Would you do analog recording ?

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There you go again, desperately still moving goalposts, assuming that no one but you understands this stuff. I do understand the differences between plug-ins and tape. Everyone does, and if they don't, it's pretty easy to figure out. But you're the "guru" right? Okay guru. You're the one that doesn't get it. "Homogenized" is *your* word. I'm using your terms. The way you use them. You've backed yourself so deep into your own corner that you don't even understand the things you've said! It's actually mind boggling how conversationally broken you are. You can't even keep track of your own comments. I'm using your word, the way you said it, the way you meant it, and the way you've always meant it in this, and many other "discussions". Just, wow. Seriously. Hang yourself with your own rope. I don't care. We're not on the same page. I've pointed out how your comments are contradictory, hypocritical, biased, empty, and hollow now. I'm good.
 
If by tape you mean analog, then analog is better. Vinyl will give a very good reproduction and will win against digital until you bring it to a higher level.

Play a record in a dance hall vs a MP3. To me it sounds less.
 
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There you go again, desperately still moving goalposts, assuming that no one but you understands this stuff. I do understand the differences between plug-ins and tape. Everyone does, and if they don't, it's pretty easy to figure out. But you're the "guru" right? Okay guru. You're the one that doesn't get it. "Homogenized" is *your* word. I'm using your terms. The way you use them. You've backed yourself so deep into your own corner that you don't even understand the things you've said! It's actually mind boggling how conversationally broken you are. You can't even keep track of your own comments. I'm using your word, the way you said it, the way you meant it, and the way you've always meant it in this, and many other "discussions". Just, wow. Seriously. Hang yourself with your own rope. I don't care. We're not on the same page. I've pointed out how your comments are contradictory, hypocritical, biased, empty, and hollow now. I'm good.

OK Greg..I know you're just going to keep repeating the same thing and implying I don't understand what I'm talking about....when I actually DO understand quite well WRT "tape".

Just because I use "homogenized" about something with digital distortion plugs (which by the way you totally agreed with many time in the past)...it doesn't mean that you can simply use the same term for tape....just because you want to.

With the digital distortion plugs...the term "homogenized" has validity, and I'm not the only one that's ever said that.
With tape...it has no validity, and I did a damn good job in the previous post explaining why it doesn't, though I knew that would not sway you.

There are a lot of other terms that have validity when referencing tape....terms that have been used a million times, both pro & con......"homogenized" just ain't one of them, no matter how many times you say it is. :)

I'm done with the "homogenized" portion of this discussion....let's move on to some other aspect of tape if there’s anything else left to talk about.
 
No Miro, I know EXACTLY what you mean and how you use "homogenized" because, as you say, we've talked about it and agreed about it before in regards to amp sims and some plug-ins. And the way you use it, the way you and I have used the term before, in agreement, it does 100% apply to "tape sound". You don't want it to because it hurts your position, but it really does.

But that's cool. We'll agree to disagree. No problem. Let's move on.....find something new...some common ground....let's bash amp sim people. :D
 
No Miro, I know EXACTLY what you mean and how you use "homogenized" because, as you say, we've talked about it and agreed about it before in regards to amp sims and some plug-ins. And the way you use it, the way you and I have used the term before, in agreement, it does 100% apply to "tape sound". You don't want it to because it hurts your position, but it really does.

But that's cool. We'll agree to disagree. No problem. Let's move on.....find something new...some common ground....let's bash amp sim people. :D

If you could just explain HOW you think it applies...(same way I listed 5 points how it doesn't)...instead of just saying it does, then I would be fine with your use of the word, even if I didn't agree with it....but I don't think you once did that.

It's like you saying that the sky is blue and me saying no, it's green. :D
Heck, I would have to provide some reasons why I say it's green....just saying so wouldn't make it so....right? :)

Anyway...if you have specific reasons why you think the term applie to tape....I'll be happy to hear them, If you don't or don't want to bother going on with this....that's cool to, we don't have to discuss it any more.

