thinking about going digital

[dju]

hi all, many years ago I went to the local coomunity college and took most of their recording classes. I have since picked up enough hardware to be dangerous. A tsr-8, tascam 1516 mixer, some mics and other odds and ends. But I never really got started doing anything with this stuff. Lately I have been thinking about starting to play with this stuff but I have been wondering about going to digital on a computer. the reason being is that I percieve a the lack of avaiability of tape. I have serveral reels of ampex 456 but they are from around the sticky shed era. I also have 2 quantegy reels that that should be good though but what do I do after they are used? any words of wisdom on the tape issue?
thanks, dj

[Herm]

You can get tape if you want it.
But my thoughts are if you have not used what you have now what makes you think you would use a digital rig?
Why waist the money?

[A Reel Person]

You have an issue with usage and/or lack of effort on your "scary" sized rig.

My 2¢ is that you have way more capability in the analog rig you have presently, than with a myriad or practically a whole class of all-digital 8-trackers out there, that to spend out of pocket on that at this point is foolish.

Following that idea, I think your best value is to hook it up, mount tape and commence recording and mixing. You've not even scratched the surface of your present capacity, as is.

Also, a so-called comparable digital 8-tracker (and it never is truly comparable), such as the DP-02 or DP-02CF will run you $300-$500 out of the box, and you'd have gone backward a great distance in capability as a standalone unit. Given your current setup and capacity, IMO that $300-$500 would be better spent to invest in some tape, and it is still available.

To say you've never started recording on your 1/2" rig because you percieve a tape shortage, though you have a few reels on hand,... just shows a lack of effort, flawed reasoning or a mental block (creative block) of some sort.

Please, that's no offense, of course,... but I think your true value is spinning it up and scoring a few reels as you go along with your project. It doesn't take $300-$500 investment in chips or tape in the immediate sense to get you recording today. You hook up your stuff & press the red button. An immediate $0 value!

Tape is available, and you could go a reel at a time, or per month, etc.

Digital's out there, with music shops full of gear, but it seems you have e'thing you need already. You also have to invest the time on your gear. You wouldn't necessarily be more productive if you bought a DAW, it's not an absolute cause/effect relationship. You have 8-in/8-out/8-simul recording right at your fingertips, something that you rarely find in a digital 8-tracker. You need to get the 24-digi-tracker to have 8-simul and more limited mixing than what you already have. That's a cool $800, (2488mkII).

I'll warn you up front about becoming obsessed with gear acquisition that can often surpass one's ability to use such gear effectively! You heard it here first!

[jjones1700]

Definitely trust Reel Person when he talks about having too much gear for one's own good. I never thought it was possible to have too much, but he posts up photos from his "arsenal" and I don't think I've seen the same thing twice yet. I personally think he went out and bought one of everything that ever came into existence......................a future audio museum if you will.

Wow, a TSR-8? And you want to go digital? I'd give my left testicle to have on e of those in front of me. Okay, maybe not that far, but I would definitely love to have one! ATR and RMGI are still kicking and producing tape, so have no fear on running out of tape.

Throw on a reel of that Quantegy tape and let her rip man!

[A Reel Person]

I thought I put it more eloquently than that!............

Anyway, that old sticky shed tape can be brought back into service by "baking" with an OTC food dehydrator, (appx. $35 kitchen appliance).

It's not all over til the fat lady sings!

[Hi_Flyer]

Originally Posted by A Reel Person

My 2¢ is that you have way more capability in the analog rig you have presently, than with a myriad or practically a whole class of all-digital 8-trackers out there, that to spend out of pocket on that at this point is foolish.

actually, these days most digital recording rigs are DAW based, not the stand alone multitrackers that you seem to be talking about.

you got a computer? the you can record digitally to it. even with the crappy consumer soundcard, but for serious recording you may want to upgrade the interface...

if you invest a few hundred in a decent interface and start with a piece of software like Reaper, you will be light years ahead of what you can do with a TSR-8 (Unlimited 24-bit tracks, a suite of quality plug-ins, ease of digital editing, and more...)

if you already have a computer, under $200 gets you 8 channels of AD/DA conversion these days. that's what, like three reels of new SM911 1/2"?

I wouldn't ditch the tape rig though, its alot of fun to record to tape.

[ofajen]

Keep the tape rig. You don't have to do "one or the other."

I have tape machines, a computer DAW system, a two track digital standalone and a multitrack digital standalone recorder. They each have their uses. And mainly these days, I play on the piano when I have time for music. Go figure.

I worry a bit about the future of 1" tape. The other varieties will be around a while, I figure. I'm not as sure about 1" tape. There are very few who use it as a mixdown format, and some who use it as a multitrack format, but it seems most multitrack recording is either 1/2" or 2". I hope I'm wrong and it stays around as long as the rest... that being a long time, I hope.

Cheers,

Otto

[cjacek]

Great advice from the guys and I'd like to reiterate that a digital / analog hybrid setup is the way to go. I track to analogue then do some minimal editing on computer then dump to CDR. I even bounce sometimes from analogue tape recorder to CDR and then back again. It's cool and tape is widely available. Don't believe the nay sayers and the haters out-there!

------

[jpmorris]

My personal feeling is that if a song is worth doing, it's worth spending the extra time, money and effort to do it on tape. As a rule I will tend to do a draft or prototype in digital and then the final version on analogue.

[dju]

Thanks for the replys. definately some things to think about.
When I mentioned digital I was refering to computer based DAW. I do already have a decent computer. For the time being this would be more for learning, experimenting than for anything serious. The projects I did back in school in my opinion were in need of some help but that probably goes for most newbies. I would actually prefer to stay with tape but unless I bounce tracks I have a linit of 8 tracks and on the computer I would have more than I need. Not that 8 tracks is anything to sneeze at for a beginner.
So, who are some of the current manufacturers out there that make tape comporable to the quantegy 456?
And lastely, I don't know if different hardware (computer) would motivate me to get off my butt and start reocording, it's more of an issue of not being all that good as a musician and something to record.
thanks,
dj

[jpmorris]

RMGI SM911 is 456-equivalent.