I think I'm in love with analog.....

antispatula

antispatula

Active member
So I've got a pretty good computer and stuff, and was going to set up a little home studio with my computer being the recording media, but I don't know now. I've always wanted to stay analog, I remember listening to a White Stripes album for the first time, and loving how smooth and warm it was, and they do all their stuff analog. I've recorded digital, and I think it all sounds stale and a little dead in my opinion. What kind of analog recorder should I look into? Should I just get one of those tascam mulitrack recorders? Is there anything better that isn't super expensive? I'd like to be analog, but I don't want the quality to be terrible, you know?


and I know that all those multitrack analog recorders have built-in mixers, but should I get a seprate anyone?

And I used to own a little 4 track, and I remember that if I recorded over a track a lot, there would be lots of pops and cracks.....Is that normal?

And how are reel to reels, how do they turn out? I've heard Tascam 388 is superb, and they look pretty wonderful.

I want to do analog, and I want good sound quality too.

So what are your suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Freaky, I'm listening to Elephant & White Blood Cells right now.

I don't feel qualified enough to dish out deck advice so I'll leave that to someone else. But I will say that you should (at the very least) have at least one go at the best tape machine you can get your hands on before skipping it in favor of a computer rig. That way you'll immediately know if analog is for you and you'll avoid most of the digital abyss.

---be like the squirrel, be like the squirrel
 
White Blood Cells is my FAVORITE ALBUM EVER.

Be like the squarell girl, be like the squarell, oh, oh, oh oh oh!

So if was planning to make my own entire album on an analog system, it could turn out to be ok, quality wise?
 
antispatula said:
So if was planning to make my own entire album on an analog system, it could turn out to be ok, quality wise?
Click to expand...
Well, IMO, since the best albums ever recorded were recorded to tape I'd say yes your album could turn out to be OK quality-wise.

But it could not. Because there are other factors, right?

Good and bad recordings can be made on any medium on any day of the week by just about anyone.

Selecting tape as your recording medium will not in and of itself sabotage your project.

Regardless, why not record to both? I mean, so much of the "advantage" of digital is that it's fast, convenient, easy, and cheap! Right? So, I'd try recording to both simultaneously. Two birds, one stone.
 
elephant was recorded on a 1" 8 track. you could pick up a TSR-8 for under a grand and that would be 1/2" 8 track, which would get you most of the way there. but that all depends on how minimal you can go. the stripes recorded the bass drum to track 1, and mixed an overhead and snare drum to track 2. tracks 3-8 were for Jack's vocals, guitars, and keyboards, etc. etc. for this setup you would also want an outboard mixer. you could mixdown to your computer pretty easily with some sort of USB setup. if you are serious about releasing something, you could mix down to a 1/4" deck and send that off to be mastered to CD. the white stripes used some sort of 10 channel neve console, one of the first ones I believe. they also rely heavily on vintage microphones, like the AKG D12 and probably a U47 for vocals but that's a wild guess. Yes, they record "analog" but its anything but "lo-fi". Most important to the sounds on that record was the room they were in, and their performances. You could spend a half million on gear replicating the rest of the chain, but you might be able to do a pretty good imitation for a couple grand. the studio they recorded at has a website with all of the gear listed.
 
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