Analog in the digital age

jjones1700

jjones1700

Learning, always learning
As I sit here at the tire shop waiting for a tire to be repaired on my truck, I'm surfing between this site and TH from my cell phone. It suddenly dawns on me the irony of this scenario. It strikes me that I am one of a small hand full of individuals who has a passion for analog gear. What would it be like if open reel decks were still made in this age? The internet has become a miracle tool when it comes to information and parts for our beloved machines.

The kicker is how a lot of kids nowadays wouldn't know what a reel to reel deck was if they tripped over it! When my son gets a little older, I'll definitely school him on the art of analog.
 
Otari still makes an analog deck if you want to shell out $6,700.00 for one unit. My 16 year old Nephew has a Teac x-7R that he loves to record his band on. I have no kids to pass my music on to so I guess it might stop with him. Sad!
 
I'm there with ya, jjones...

I am definitely an analog man myself, although I do own quite a few digital machines. Nothin' beats the sound of tape, and nothin' beats turnin' knobs, and pushin' sliders.

Have you noticed how alot of the younger ones are just stumbling across analog lately? It also seems as if the ebay community has noticed this too, because almost every piece of analog gear listed anymore has the big "ANALOG" in the title / main heading.

It is also bad for us,..because the prices are increasing on the old school gear that we love. So if a motor breaks in our beloved TSR-8 or 38,..pretty soon, we'll have to shell out $1000.00 for another, versus a couple years ago when we might have gotten it for less than half of that.
 
VESSEL2020 said:
I'm there with ya, jjones...

I am definitely an analog man myself, although I do own quite a few digital
It is also bad for us,..because the prices are increasing on the old school gear that we love. So if a motor breaks in our beloved TSR-8 or 38,..pretty soon, we'll have to shell out $1000.00 for another, versus a couple years ago when we might have gotten it for less than half of that.
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My point all along though has been at some point someone will either license or reverse engineer a lot of the parts and mfg them at some overseas location, like every damn microphone that has the number 7 in it....
 
I took an interest analog after numerous audio classes at my university based around nothing but ProTools.

Photography students work with film and graphic designers start with sketchbooks...so why shouldn't an audio student work with tape?

And here I am.
 
I think of analog afficianados the way that the Jedi are portrayed in the original "Star Wars". The last vestiges of an ancient order........who, despite all the attempts to wipe them out by the Sith/Republic, nonetheless carry on and ultimately triumph.
 
There is a Chinese company making R2R's.

It will not be long before they show up here.

$6,700.00 for an Otari sounds like a lot but compared to the cost of some of the cars I buy it's a whole lot less than a set of tires and new rims!!!
 
grimtraveller said:
I think of analog afficianados the way that the Jedi are portrayed in the original "Star Wars". The last vestiges of an ancient order........who, despite all the attempts to wipe them out by the Sith/Republic, nonetheless carry on and ultimately triumph.
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Ain't that the truth!

+1 !!!
 
grimtraveller said:
I think of analog afficianados the way that the Jedi are portrayed in the original "Star Wars". The last vestiges of an ancient order........who, despite all the attempts to wipe them out by the Sith/Republic, nonetheless carry on and ultimately triumph.
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Comparing the original Star Wars trilogy, in which they used film and shot on actual locations, to the new trilogy, which was mostly shot digitally and used digital backgrounds, is proof enough for the supremacy of analog over digital.

"A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." -George Lucas, when he was younger, yet wiser.

-MD
 
Have you noticed how alot of the younger ones are just stumbling across analog lately? It also seems as if the ebay community has noticed this too, because almost every piece of analog gear listed anymore has the big "ANALOG" in the title / main heading.
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I think this is mainly the product of a new found aura that the music blogosphere has given to vinyl (and ultimately "analog") in the last ten years. It seems that the twenty-somethings who write for Pitchfork, etc. love to point out how a record "sounds" like it was recorded on tape. There is a certain "obscurity" that is associated with tape/"analog" that I can't really put words to... it seems that analog recording has become very romanticized in today's indie culture... Just a thought.
 
Right now I've got a foot in both worlds. I have though a preference for analog especially reel to reel tape machines. I just spent the weekend servicing calibrating, biasing and repairing my owned fro new TEAC A 2300 SD. After I buttoned it up this afternoon I made a few recordings and played one of my favorite prerecorded tapes. The sound just blew me away. I have a very good digital home studio but here my 31 year old TEAC blows all those 1's & 0's devices right out of the water. But I love mt cell phone, I love my PC, I love the internet. I love the digital world except for when it comes to music. But since music occupies about 65% of my being and activities analog gets the lion's share of my technical affections.
 
All I have to add is that you don't often see someone wringing their hands and trying to figure out how to make their tape tracks and mixes sound like they were recorded and mixed on a DAW. I see a lot of hand wringing from those doing everything in a laptop and wondering why it's not sounding the way they want.

