I have always loved the sound of analog reel to reel tape recorders, but I've always been scared away of buying one because of maintenance issues, limited editing functions, and low tape supply. Right now I'm recording onto an XT-20 ADAT. My question is.... would it make sense if i bought a reel to reel recorder, and ran the signal from my mixer, through the reel to reel, and into my ADAT, in order to get an analog sound but in the end convert it to digital for editing? or would that just defeat the purpose? Maybe this is a dumb question, I don't know, I haven't been doing sound for very long.
running analog into digital?
- Thread starter Kasey
- Start date
Dr ZEE
Anti-Pro Circles Insider
The question isn't dumb. What you are thinking of doing is very common. If you want to do it - just do it. Will it 'defeat the purpose'? You'll see as you go 
... all depends on what exactly and how you are going to record, what instruments, what type of music etc... The most common "use of analog tape" nowdays is to laydown drums recording, and stuff like 'nasty guitars' ..and well, what have you. Then Guys 'dump it all' to their "more advanced utilities, like ProTools, MDM, DAW ... , so they can then "really produce" 
...heh heh .... Some guys after editing and applying all other "hot gizmos" from drop-down menue, play all the racks back and actually perform mixdown on external analog mixer and record the mix on two-track analog tape as master. ...well, then back to computer again to burn damn CDs .... or , even "better" - to file 128kbps i-Tunes.... , so after all the end product is a real fine hot sh*t 
from audiophile point of view.... nothing to worry here, in a sense
all common stuff
/respects
... all depends on what exactly and how you are going to record, what instruments, what type of music etc... The most common "use of analog tape" nowdays is to laydown drums recording, and stuff like 'nasty guitars' ..and well, what have you. Then Guys 'dump it all' to their "more advanced utilities, like ProTools, MDM, DAW ... , so they can then "really produce" ...heh heh .... Some guys after editing and applying all other "hot gizmos" from drop-down menue, play all the racks back and actually perform mixdown on external analog mixer and record the mix on two-track analog tape as master. ...well, then back to computer again to burn damn CDs .... or , even "better" - to file 128kbps i-Tunes.... , so after all the end product is a real fine hot sh*t from audiophile point of view.... nothing to worry here, in a sense all common stuff
/respects
SteveMac
New member
Kasey said:
It definately makes a difference in sound. It does maintain some of those analog qualities. I don't understand why it is but I can mix analog tracks to digital and like it but not track on it. I have had an incident once when I was mixing some tracks of analog to my digital workstation where I couldn't get a hi-hat to come out in the mix without it completely destroying the mix. I had made several mixes of the tracks to tape before so I knew how it could sound but I couldn't get it on the digital workstation I was using.
FALKEN
*************************
just keep in mind that you need to do the transfer in one pass. so you need to have at least as many digital channels as analog ones. unless you want to sync the two..which I haven't tried yet. what is this obsession with digital editing??? why can't people just play it right in the studio???
Dr ZEE
Anti-Pro Circles Insider
FALKEN said:
... cos' to do that one has to spend all his/her life being a musician - 27/7. The are so many other cool things in life... why waste it?
'Burning yourself in music - that's retro.... no cool, dude...
I have no prove... so, that's just my view, but I think, that one of the reasions why music widely sucks so bad nowdays is, 'cos the 'studio guy' can always say: "Hey , man, f**ed up the take? - Don't worry, dude, ..I'll take care of it later"
Dumping 24 tracks from 2" to ProTools is a sin, But a justifiable one
/respects
its not just about editing as in "cut and paste" pieces of the song because the performance wasn't right. I think the advantages of digital editing lie in the fact that you can get mixing effects (parametric EQs, reverbs, delays, compression) a helluva lot cheaper in the form of a VST or DirectZ plug-in, than buying an assload of outboard gear for a mixer, which is ideal for the home recordist. In fact, you can get some plug-ins for free. Recording to tape and mixing in the digital world is the way to go IMHO...
Dr ZEE
Anti-Pro Circles Insider
I understand what you are saying. But you are a bit mixing-stuff-into-a-salad hereHi_Flyer said:
Editing is editing. Processing is a different 'dish' on the party table Also, you don't need "an assload of outboard gear" really, of course you can have it...but you don't have to. Nor you need a 100s of plugins in your menue. Again you can have them, but you don't need all these things to make a 'good record'. But you must have what you need, when you know what you need to have to do what you want, when you know what you want to achieve. Well, the trick is, that when you know what you need - that is the moment, when you realise, that you don't need all the stuff you thought you need.... hah hah ... I know, I'm verbally running in circles here, like a broken-leg cockroach
My base point is that ability of having 100s of cheap plug-ins get you nowhere, really. It is an 'ugly illusion'. As a fact, you'll be better of if not using any of em...
So aclually, I would say: Recording to digital domain and mixing on analog board with minimum of good outboard processors is the way to go, if you are being "forced" (or choose by a free will) to lay your tracks digitally.
If you can and do lay your tracks on tape first, then you need 'processing' even less, than in the situation with digital recording (well, unless you really screwing things up, during recording...
).... So why would you possibly need load of plugins? btw, My joke is: The Pro Studios dump 24 track recordings to ProTools, simply because they don't want to "needlessly" run their precious studers and mci(s) more than one time/per client/per session.
If the artist say: hey guys, can we re-play? The studio guy sais: No. There's no need for it. I'll fix it for ya' - it'll be perfect ahhhhhh
oh well,
/respects
Hi_Flyer said:
yeah, I probably shouldn't have used the word "editing" right there...
My point is, at least for me its nice to have more options. For years I have used crappy guitar pedals in the effects loops on my cassette portastudios, now I can at least get my feet wet and start to learn without dropping even a few hundred bucks on, say a decent compressor or outboard reverb unit. With a digital platform you can start to play with some more sophisticated toys.
Dr ZEE
Anti-Pro Circles Insider
How far back in time we are talking about? Many of "those old crappy pedals" well may worth maybe five times more than your entire 'stack of plugins' nowdays.Hi_Flyer said:
, well, I am joking... sort of, but there's truth to what I am saying Again, I can understand your point. It is nice to have options - true
/respects