Tracking to tape vs. recording digital mix to tape

D

dhagen

New member
I am looking to buy a reel to reel to add to my home studio. I am wondering the pros and cons of tracking to tape or tracking to digital, mixing, and then recording the final stereo mix to tape. I am finding that it would be much cheaper to purchase a two track reel to reel, rather than a four or eight track. But then, of course, having only two tracks would limit my ability to record, so I would have to do everything digitally first.

Are there any major advantages or disadvantages with either of these approaches? Would there be any difference in the sound of the final product? If I mix a song digitally, dump it to tape, then rerecord it back into my DAW, is that going to make it sound any better than if there was no tape involved at all? Is it going to sound just as good as if all the original tracking was done to tape?

Thanks.
 
Most of the tape effect is best done during tracking...though there's nothing wrong with also mixing down to tape.
Just dumping a finished mix to tape will be the least of the three, though people do that too...just to add a little tape vibe to the final mix.

But you know...even with a 2-track, you can still do a lot of recording with it, and then dump each time into the DAW. Of course, you will need to do some time alignment, which could be easy or hard...depending. If the 2-track has sync capabilities...then not such a problem.
 
It lets you record one track at a time, keeping all tracks simultaneously in sync.

But then there's also sync systems that let you sync two reels or a reel and a DAW...which is similar, but different from the recorders simul-sync you are referring to. Esther way...a sync system is needed to keep individual overdubs aligned.
A DAW has its own way of doing "simul-sync" to keep individual tracks together in time.
 
I find that tracking a digital recording to tape can take some of the harshness out of digital - especially on cymbals. It's definitely worth a shot. Try messing with the red on the VU's - as tons of people might have told you already.

In my band we did a great more or less improvised recording on digital before we got a four-track - we tracked it to tape, adding vocals and glockenspiel and sent it back to the computer - it sounded great and made the recording sound slightly warmer.
Since we got the four track we've been going the other way around which IMO sounds even better; basic tracks live on tape and overdubs as vocals and synths digitally. In the future we'll be all analog because we simply think it sounds better for the kind of music we're doing - and sync-issues due to lack of RAM will no longer be a problem. If you're using a hybrid setup just remember to send/recieve in 96 khz/32-bit - otherwise you'll miss a great part of the improved dynamics and frequency range that makes analog sound better.
 
track to tape, mix in analogue to tape ;)
....
erm, I would imagine you'd get more advantage out of tracking to tape. You'd probably want to push the tape harder for some instruments to get saturation but not for others. I record to tape and mix direct to CD and I'm pretty happy with the results.
 
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