Cheers,

Otto
 
One way or another, if you're want your music distributed outside of the cult following, it needs to be in digital format, unfortunately. I know the purists will record to tape, edit by hand and press to vinyl, etc. But the sad truth is that there are more iPods in existence today than turntables (or at least in use), and if you want regular Joe to hear your music it better be on a CD or in mp3 format.

Analog equipment is expensive, and I grew up always having to justify something that cost a lot. So if I bought an expensive guitar or keyboard, I felt like I better be making hit music with it otherwise it's a waste :) My fiancee is like that a little though she won't admit it - she knows I'm getting back into the analog recording techniques and have purchased a reel-to-reel, mixing board, etc, have a bunch of analog synthesizers... but I can tell that she thinks ever so slightly that there should be some kind of return, you know what I mean? she really knows it's just for my own pleasure, which is one of the things I have to keep convincing myself of. I have to equate that to the average guy who buys a sick-ass audiophile stereo setup, just so he can listen to his music in high quality form. That kind of stuff costs a fortune sometimes, has absolutely no return other than going into your own ears. And so what? It's for you. It's a personal thing. Just like it really doesn't matter to the rest of the world whether or not you cut your record to 2" or made it in Logic Express; only you get that satisfaction of the sound, the experience and the feeling of a personal accomplishment and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.
 
WhinyLittleRunt said:
One way or another, if you're want your music distributed outside of the cult following, it needs to be in digital format, unfortunately. I know the purists will record to tape, edit by hand and press to vinyl, etc. But the sad truth is that there are more iPods in existence today than turntables (or at least in use), and if you want regular Joe to hear your music it better be on a CD or in mp3 format.

Analog equipment is expensive, and I grew up always having to justify something that cost a lot. So if I bought an expensive guitar or keyboard, I felt like I better be making hit music with it otherwise it's a waste :) My fiancee is like that a little though she won't admit it - she knows I'm getting back into the analog recording techniques and have purchased a reel-to-reel, mixing board, etc, have a bunch of analog synthesizers... but I can tell that she thinks ever so slightly that there should be some kind of return, you know what I mean? she really knows it's just for my own pleasure, which is one of the things I have to keep convincing myself of. I have to equate that to the average guy who buys a sick-ass audiophile stereo setup, just so he can listen to his music in high quality form. That kind of stuff costs a fortune sometimes, has absolutely no return other than going into your own ears. And so what? It's for you. It's a personal thing. Just like it really doesn't matter to the rest of the world whether or not you cut your record to 2" or made it in Logic Express; only you get that satisfaction of the sound, the experience and the feeling of a personal accomplishment and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.
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Agreed that analog is expensive. Back in the day it was super expensive. However I've been in the game for a very long time. I grew up on analog, worked professionally in analog then converted to digital without ever believing the hype about analog vs digital. But the sonic facts of the analog vs audio question are unarguable. I have a fairly professional home studio and one day it simply hit me that what I was doing didn't actually sound like what I was trying to do. I realized that all digital devices essentially all sound the same in a generic negative way. Not good, not bad but not great regardless of whether it was my SONY CD player or my M-Audio Delta-66 PC sound card.

So I recommissioned my TEAC A 2300 SD and began making comparison recordings. The results basically confirmed everything that gets bantered about in the analog vs digital argument. Good analog trumps very good digital and great digital does not eclipse great analog. Right now if I'm listening to a lot of analog tape it's almost painful to switch over to digital.

IMO the public was sold a bill of goods with digital sound when it began to be offered. CD's don't sound as good as vinyl and not nearly as good as RTR tape. Yes I offer my recordings in all digital formats to anyone wanting to purchasing them but I know its not the best sound available.
 
WhinyLittleRunt said:
Analog equipment is expensive, and I grew up always having to justify something that cost a lot. So if I bought an expensive guitar or keyboard, I felt like I better be making hit music with it otherwise it's a waste :) My fiancee is like that a little though she won't admit it - she knows I'm getting back into the analog recording techniques and have purchased a reel-to-reel, mixing board, etc, have a bunch of analog synthesizers... but I can tell that she thinks ever so slightly that there should be some kind of return, you know what I mean? she really knows it's just for my own pleasure, which is one of the things I have to keep convincing myself of. I have to equate that to the average guy who buys a sick-ass audiophile stereo setup, just so he can listen to his music in high quality form. That kind of stuff costs a fortune sometimes, has absolutely no return other than going into your own ears.
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I don't spend my money on a whole lot else for myself, so it's justified. Just tell her there are a lot worse things you could be spending your money on. Like drinking and drugs and gambling. :laughings:
 
An important computer component just crapped out on me last week, so I am damn grateful to have my trusty old TASCAM 4-track cassette machine, and my rather fine TEAC mixdown deck.
 
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