Recording
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John Willett
Circle Sound Services
Welcome - digital recording is very different from recording to analogue tape and you will have to re-learn your technique.
But, have fun - I did this years ago as I recorded exclusively to open-reel analogue tape before moving to digital in 1983. I have not looked back and would hate to record to analogue tape now.
Grief! - I have just realised that I have been recording digitally for 30 years!
TASCAM MAN
New member
I grew up on analog multitracks and love them and cant ever let go of it but do some digital recording on hard disk recorders....love the combination of analog and digital 
IMO everything "in da box" is very sterile and forces you to "splice & dice" everything to where music is to perfect and also people works less and less on fleshing out an arrangement (in there head) and rely to much on the editing part....MHO
IMO everything "in da box" is very sterile and forces you to "splice & dice" everything to where music is to perfect and also people works less and less on fleshing out an arrangement (in there head) and rely to much on the editing part....MHO 
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
He boldy went where no man had gone before.....
I still record to tape regularly....and won't give it up until there's no more tape to be had.
I transfer the tracks from the tape deck to the computer for editing.
Love it.
Yeah, keeping a big-ass open reel deck going, the slower process of RW/FW when doing takes, and doing all the sync with the computer...is a bit more work and there are a lot more "moving parts" to keep on top of, but it's also the most enjoyable aspect.
Sitting in front of the computer is just a "process", often very boring and tedious....but, you can do a lot of stuff in the computer that you can't with just an open-reel deck....so there's that, but that's why I use the hybrid approach.
That said, you can still record music with just a tape deck and no computer, I still do some all-analog stuff wen the mood strikes me, and I just mix right off the 2" inch...and you can also do it all with just the computer....so it's your choice how to go or how to combine both.
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I grew up on analog multitracks and love them and cant ever let go of it but do some digital recording on hard disk recorders....love the combination of analog and digital
Can't help yourself, can you Tascam Man?
How does recording "in da box" force you to splice and dice and automatically mean that people work less on arrangement - YHO or not?
Welcome g6120.. don't mind us, we just like arguing...
TASCAM MAN
New member
Can't help yourself, can you Tascam Man?
How does recording "in da box" force you to splice and dice and automatically mean that people work less on arrangement - YHO or not?
Welcome g6120.. don't mind us, we just like arguing...
Yep, still MHO Armistice
TASCAM MAN
New member
Yeah Jimmy but if you noticed, Armistice took that quote out of context and was looking for something negative in my statement. and I was merely trying to make a point, not to be taken so defensively as he did.... and yes also I was being humble in the way that I said it.
John Willett
Circle Sound Services
I grew up on analog multitracks and love them and cant ever let go of it but do some digital recording on hard disk recorders....love the combination of analog and digital
The "very sterile" is in the recording technique (or lack of) and nothing to do with digital or analogue.
I just hated all the distortion in analogue tape and wanted to record music how my ear heard it, rather than adding loads of distortion and colouration.
Mickster
Well-known member
I grew up on analog multitracks and love them and cant ever let go of it but do some digital recording on hard disk recorders....love the combination of analog and digital
Ok......I've read this a few times now and I'm not sure what you're trying to say Tascam Man. Not saying there is no point.......just don't get it.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
I agree that digital can be "warmed" up...it's just a different process than it is with a tape/analog gear path.
Personally, I love the crunch tape adds to the sound, and while it's not identical to what I hear in the room, it's not difficult to learn what tape will do and how to use it....and not much different than learning which set of "sounds like analog" plugins to pick in the DAW to mimic that sound.
AFA the "arrangement" thing....I work out my arrangement up front as best as I can regardless of the medium/format.
Yes, with analog you have to be 100% sure about it, but I don't think digital always allows you to only be say....50% sure.
You should still do pre-production before tracking.
That said....I have had on more than one occasion completed all my tracking to tape...dumped it into the DAW....and only toward the end of the process, right before mixing, did I decide I didn't want the last chorus to repeat 3 times...or I wanted it to repeat 4 times...(whatever)....and having the tracks in the DAW allowed me to make an easy edit and proceed to mixdown.
Quite frankly, I don't get why some people think it's more "noble" to do 85 takes of something , and refuse to punch in or edit when it's needed to take care of a small glitch/issue?
Man, editing power is THE #1 value that digital provides over tape...IMHO...and jumping through hoops to avoid it and/or thinking that somehow it makes the final product more "special" when you don't do any edits....is a fantasy.
