Analog + Digital

[acorec]

I know that the analog vs. digital thing is always beaten to death with people firmly in either camp. But, I want to share what I do and hope maybe others can benefit.

I have a Fostex E16 and an MCI 2" 24 track recorder. Both decks are in excellent condition with very little wear on the heads. I also have a Fostex D2424LV 24 track digital standalone hard disk recorder. Now, what I do is work out the parts of a song on the digital recorder to hear how each part sounds and to hear if it works in the mix. Since the heads of the Fostex E16 are around $2000 and the heads of the MCI around $6000, I think it wise to work out the song on the digital deck as I can do unlimited passes with no head wear. When I finally get a part like guitar,bass etc to work, I fire up the analog machine and record the take in a few passes.

So, what I am saying is that digital recording is a great investment and a wonderful tool (for me) to save the wear and tear on my analog machines.

Maybe others can find this tip useful as well.

Happy recording!

[A Reel Person]

.............Thanx.

[ausrock]

That's good to hear as now I have the ATR-60 16trk to complement my Fostex D160 I was considering doing a similar thing. I may even try starting initial tracks on the D160 and transfering them to the analogue and then completing any "critical" tracks then.

[Beck]

***** 5-stars acorec. An excellent use of the technology -- Somewhat related to the ancient pre-digital practice of copying a rough mix to analog 2-track for rehearsing punch-ins and song building, saving wear and tear on the multi-track and the tape.

[tanoka]

I assume the life span of tape heads vary widely among brands. Acorec, how many reasonable hours can you get out of your MCI 2" before you'd have to replace it?

And if the head costs $6000, how much did your entire unit cost?

[acorec]

Originally Posted by tanoka

I assume the life span of tape heads vary widely among brands. Acorec, how many reasonable hours can you get out of your MCI 2" before you'd have to replace it?

And if the head costs $6000, how much did your entire unit cost?

A good MCI JH24 2" deck is around $6K. The heads are about the same. This is the same as most all used tape decks. The MCI decks are total pro units and head hours are in the tens of thousands. They must be re-lapped though and can probably take 3 laps until exhaustion. My heads have %65 remaining and I will have to get replacements in the next ? years. So, I can either use the deck recording and beat it up on re-doing tracks, or work out the song on the Fostex D2424LV and only record what I know works in the song on the MCI. This will save alot of wear on the analog side of things (and the tape, BTW). It sounds like a waste of time and $$$ to have the digital recorder, but I kinda value my MCI and Fostex E-16 too much. So, I came up with this method and it really works out great as I can run the D2424LV all day long and work out the parts of the songs with no head cleaning and worrying about excessive wear on my analon machines. Thank god for digital! (around here, this statement usually gets scoffed at but this time it may get praised)

[ausrock]

The Fostex D series, are rock solid in their operation but like any other h/disk recorder their achilles heal is the h/drive itself, once they develop problems, the possibility of losing recorded material is quite high.

A hard drive is not a viable long-term (archival) storage solution.

I have just been investigating the possibility of synching my D160 and ATR-60/16 together, I don't need to at the moment but the idea has potential and is an interesting possibility.

[tanoka]

Originally Posted by ausrock

The Fostex D series, are rock solid in their operation but like any other h/disk recorder their achilles heal is the h/drive itself, once they develop problems, the possibility of losing recorded material is quite high.

A hard drive is not a viable long-term (archival) storage solution.

I have just been investigating the possibility of synching my D160 and ATR-60/16 together, I don't need to at the moment but the idea has potential and is an interesting possibility.

Why can't you save the music on cds?

[ausrock]

The later D24** models can accomodate a DVD-RAM burner for backing up/archiving track data but for the earlier models the main options were ADAT or external SCSI devices and you have to be able to store full programme/project info so that if you reload the info back to the Fostex, all the tracks are synched up as unlike some software you can't align individual tracks in the Fostex environment.

As for using CD's, etc., for archiving.........burnt CD's are not guaranteed to last..........there is one person on the forums here who lost about two years of recordings which had been on CD.........they just mysteriously lost all the data. This is akin to having a total h/drive crash and I've lost too much in the past this way.

The more I looked into finding a reliable storage medium, the more convinced I became that tape, properly looked after, is without doubt the best option.

[tanoka]

Originally Posted by ausrock

The later D24** models can accomodate a DVD-RAM burner for backing up/archiving track data but for the earlier models the main options were ADAT or external SCSI devices and you have to be able to store full programme/project info so that if you reload the info back to the Fostex, all the tracks are synched up as unlike some software you can't align individual tracks in the Fostex environment.

As for using CD's, etc., for archiving.........burnt CD's are not guaranteed to last..........there is one person on the forums here who lost about two years of recordings which had been on CD.........they just mysteriously lost all the data. This is akin to having a total h/drive crash and I've lost too much in the past this way.

The more I looked into finding a reliable storage medium, the more convinced I became that tape, properly looked after, is without doubt the best option.

thanks for the breakdown