Warming Up! Digital mix to reel to reel and back to digital

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Hello all,

I am new here. A deserter from the Home Recording Connection! I have been at this for about five years and have a decent little project studio at the end of my Gran's garden. Looking forward to getting involved here.

My question is this; I want to warm up my digiatl mixdowns by sending them out of my Delta 44 to an AKAI 1720L reel tape machine and then back again. I am runnng through a very nice Marantz amplifier.

I was wondering if anybody has had any expereince of this?

Any tips on cleaning the tape heads and oiling the gears. It's very squeaky and crackly at the moment.

Kind regards,

Nathan
 
I think you would have better results by using analogue summing via an external mixer, rather then summing and mixing it all in the box then passing it through a reel-to-reel. I can only imagine this would reduce the quality of the audio?
 
I'm kinda with Waffleness on this one. The idea of injecting a bit of tape saturation to get some warmth is okay . . . but yo really stand to lose more than you gain.

But taking it back from even what Waffleness suggested . . . if you think your mixes don't sound 'warm' enough, I would regard an external analog mixer as an option of last resort . . . I would concentrate on the mix itself within the box . . . but that's because I'm convinced that you can get excellent, full-bodied mixes within the digital domain.
 
I do layback occasionally - OCCASIONALLY - it's so rare that it's actually deemed "a really great idea" that I don't even keep the deck (a hot-rodded MCI JH110C) in this room anymore.

TRACKING to tape? Any day. I don't track/mix often anymore but I'll track to 2" and pull right off the repro heads directly. You want "tape sound" - that's the (only) way to really get it. Almost anything else is "too late" IMO.

But hey - Asking about it and trying it are two different things. I'd try it - for fun if nothing else.
 
You will only sound as good as your weakest link in the chain. That would be the Delta 44. Sending the signal out and back into the peice of equipment most responsible for the 'digital coldness' is probably not the best idea.

Good, well designed and well built digital (expensive) is not cold or harsh sounding. However low end, poorly maintained analog gear can be noisey, distorted, murky, etc...
 
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