Converting 2 inch tape to digital ???

S

sushi-mon

New member
Ok, I have 2 reels of 11 songs total recorded at 15 ips, 24 track 2 inch tape and only 3 years old. Fairly moderate rock; two guitars, bass, vocals and drums.

I want to have all the tracks converted into digital tracks so I can re-mix the album at home, while cutting my teeth on most likely Pro-tools or Cubase.

Questions:

1) I figure that it may be best to let a "good" studio do the conversion with quality gear straight into 16 bit 44.1 Khz, so my computer does not need to do any more conversions or dithering ?

2) But maybe I should go for 24 bit at 44.1 Khz, or 24 bit 88.1 K and rely on Pro-tools and my computer to sample and dither it down ?
 
I'd go to a decent studio and have it transfered at 24/44.1. Do whatever you want to do to it and mix it also at 24/44.1. Then dither that to 16/44.1.
 
I would recommend the highest bit-depth and sample rate you can handle. If you are paying a studio to convert them (good idea), might as well future-proof them and get the highest-quality digital version you can get. Then import them into ProTūlz or whatever and convert the tracks into whatever samplerate you prefer. Barbabatch, Voxengo's R8Brain, and a few others would be good for this also. Keep the high bit depth all the way through, and let the mastering engineer do it on your final remixed master.
 
Another vote for 44.1 at 24-bits. No reason to go higher - especially from tape.

Quality conversion at 44.1 beats "reasonable" conversion at a higher rate every time.
 
Yet another vote for 24/44.1k.

Just make sure it's a good studio with a 24 track that is well maintained, and has excellent converters. The transfer is all-important, so it's crucial that it be done right.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I figured quality conversion is top priority.

The guy we recorded with is pretty meticulous about the maintenance of his 24 track Otari, as I seem to remember. He is one of the few "home" studio guys in the area with one. $40.00/hour versus $160/hour for the top studio in the area.
 
sushi-mon said:
Thanks for all the responses. I figured quality conversion is top priority.

The guy we recorded with is pretty meticulous about the maintenance of his 24 track Otari, as I seem to remember. He is one of the few "home" studio guys in the area with one. $40.00/hour versus $160/hour for the top studio in the area.
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I'm headed out to www.mix-o-lydian.com tomorrow to do the same. Great price. I can't wait!!! Our friend/engineer/co-producer is going to convert the audio from 2" and mix leisurely at his home stidio on Logic Audio. Have fun Sushi-mon!
 
Word of advice!!!!!!!!


Take a external harddrive with you to the studio to transfer the files when your done. If you burn a DVD-ROM of the files you can add an entire hour to your bill, for burning and verification of the disk.

I made that mistake just this year.
 
Cuzme said:
I'm headed out to www.mix-o-lydian.com tomorrow to do the same. Great price. I can't wait!!! Our friend/engineer/co-producer is going to convert the audio from 2" and mix leisurely at his home stidio on Logic Audio. Have fun Sushi-mon!
Click to expand...

I am really interested in getting this thing down and start mixing it for myself. Mixing with 3-4 other people always was a pain, plus the clock is "ticking" and money is piling up, and one of the guys was always pacing back and forth upset that we were taking it too seriously. Good luck with yours too.
 
cultureofgreed said:
Word of advice!!!!!!!!


Take a external harddrive with you to the studio to transfer the files when your done. If you burn a DVD-ROM of the files you can add an entire hour to your bill, for burning and verification of the disk.

I made that mistake just this year.
Click to expand...

That is good advice. I have planned on doing just that.
 
Raw-Tracks said:
Did the original engineer print tones for the project? I hope so.

I say 24/44.1.
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Print tones ? Not sure what you mean. If you mean track sheets, we did at the time. Going to have to go through them all by hand now. But that will be a pleasure. Can't wait to get started.
 
sushi-mon said:
Print tones ? Not sure what you mean.
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Alignment tones. Without them, you will not be able to set up the 2" machine's playback EQ curve. If you don't have them, the engineer setting up the 2" machine will just have to align to his standard setup, which may not play back the tape the same way as it was played back on the machine that recorded those tracks.
 
Raw-Tracks said:
Alignment tones. Without them, you will not be able to set up the 2" machine's playback EQ curve. If you don't have them, the engineer setting up the 2" machine will just have to align to his standard setup, which may not play back the tape the same way as it was played back on the machine that recorded those tracks.
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Ok, I will ask him about that. The good thing, is that I will be doing it with the same guy who recorded us to 2inch tape. So, same machine, same guy, should be no problems.
 
sushi-mon said:
Ok, I will ask him about that. The good thing, is that I will be doing it with the same guy who recorded us to 2inch tape. So, same machine, same guy, should be no problems.
Click to expand...

Probably won't be a problem then. I thought you were taking it to a different studio.
 
Conversion

How did the conversion from 2 inch to digital work out for you? I want to do the same. I recorded at Mix-O-Lydian in the 80's and want to preserve these recordings. I was going to go back to Don and do this. Let me know. Thanks.


Cuzme said:
I'm headed out to Mix-O-Lydian Recording Studio tomorrow to do the same. Great price. I can't wait!!! Our friend/engineer/co-producer is going to convert the audio from 2" and mix leisurely at his home stidio on Logic Audio. Have fun Sushi-mon!
Click to expand...
 
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