Amp sims....do we really wanna go there?
That would mean we would be on the same side of the argument like the last time....and then who's going to step up and debate the opposite view under those conditions? :p
 
If you could just explain HOW you think it applies...(same way I listed 5 points how it doesn't)...instead of just saying it does, then I would be fine with your use of the word, even if I didn't agree with it....but I don't think you once did that.

It's like you saying that the sky is blue and me saying no, it's green. :D
Heck, I would have to provide some reasons why I say it's green....just saying so wouldn't make it so....right? :)

Anyway...if you have specific reasons why you think the term applie to tape....I'll be happy to hear them, If you don't or don't want to bother going on with this....that's cool to, we don't have to discuss it any more.

Amp sims....do we really wanna go there?
That would mean we would be on the same side of the argument like the last time....and then who's going to step up and debate the opposite view under those conditions? :p

Miro, buddy, I've explained it like 5-10 times now. And I don't usually like using others to bolster my point, but it applies here - others have mentioned it and picked up on what I've said. Go back and read the posts. I know it's a pain in the ass, but I did, and it's all there.

Ugh, fuck it, for the sake of civil conversation and well-being of any poor bored sap still reading this shit.....

In a nutshell, I'm paraphrasing you and me both here, you've repeatedly mentioned wanting "that tape sound". That magical sound that you can only get from using tape, and that magical sound that digital tape plugs try so hard in vain to emulate. It's a tell-tale "quality" you get from recording to tape. "The tape sound". Okay cool, no problem.

You've also gone to great lengths in this thread and others countless times to decry the blanket flattened upper-midrange buzzy stamp that digital emulators put across the music in the digital realm. You call that a "homogenized sound". A term you use very regularly, a term you and I have both used when we agree on that "digital sound". Okay, no problem there either.

What I'm saying.....asking....declaring.....isn't tape doing the same thing for you? It is. It is 100% without question. Recording to tape stamps, impacts, permanently impresses it's own sound to the audio. It's a "homogenized sound" in the same exact sense that digital plug-ins can, but not always, blanket digital audio with it's own "homogenized sound". It's not the same sound, but tape does have it's own tell-tale "homogenized sound". The "tape sound" IS a "homogenized sound". Recording to tape has it's own sound. You've said so. It obviously does or plug-ins to emulate "that sound" wouldn't exist. So the same exact quality that you poo-poo in digital exists in your beloved tape. You just like one better than the other, which is fine, but to deny that "the tape sound" is indeed a "homogenized sound" in the sense that we use the term is silly and frankly, flat out wrong.

And to top it all off, the points I made that totally kill your digital "homogenized sound" claims, those same points that you blatantly ignored, are this: One can easily record any instrument into digital and NOT be saddled with that blanket "homogenized digital sound" because digital by itself doesn't do anything to audio. While tape does impact it's own sound onto the audio, whether it be "the sound" of your deck or someone else's, it does stamp it's fingerprint right into the recording and there's no getting away from it. Recording into a DAW doesn't do that. Not by itself anyway. Digital gives you back what you put into it, and with today's bit depths and sample rates, it's actually more accurate than the permanently changed sound of something recorded to tape. You might not want that kind of accuracy and clarity, and that's cool, but simply put, recording into the digital realm does LESS "damage" to the signal than tape. Digital doesn't do all that "warming" and "saturation" nonsense. Digital doesn't by itself change anything. Not modern digital anyway. The "digital homogenized" sound never happens until someone uses a plug that unfortunately has that tell-tale effect. And it happens a lot, but not all plugs do that to the digital audio. The one's that do, it's not digital recording's fault. Blame the guy that wrote the program. That living breathing analog human being that designed the plug fucked it up. Blame the user that chose that plug in. The analog person clicking his mouse using effects that sound bad. Blame him because his sound was probably exactly what he put in before he fucked it up with a bad plug-in.

So, that's about it. Deny all of that if you must. I stand by it and to me it's exactly what has happened and where we're at. I don't think I can simplify it any further, nor do I want to.
 
