I am going to analog, but need some advice.

[Frusciante_Fan]

Hey guys

I want to say , I would not even consider this big leap into the unknown of reel to reels, if it werent for you guys. So thank you.

I have made some digital recordings over the past couple of years in my home. Mainly just classical guitar , vocals , keyboards and reason 2.5.
but here recently I done some stuff on a tascam 4 track cassette, and was blown away and how "real" it sounded. It made my mics act totally differant, I loved it. So I fugured if I loved it that much and it was only a cassette , then a reel to reel would sound great!! So I'v been reading this forum for a while and im finally going to buy one.

I dont have the cash to go strictly analog, so im still going to have to use an a/d converter?

so first question : do I record to a 4 track reel to reel and then send it through the a/d converter , or do I record on digital and then mix it down to a 2 track R2R? what are the advantages of each way of doing it?

second question : the one thing I didnt like about the cassette recorder is the noise. it was real bad, so can you guys suggest a machine that has a good snr ratio, and maybe the sound differances between tascam and otari machines?

 

[Frusciante_Fan]

weeeee

bump bump weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Beck]

so first question : do I record to a 4 track reel to reel and then send it through the a/d converter , or do I record on digital and then mix it down to a 2 track R2R? what are the advantages of each way of doing it?

It's done both ways. Most professional studios that have gone digital still pre-master to half-track reel-to-reel to benefit from tape effect. It's better than nothing, but is not ideal.

It's best to track in analog and then mix down to digital with a high quality a/d converter as found in stand-alone decks like the HHB CDR-850, Fostex CR-300, or Pioneer PDR-555RW. If you start with digital you start with a sequence of high-resolution music samples. So by the time it gets to the point of analog mastering, important sonic subtleties of the original live music may not survive the a/d process. Mixing to analog can't reverse that loss, but it can improve on what you have.

To get max benefit from analog it is best to track in analog or even a hybrid analog/digital system and then master that to a good standalone CDR, as mentioned above. The value of analog is in its direct interaction with the original sound. The bottom line is that with analog you have a source of infinite resolution -- more complete information for the a/d converters to work with.

second question : the one thing I didnt like about the cassette recorder is the noise. it was real bad, so can you guys suggest a machine that has a good snr ratio, and maybe the sound differances between tascam and otari machines?

Mosts cassette machines have similar s/n without noise reduction. It's a limitation of the tape, tape speed and track width. The addition of dbx or dolby c noise reduction is a must for serious recording.

-Tim