Use the tools that get your job done for you the simplest/easiest way possible. I'm not knocking tape at all, I use it almost every session, but adding digital tools to the process is like an absolute no-brainer, especially if you want to polish your productions closer to pro-commercial quality.
If your goal is very lo-fi, as-it-falls style of productions....that's not that difficult to do, but it doesn't make it anything "special"...IMHO.
Been there, done that....and I much more prefer having the tools and power to manipulate the audio as I want it to be even after the fact...but as always, getting the best takes during tracking makes it just that much easier....so there's no free ride just 'cuz you can edit.
fritsthegirl
Taste of home
I grew up on analog multitracks and love them and cant ever let go of it but do some digital recording on hard disk recorders....love the combination of analog and digital
The OP wants to embark on a journey into digital, he's ready to expand his horizons. Hopefully he'll enjoy it.
If I understood your opinion on recording digitally correctly, then I'd like to know how this opinion got formulated...
Most of the people on this forum (that record digitally) are really good musicians. They are more than capable of accuracy and quality while playing, and they know all about the importance of preparation during the writing process. I could point you to numerous posts that support this. I just think it's a bit unfair to imply that people who use digital software negate musical processes and take shortcuts. From what I've heard, this is far from the truth.
I believe good music comes 100% from the mind anyway (knowledge, skill, talent). It's not really the recording equipment that makes it good, it's the musician.
jimmys69
MOODerator
The OP wants to embark on a journey into digital, he's ready to expand his horizons. Hopefully he'll enjoy it.
If I understood your opinion on recording digitally correctly, then I'd like to know how this opinion got formulated...
Most of the people on this forum (that record digitally) are really good musicians. They are more than capable of accuracy and quality while playing, and they know all about the importance of preparation during the writing process. I could point you to numerous posts that support this. I just think it's a bit unfair to imply that people that use digital software must negate musical processes and take shortcuts. From what I've heard, this is far from the truth.
I believe good music comes 100% from the mind anyway (knowledge, skill, talent). It's not really the recording equipment that makes it good, it's the musician.
Very well stated. I like you!
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
That isn't remotely true although it can be for some.
But such a statement shows a lack of knowledge of the history of recording and what really went on in recording studios layering the bias. Read any biography of a producer or engineer {in the last year I've read the autobiographies of Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, Norman Smith and Tony Visconti plus scores of interviews by everyone from Phil Ramone and Eddie Kramer to John Leckie and Glyn Johns} and you'll see that since "sound on sound" recording in the late 40s, editing, splicing and dicing have been an increasing part of pop production and the likes of Roy Thomas baker and Tom scholz {and zillions of others} routinely with analog tape and machines went in search of sonic and song perfection. Do you know how "I me mine", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Blinded by the light", "Strawberry fields forever" and countless other songs from the 60s and 70s were put together ? What multitracking in fact did was to change the nature of composition and {more significantly} arrangement. Bands and artists could record parts of songs that remained unfinished, knowing that they could work on the rest later. "A day in the life" remains the supreme example of this ~ among many, many others.
Know anything about live albums ? Very few from 1970 onwards escaped being touched up with overdubs in the studio, yet sold and marketed as live. Ten or so years before digital.
Sterile sounds existed long before Otis Redding died. Human indiscipline and the inability to resist the capabilities set before one are part of the human condition. Nothing in your quote can be said to have come into play only after 1983.
I now retire undefeated.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
This is the term given to the capturing of songs that have no C in them....
mjbphotos
Moderator
The major or minor key of B?
I agree with grim and frits - calling digital 'sterile' or that analog/tape was less 'splice and dice' is just wrong.
I've only been DAW recording for a couple of years, but have never done any real 'song arranging' in the box, other than adding a totally FX-fuzzed-phased bass solo to the beginning of a song, just one time. I work out the arrangement before laying down the first scratch tracks.
TASCAM MAN
New member
Oh so it is the word "sterile" that bothers you? Sorry but Ive heard it said like that about digital for decades now, has that changed? And I never heard audible distortion on a good analog recording unless I wanted it to sound that way. I hate to hear when analog (tape) gets the blame for being distorted and "colored" as you so graciously put it......its just not true with professional or even semi=professional tape recorders.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Dood, take a nap k?
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Will there be any milk-n-cookies...?
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