In a nutshell, I'm paraphrasing you and me both here, you've repeatedly mentioned wanting "that tape sound". That magical sound that you can only get from using tape, and that magical sound that digital tape plugs try so hard in vain to emulate. It's a tell-tale "quality" you get from recording to tape. "The tape sound". Okay cool, no problem.

You've also gone to great lengths in this thread and others countless times to decry the blanket flattened upper-midrange buzzy stamp that digital emulators put across the music in the digital realm. You call that a "homogenized sound". A term you use very regularly, a term you and I have both used when we agree on that "digital sound". Okay, no problem there either.

What I'm saying.....asking....declaring.....isn't tape doing the same thing for you? It is. It is 100% without question. Recording to tape stamps, impacts, permanently impresses it's own sound to the audio. It's a "homogenized sound".

OK...I get where you are coming from....and really, I got all that first time around.
You're taking the term "tape sound" and saying that beauase we are calling it a "tape sound" it is then therefore "homogonized".

Right?

OK.

My counterpoint was and is, that there is no one single repeatable, "tape sound" for everyone and every situation.
If I record to tape and you record to tape it's not the exact same thing. If you and I use the same plug-in...it is the exact same thing.
Also in regards to digital homogenized stuff....the sameness persists, it's the same way all the time throughout, due to algorithms.
With tape, as I was saying....it's doesn't really do that. There are constant variables, that are constantly changing.
That IS the nature of all analog audio.

Yes, you can generically say there is something about a "tape sound"...but it's no different than saying there is something about a "tube amp sound" or "analog sound"....but there are many different flavors and not all tube amps and all analog gear have the same exact sound.
Would you agree with that?

Every time we record to tape, there may some underlying tape sound quality...but it's also inconstant and changing ever so slightly because of its electromagnetic nature, as opposed to hard coded math that doesn't, and it is affected and changed by all the other things I mentioned...so, I don't see how it can fit the definition of "homogenized"...when it's ever-changing and inconsistent.

So can it...?
 
OK...I get where you are coming from....and really, I got all that first time around.
You're taking the term "tape sound" and saying that beauase we are calling it a "tape sound" it is then therefore "homogonized".

Right?

OK.

My counterpoint was and is, that there is no one single repeatable, "tape sound" for everyone and every situation.
If I record to tape and you record to tape it's not the exact same thing. If you and I use the same plug-in...it is the exact same thing.
Also in regards to digital homogenized stuff....the sameness persists, it's the same way all the time throughout, due to algorithms.
With tape, as I was saying....it's doesn't really do that. There are constant variables, that are constantly changing.
That IS the nature of all analog audio.

Yes, you can generically say there is something about a "tape sound"...but it's no different than saying there is something about a "tube amp sound" or "analog sound"....but there are many different flavors and not all tube amps and all analog gear have the same exact sound.
Would you agree with that?


Every time we record to tape, there may some underlying tape sound quality...but it's also inconstant and changing ever so slightly because of its electromagnetic nature, as opposed to hard coded math that doesn't, and it is affected and changed by all the other things I mentioned...so, I don't see how it can fit the definition of "homogenized"...when it's ever-changing and inconsistent.

So can it...?

"Tape sound" is a broad term, just like "tube sound" or whatever. I agree with that. I'm saying that I don't care that your tape sound, my tape sound, anyone's tape sound has the potential to be slightly different due to the factors that you mentioned. Don't care. It doesn't matter. The simple fact is that there IS a sound, a quality, a fingerprint, a stamp jammed in there that technically shouldn't be there. It might not be the same every time, it might not be repeatable. But SOMETHING will be there, and the very nature of it's insistence on being there and it's unpredictability is a very bad thing in my book. And let's be real, you talk of all these micro variables making recording to tape sound like this grand adventure but the real truth is that it does tend to all have the same general sound characteristics if all of your equipment is working properly. I believe you know your gear, you know how it reacts and how it sounds, and that sound is your own "homogenized sound". The fact that you gravitate to tape, and enjoy music recorded to tape means that is has some quality that you enjoy - a homogenized sound. The "tape sound".

