Analog Digital Integration Setup

J

jay Burd

Member
I'd love to pick up an 8-track tape machine to record foundational tracks and then somehow transfer individual tracks onto a DAW where I can continue to work on songs. I am new to analog recording so I could use some help to wrap my head around on what gear I would need to pull this off. Thanks! I currently use a tascam DP24 SD as my digital workplace.
 
All you need is whatever tape machine you decide on, and cabling to connect the tape machine outputs to the DP24. Does the DP24 have at least 8 line level inputs and can it record at least 8 tracks simultaneously? If so, then you just need cabling to go from the 8 tape outs to 8 line inputs on the DP24. On the front end you’ll need your sources and some way get those to line level if they are not already. This may be an analog mixer, or it’s possible you can use the DP24 mixing section as your tape machine front end. I don’t know anything about the DP24. Depending on the tape machine you may need some means of cue monitoring as well, and, again, this could be the DP24, I just don’t know. The procedure is to record your tape tracks, then dump those simultaneously to the DP24.
 
If you're going to do punch ins on the tape deck, you'll need enough routing to cover that. I don't know if the tape machine would provide sufficient monitoring, but a 16-channel mixer with direct outputs on 8 channels would do it. You could even adapt inserts to that purpose. That would be using the mixer as a split console, the first 8 inputs feeding the deck and the last 8 inputs for playback from tape.
 
I perused the manual for the DP-24SD. It will work fine as far as something to dump tracks to from an 8-track tape machine, and it could work well as a front end as long as you weren’t recording more than a track or two at a time, but it might be a little cumbersome to use it in that way. And then monitoring tape tracks could get tricky as the tracks fill up. And it wouldn’t necessarily be my choice as a front end because sources connected to it would go A—>D and then D—>A before they hit tape. So I do think ideally if the OP wants to track to an analog setup before transferring to digital a small-ish analog mixer would be called for, BUT I think we need to know more about how the OP wants to fill tracks and if there are multiple people involved in tracking…how many tracks at a time, what kind of sources, that sort of thing.
 
I have looked for 8 in, 8 out pre amps to feed the tape machine but they are thin on the ground sub £400. Two that just scrape under are by Focusrite and Tascam.
There is some work to do with this venture in terms of the MO and getting a logical operating level setup.

Dave.
 
There are a few things you need to consider when doing analog-digital integration. First, you need to make sure your equipment is compatible. You'll need an audio interface that can handle both analog and digital signals, as well as a tape deck that can output a digital signal. In addition, you'll need software that can import and work with digital audio files.

Once you have the necessary equipment, setting it up is relatively easy. Just connect the audio interface to the computer and the tape deck to the audio interface. Make sure the deck is set to output a digital signal (usually by selecting "digital" or "PCM" on the menu) and start recording!

When importing the tracks into your DAW, make sure to set the project's sample rate and bit depth to match those of the original recording. This will ensure that you don't lose any quality in the conversion process.
--
Jason Hook. Audio Enthusiast and Software Developer
Remove or Isolate Vocals from any Song 👉 https://www.UnMixIt.com/
 
TheSynthDev said:
There are a few things you need to consider when doing analog-digital integration. First, you need to make sure your equipment is compatible. You'll need an audio interface that can handle both analog and digital signals, as well as a tape deck that can output a digital signal. In addition, you'll need software that can import and work with digital audio files.

Once you have the necessary equipment, setting it up is relatively easy. Just connect the audio interface to the computer and the tape deck to the audio interface. Make sure the deck is set to output a digital signal (usually by selecting "digital" or "PCM" on the menu) and start recording!

When importing the tracks into your DAW, make sure to set the project's sample rate and bit depth to match those of the original recording. This will ensure that you don't lose any quality in the conversion process.
--
Jason Hook. Audio Enthusiast and Software Developer
Remove or Isolate Vocals from any Song 👉 https://www.UnMixIt.com/
Click to expand...
The OP is not looking to record to digital tape, rather analog tape. I know of no multitrack analog tape machines that feature onboard analog to digital converters and digital audio outputs. So, in order to avoid confusion, I suggest the OP disregard any suggestions having anything to do with digital outputs from the tape deck.
 
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No idea about the tape machines, but having a DP24SD myself I can say it can record 8 tracks simultaneously. So, depending on your tape deck, you can either play the tracks one after another and save them on different tracks on the DP24 or (if the tape deck has enough outputs) up to 8 simultaneously.
All the digital/analogue conversion is done by the DP24 automatically anyway.
 
Trichter said:
...play the tracks one after another...
Click to expand...
Analog tape machines will drift. With a good machine, that drift might be small, but it won't be zero. (Well, locked to timecode, it might be effectively zero, but that's a special case.) The way to do it is to transfer all the tracks in one pass.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Analog tape machines will drift. With a good machine, that drift might be small, but it won't be zero. (Well, locked to timecode, it might be effectively zero, but that's a special case.) The way to do it is to transfer all the tracks in one pass.
Click to expand...
As mentioned above I have no idea about tape machines. :D
But what do you mean with drift? Shouldn't a recording device be able to output the recorded sound at the exact same speed/frequency that it was originally played?
 
Trichter said:
As mentioned above I have no idea about tape machines. :D
But what do you mean with drift? Shouldn't a recording device be able to output the recorded sound at the exact same speed/frequency that it was originally played?
Click to expand...
The speed is based on a motor that's subject to a variety of influences. It's like trying to keep your car at an exact speed. You can keep it within some range, but it's going to go up and down a little. Imagine attempting to drive the same 10 km stretch of road at the same speed over the same amount of time 8 or 16 times. Even if you're really good at controlling your speed (or using cruise control), no two runs will be quite the same.
 
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