side without popping or stuttering.. doing a mixdown straight to that thing would be suicide.

I did manage to make it work in the end, though.. in Linux. It wasn't easy or pretty, but it did work first time on both tapes.

 

[FALKEN]

supposed to drive the tape hard into the mastering machine, or do you do it as clean as possible?

eh;

well.

I just sort of put the input volume to where it sounds best and let it go from there.

I'm not sure why jpmorris had problems doing a transfer. I can set my PC to record and let it go for hours without a hiccup. but I also have a fast hard disk, a gig of ram, and a PCI-based interface. not sure which makes the most difference.

 

[jpmorris]

eh;
I'm not sure why jpmorris had problems doing a transfer. I can set my PC to record and let it go for hours without a hiccup. but I also have a fast hard disk, a gig of ram, and a PCI-based interface. not sure which makes the most difference.

It's USB-based, since I wanted to keep the converters away from the PC, and at 24/96 it's pushing the limits of the bus. But it might be that the Windows drivers are buggy, or it might simply be that Windows can't concentrate on the task of recording without doing something else instead and ruining it. Other people seem to be able to manage, so it must be something particular about my current setup. But this is drifting away from the point

 

[FALKEN]

true.

I always transfer everything at 24/44.1 anywayz. probably makes all the difference. I am thinking about an outboard SPDIF converter to get the coverters away from the PC.

 

[arjoll]

It's USB-based, since I wanted to keep the converters away from the PC, and at 24/96 it's pushing the limits of the bus. But it might be that the Windows drivers are buggy, or it might simply be that Windows can't concentrate on the task of recording without doing something else instead and ruining it.

I suspect drivers or the PC; I've done 90-120 minute classical concerts direct to hard disk with a Tascam US122 with no problems on several laptops, the most basic being a Toshiba Tecra S1, P-M 1.5 from memory, 512 MB RAM, that was at 44.1/16.. My current one has no trouble at all with 44.1/24 - although it is an HP nc8230, Pentium-M 2.0, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB 7200 RPM HDD. Being an HP partner has its perks when it comes to "dealer starter" machines

 

[Beck]

This is another issue that depends on the type of music, dynamics, etc.

My usual MO is to master from my TSR-8 synced via MIDI sequencer with drums, synths and bass down to 1/4" half-track analog (22-2). So, the final mix is done to tape. The analog-to-digital process is simply making a Redbook copy to a Fostex CR300 stand-alone CD burner... and as many back-up copies as seems reasonable.

My PC only comes into play to make copies from the original CD.

This way everything hits tape at least once before conversion to digital. I let natural compression of the tape handle signals that go into the red -- something digital can't do without having a conniption. But I often gently compress the composite mix with a dedicated outboard compressor as well.

By the time my master tape is done, it is very well behaved from a digital perspective, so I just copy it over.

Once it's on CD you can use various tools in the digital realm to tweak it, but I rarely ever do. The less I do in the digital realm the better, because IMO that’s where the sound starts falling apart. So the way I go about it there’s no conversion other than analog to digital, so no truncating and dithering nonsense going on between digital formats.

I don't really need plug-ins... all my processors are hardware devices that I use on the analog side of the process.

For the analog purist this approach produces the fullest, most complete and unadulterated image for the digital sampling (recording) process to capture.