I don't at all agree that you and I using the same plug-ins will yield the exact same thing. They don't yield the same result when I use them from mix to mix, or track to track, so why would they act the same with two completely different people, sounds, styles, equipment, etc? They won't, not even a little bit. I don't disagree that some plugs just suck, but digital in general is nowhere near as cold and sterile and repeatable as you're trying to make it out to be, and you know it. It does have the advantage, in my opinion, of being less temperamental and sonically destructive than tape, but it's not robotic repeatability every time. I don't believe in hippy dippy cosmos shit, but there is something in the air that makes it also change from track to track, song to song, take to take. I can record back to back drum tracks. Same drum position, same mic position, same exact everything with only say 5-10 minutes of turnaround time between takes, and they will be different. Not drastically different, but to my finely tuned ear for my own stuff, it's different. Maybe it's me being human and playing differently. Maybe the heads are slightly detuning or wearing out. Maybe the sticks have shed milligrams by flaking off tiny little wood particles. Whatever it is, it's different. The good thing? I get clean and clear accurate tracks without anything bullying it's way into my sound....until I fuck it up on my own.
 
Yes...SOMETHING will be there.... :) …but the only thing that is "there" are a bunch of magnetic particles waiting for an audio signal. They have no sound....they have no specific programming other than being lined up and waiting for something to variably move them.

Yes...you and I will not get the same results with the same plug-in,....but unlike tape, plugs have a hard coded algorithm that is not 100% variable, it can only do what the code allows....that's why I say it's homogenized, and why I don't see that term as really valid for tape.
I know you say that you do...and feel free to keep saying that tape is “homogenized”. I’m really not expecting to change your mind or anything...we're just kicking the can here.

I guess... if you really want to...you can say that *blank tape* has a "homogenized" quality, and I would agree with that part, since the emulsion is a well mixed blend of binders and iron particles, and is spread evenly on the tape like fine butter.....but the minute you apply the electromagnetism to it, all the mentioned variables begin to work on it and will change continuously as you use the tape...hence no longer "homogenized" once recording starts.

When I say that tape has “that sound”….I was not talking about it in a “one sound” way….I’m referring to the fact that it has life, that it’s has an “organic” quality (and that can’t really = homogenized), so “tape sound" to me, doesn’t mean to me the way you're looking at it, …and that’s OK, we can certainly have different views on what tape sound is all about.

So like….is there some other tape use angle that hasn’t been covered…I mean, we have two more days to make the top of the Newsletter, and I think with almost FOUR THOUSAND VIEWS...!!!...this thread is still a HOT item, and I guess people ARE interested in our discussion and I’m sure Chater loves the page hits!!! :D

The heck with Grim…I think you and I should get a cut for keeping it moving this long! ;)
 
No one else is interested in this discussion. I'm pretty sure we fucked it all up.

The last thing I'm gonna say about homogenized sound, and I hope to never type that fucking word again, is that I feel I'm using the term in the way you and I have always used it. I think you're altering your own use of it. That's fine, fair, whatever. Again, agree to disagree, and let's just move on from this now way overblown shit. That's my last word about it. Get your last word in about it and let's go on to something else.

P.S. - the newsletter is lame.
 
P.S. - the newsletter is lame.

I know you don't think I was serious about it. :D

Though no one can deny that if people really weren't interested in following this thread along...it wouldn't have close to 4000 views.
 
I know you don't think I was serious about it. :D

Though no one can deny that if people really weren't interested in following this thread along...it wouldn't have close to 4000 views.

Ha, I know you don't care about the newsletter.

The "views" thing could be misleading though. Fuck could be, it is misleading. Bots will bump the views. It happens in the MP3 clinic all the time. When I posted my "Surrender" cover, it had like 60 views within the first minute. Bots. The thread was full of bots. Too bad they don't buy music.
 
Sure.
No problem.

would you like peanut butter and miracle whip or the banana/jalepeno and liver?

WTF? Do people really eat that shit?

Just a regular PB & J with grape J would be fine, thanks. On whole wheat. I'm watching my figure.
 
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