mixing down analog to digital

[socojoe]

i love the sound of analog, but cd is obviously the standard when it comes to
large distribution. so... how much of the
"warmth" of an analog recording is lost
when transfering it to cd? what is the best
way to do this? and if it's all going to end
up digital(cd) is it worth going through the
trouble of recording it analog?

[Dom Franco]

Yes it is worth it!
Many professional recording studios still use Analog Tape for Multitracking and mastering, then a digital master is made to produce CD's. The analog sound will be with us forever.... And sooner or later Digital recorders will be able to produce audio that will duplicate and surpass analog warmth.

In time, the cost of new and higher quality digital recorders will be available to home recordists. For now we must use tube preamps and other devices to warm up our sound.

Dom Franco

[This message has been edited by Dom Franco (edited 04-06-2000).]

[tony moore]

yep, i completely agree with dom! the last 'serious' project i worked on we tracked in adat (yeah, i know) and mixed down to both 1" 2 track and dat through an old mci board and various other 'pro' outboard gear. it was amazing how much better the analog master (1" 2 track) sounded compared to the digital master (dat). btw, we rented apogee a/d converters for the digital master. we then took both mixdown masters to mastermix in nashville and listened very critically to both prior to mastering. everyone picked the analog hands down. now, this was also using a very well maintained ampex 2 track with a very good engineer (not me :-). i'm sold on analog for now. my dream home studio would have a good 1" 8 track for multitracking and misdown to my mac with pro d/a converters.

tony

[scraggs]

It is absolutely worth it!! I have both a 1/2" 8 track and a computer set up and whenever I've recorded straight to the computer I just sounds wimpy. I agree with Tony that if you do record digital, at least mix down to analog. But I'd always go with recording analog in the first place, to me it's just better, period. Apparently, the new crop of digital that can do 24 bit/ 96khz preserves way more of the analog wonderfulness, I've yet to check it out but it makes sense on paper....

[Recording Engineer]

Most mastering engineers still prefer 1/2" @ 30ips.

[monty]

Hey Weston...where you been?

[Recording Engineer]

Been more busy than usual with work, studio projects, and sleep; throw school and the band in there too (but those two aren't any more than usual).

I've also been slowly, but surely been working on a "treat" for homerecording.com; but it probably won't be ready until the end of summer or something at the rate I'm going now. During the summer, I'll have a little more time since school will be out of the pitcure until next semester.