Tape Saturation

Mad Saturday

New member
I've heard the greatest way to record drums and guitars was to record it all to tape, and then upload it all to my ProTools. I guess it gives more depth and takes away the dry analog sound. If this is true, what kind of tape to I put it on, DAT, ADAT, something else?

Thanks!
 
what I meant was it takes away the dry digital sound that you get when you record it straight to digital. So if this is the case what kind of tape machine do I use?
 
old reel to reel machine will do it.
lack of headroom in older technology led to "slamming levels" which tape technology responded to with a kind of compressed "warmth".It is actually distortion but not un-pleasing so it was often done.Due in large part to vacuum tubes.Thats why you see all these boutique outboard gear like pres with tubes now.
Tube pres,tube mics,tube compressors...sheesh!This is the flavor of the month,and all suposedly to warm up "dry" digital sound.

Tom
 
Sjoko is probably right. Also, an easier way that to record everything to a multi-track analog is to mix down to a two-track reel-to-reel tape deck. Could also give you some analog "warmth", and tape compression.
 
There are also plug-ins that simulate tape saturation, but I've never used any of them.

-tkr
 
There is hardware that introduces tape sag, and there is software, either combined in mastering software, like TC, as specialist plug-ins
 
I use this directx plug-in and am happy with the results. It emulates tube and/or tape saturation and if you are recording at 24/96 then the free version sounds great. Oh yeah...digi001 only goes to 48khz, right? The pro version claims to eliminate digital artifacts - whatever.
http://www.aipl.com/warmtone.html
 
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