I know you can get the compression and tape simulation with plug ins and such, but I thought this was interesting nonetheless. Lately I've missed recording to tapes, so I've been experimenting with stuff...
So I tried a little sumthin' today. Picked up a halfway decent Realistic tape deck at Goodwill. Mixed down drums, guitars, and bass into it. As a test, I mixed the same tracks to a WAV file in my computer. After getting the peak levels similar, I found that the taped version (once I recorded it back into my computer) was better sounding! It was warmer and fuller. I also noticed that the wave forms looked fuller, like it had been compressed. I settled on a pretty hot record level (peaking between +3 and +6 db). It did slightly muddy things up, but in a good way.
I tried some tape simulators before, but they just seemed to cut back on the highs.
In short, I think I'm going to mixdown to the "crappy" $8 cassette deck during my actual mixdown/mastering process after I do the vocals. Who woulda thunk.
I had also tried to mixdown to my home hifi VCR. Talk about a pain in the ass, since you need a TV to control the settings. Then it sounded like complete shit once I got it working. Noisy, cumbersome, etc...
So I tried a little sumthin' today. Picked up a halfway decent Realistic tape deck at Goodwill. Mixed down drums, guitars, and bass into it. As a test, I mixed the same tracks to a WAV file in my computer. After getting the peak levels similar, I found that the taped version (once I recorded it back into my computer) was better sounding! It was warmer and fuller. I also noticed that the wave forms looked fuller, like it had been compressed. I settled on a pretty hot record level (peaking between +3 and +6 db). It did slightly muddy things up, but in a good way.
I tried some tape simulators before, but they just seemed to cut back on the highs.
In short, I think I'm going to mixdown to the "crappy" $8 cassette deck during my actual mixdown/mastering process after I do the vocals. Who woulda thunk.
I had also tried to mixdown to my home hifi VCR. Talk about a pain in the ass, since you need a TV to control the settings. Then it sounded like complete shit once I got it working. Noisy, cumbersome, etc...