I fear the digital room: Open reel masters to digital?

H

hungovermorning

Dr. Caveman.
So recently I have begun recording other bands instead of just the ones that I am in, and my friends do not want their masters on open reel because their finished version is going to be on CD and mp3 and such. What do you guys do to convert your 2 track stereo masters to digital making it sound pretty fair? I know there will be a tone suck, but would a nice analog to digital converter to a CD recorder work well? Should I bite the bullet and get a soundcard and if so, what kind? Thanks as always analog onlyers.
 
A good quality CD recorder deck like a Pioneer or an HHB offer pretty decent A/D converters or if you really want to preserve as much fidelity as possible, TASCAM has out a couple of newer DVD based recorders that work at the 24/196 standard and Super Audio, which is a Sony standard.

I use an older Pioneer PDR-555-RW and am happy with the results.

Cheers! :)
 
there are plenty of options out there. I use a dedicated a/d coverter into a sound card and eq on the way in.
 
If using a PC, try to get an outboard converter if possible - a USB soundcard will do the trick. You want this to minimize the RF noise from within the case.

I was looking at a second-hand Apogee Rosetta, which I was going to use to convert to SPDIF optical, but I got outbid. Currently I'm using a Roland UA25. It has the disadvantage that it has to be manually switched between record and reproduce when running in full 24/96 mode, but apart from that (and some weird glitch involving Audacity), it works pretty well.
 
I like a stand-alone burner as well... used to have the Pioneer PDR-555RW and now have a Fostex pro model CR300 built around the same main board as the Pioneer (no copy protection).

There are some good soundcards out there, but whatever you use, go with the bit depth and resolution of the end medium. So if that's going to be CD you can transfer from analog at 16/44 and save a conversion step. You don't gain anything by using a higher rate and then down-converting to CD compatible. That only adds a digital conversion step that you don't need. That’s one way to minimize tone suck. If your end product is to be higher bit depth and resolution then go with that.

:)
 
Beck said:
I like a stand-alone burner as well... used to have the Pioneer PDR-555RW and now have a Fostex pro model CR300 built around the same main board as the Pioneer (no copy protection).

There are some good soundcards out there, but whatever you use, go with the bit depth and resolution of the end medium. So if that's going to be CD you can transfer from analog at 16/44 and save a conversion step. You don't gain anything by using a higher rate and then down-converting to CD compatible. That only adds a digital conversion step that you don't need. That’s one way to minimize tone suck. If your end product is to be higher bit depth and resolution then go with that.

:)
Click to expand...

Man, all good advice, I never thought of it that way. Keep the suggestions coming, I really do appreciate them and I've looked into all of them thus far.
 
Partly it depends what you're doing after the conversion. I mix to 2-track and then send a 24/96 digitized version to the mastering engineer to polish. That means that I'll have a better-than-CD version of the digital master, whereas if I gave him a CD-quality version I'd have to have it mastered again in the new format when 24/96 or 24/192 becomes fashionable. The price is that I have to resample them from 24/96 to 16/44 for CD versions, but I've never been able to hear any artifacts caused by this process when it's done by Goldwave or SOX.

**EDIT**
To summarize, if you're just going from tape to CD you may as well do it at 16/44. If you're doing any post-processing in the digital domain, it's probably best to digitize at as high a quality as you can.
 
Get an Alesis Masterlink.

All around, I think it's the BEST 2-track digital recorder you can get for the money, with both hard-disk and CD recording. Built-in compression/limiter/EQ plug-ins, as well. You get a LOT of bang for your buck. And the converters sound REALLY GOOD!!
 
Most of the people that I record can't seem to hear the difference between digital systems. Most are also cheapies around here.

With that in mind I saved money on this particular detail, with no regrets.

Sound card - Maudio Audiophile 24/96
Sound Forge and CD Archtect software (Sony).

Another benefit of this, the soundcard makes my PC work better for audio work and I can hook studio monitors right into the PC.
 
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