digital or analog 8 track?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Booth
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Frank Booth

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Hi im interested in buying an 8 track. Ive been recording for bout 6 years but just in the past year did i get real into it.Right now im using a teac 3340s 4 track(which ill be keeping)an alesis 1622 mixer and a number of old analog effects.I have an ADK condenser mic and a DBX tube preamp.My problum is should i buy a used reel-to-reel 8 track and if so which one or should I buy a digital 8 track.My music store is trying to sell me on the roland vsr-880hd but I dont know much about it.So is the roland easy to use?Which one will sound better(you can tell that I love using analog stuff)butt digital may be the way to go????????? THANKS
 
If you have high quality outboard effects at your disposal, going with the reel-to-reel might be cool. IMO, it depends on how much money you want to spend. For people with high budgets, high-end analog equipment is cool stuff. But for most "normal" people, you can get a lot more bang for your buck if you go with a digital recording solution.

Back in March of 2000, I was recording with a Tascam 488MK][ (not even close to the same thing as what you're considering, I know) with no outboard effects, and growing increasingly frustrated with the not-so-good sounds I was getting. I thought "Hey, computers are pretty powerful. I wonder if I can use my computer to simulate a multitrack recorder?" Boy, can you ever. I would never want to go back to analog.

That $1000 or so that you might be about to spend on a tape deck or Digital Workstation could also be used on, for instance, a recording program, a new hard drive, some nice effect plugins, a CD burner, a decent sound card, and maybe even more.
I think it's worth considering.
 
Yo Frank Booth: [you didn't have a relative who "knew" Lincoln did you?]


I used to use a Tascam 488. Then, I got a Yamaha MD8. The day I plugged in the Yamaha, I unplugged the 488 and moved it into my catacombs for rest.

With digital, you don't have to wait for the tape to rewind; it's wham, bam, thank you Maam, right back to start with the push of a button. That alone was worth the price of admission.

Roland decks "easy to use?" NOPE. And, the Roland manuals are like Yamaha manuals, A VACUUM. Written by engineers who write in English but think Asian. [no offense but it's true.]

I just got the Yamaha DAW2816 which is supposed to be easier to run than the 4416, its big brotha. Well, I can tell you that I've been reading and reading the manuals and am waiting for a video from Yamaha on HOW TO RUN THE THING. The sound is definitely wonderful from all reports; but, the machinations of the box are something else. However, I learned how to use my DX-7 but it took a lot of time.

Digital prices are falling. I suggest what several other members have suggested. Go to a dealer and get a DEMO of several units, even if you have to drive somewhere where DEMOS are available; then, decide, call all of the 800 numbers and go for it.


Merry Chirstmas
Green Hornet







:D :D :p
 
With digital, you don't have to wait for the tape to rewind
Click to expand...

That is a HUGE point. I might be weird in this respect, but any waiting tends to stifle my creativity. Watching the tape rewind so I could have another go at a part that I screwed up always used to frustrate me so much. Conversely, there's so much that digital recording can do to STIMULATE your creativity.

No more fussing over the fact that recording more than once on the same magnetic media is going to hurt fidelity - I would pull my hair out over this. What if I can't hit the high note in the bridge? I want to record at nice hot levels, but if I mess up and have to record over, I'll still be able to hear my old take on the tape... stuff like that.

Plus, no track limit! And again, no worrying about the limits of magnetic media. I can bounce track after track, and layer part over part, with no audible sound degradation. I LOVE this.

Another thing it helped a lot, was the quality of my guitar solos. I can loop a phrase for as long as I want, with no waiting in between loops - and just sit with my guitar and noodle for as long as I want, until I play something that I like. Yet another thing I couldn't have easily done with tape.

As nice as the sound of really good tape is for rock music, there's just so much more you can do when you go digital.
 
how about adat? this way you have a tactile hard copywhich you can put on the shelf, and not just a pixelated folder on your computer screen, i guess you could say in a lot of ways its just like analogue, only digital (i know that doesn't make sense initially, but it'll come to y'all)...and on the plus side, over here you can get a s/h adat real cheap.
 
How long will ADATs be around? They will be phased out soon.

:(

spin
 
did they not say the same for reel to reel?

oh well when every one is getting rid of their out-dated adats, they can sell em to me real chaep and then i will have myself a 64 track studio with enough adats left over for spare parts.... plus everything is being fased out constantly....oh hard disk recording, its on its way out, not for a while...catch the drift?
 
Yo Doc:

What I think will soon arrive is an all digital recording box with voice activation.

"Record on tracks 3 and 4, give me some audible reverb but don't record it, and open another can of Coors...."

Someone at Yamaha or Roland or somewhere ought to get serious about learning curves -- and, I do believe improvements are at hand.

Merry Christmas
Green Hornet:D :D :p
 
I dont like adats and I dont understand why they still cost so much? I think Im going to go with a digital 8track.I'll use my reel-to-reel 4track to record the first 4tracks like the drums and maby bass or guitar then drop it to the digital 8track to record the rest of the tracks and to master on.Hows that sound? or how will that sound?
 
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