For all you old guys

So like everyone that read this thread back when it was originally posted is now probabaly considered "an old guy". :D
 
RevSwitchblade said:
Sorry if I did some kind of un-cool thing. It won't happen again. Thanks for the kind welcome to the site.
Click to expand...

Nobody said it was un-cool. Just pointing it out in a humorous way. You might want to develop a little bit of a sense of humor if you're going to be hanging out here....or not........


yeesh.....:rolleyes:
 
This has never been more than a hobby to me so I don't get really serious.

My first attempt was using two stereo "Hi-Fi" VCRs. Remember when it was a big deal for a VCR to be stereo? I went to radio shack and bought all these RCA jacks and switches and made a box so I could bounce the tracks back and forth between the 2 VCRs. So really it was just layering, I got some not bad results.

My first real recording was with a Fostex 380 4 track and a Roland TR-626 drum machine. Those 2 items cost me $2000, that was in 1990 and was a months wages at the time. Of course I had to walk 10 miles in two feet of snow to get them, uphill no less, both ways.

With the roland you could program songs but the editing and arranging was a bitch. I had these sheets I made up for keeping track of which pattern I needed at which bar. I just bought EZ-Drummer and the two by comparrison are stone age vs. space age. Hard to believe that I recorded anything at all. When I go back and listen to my old stuff a lot is just a standard rock drum beat over and over.

Then with the fostex, I can't imagine having to rewind tapes again. And punching in and out was always such a pain in the ass. Bouncing tracks so you could get more than 4 tracks. I also remeber doing the final mix and having to manually pan if wanted any panning on any tracks and having to manually fade out. ahh the good old days.
 
guitarfreak12 said:
So my question is this, are any of you who learned how to record in the analog world, a little resenting of the ease and sometimes lack of respect that comes from the faster, easier less analog world. Do you get a little pissed off that someone can now just come along and do what ever he can think up with jest ten or twenty clicks of his mouse, when before it took you 40 hours of sleepless worry. And it really can only cost you the price of a small program, in come cases free (assuming you already have a computer) and a cheap mic and pre, and turn out some alright stuff, when it took you thousands of dollars and four times as much time, to turn out alright stuff.... But I have sort of a different respect for the guys who know a different world of recording, when it was really hard.
Click to expand...

"When it was really hard....."

Analog or digital, it's always been hard for me, mate ! :D

Jokes aside though, what possible difference does it make whether tools exist to make things more convenient than perhaps 20, 30, 50, 70 years ago ? If you're doing your thing {this is a general point ~ I don't know if the OP still frequents these pages} and digging it, or even if you're struggling with it, if there's a cat acoss town just weaving magic with a mouse, what's it to do with anyone else ? How can it make your life better or worse ? But obviously six years on, though the thread has been exhumed from the grave after laying dormant in cyberspace, some folks do feel like the OP did.
As for analog recording being so hard, I count myself as being fortunate to have lived in a time when the absence of the digitalia we have today did force some clever moves ~ moves that are still relevant. But it wasn't really lack of digital that brought this about. Invention happened because human beings happen to be inventive. And it hasn't suddenly stopped because we can 'edit'. For hobbyists like me, experimentation is great fun and I don't really stress my head if something takes a long time.
 
grimtraveller said:
Unless you live in the alternate universe, how could it be uphill both ways ?
Click to expand...
Have you never visited the Mystery Spot?

?

:D

Seriously, more options and more tools do not automatically make things easier. It still requires just as much skill to make a good recording now as it did 30 years ago. It's just that now you have more distractions to divert your attention away from the real goal. It's in many ways a lot easier when you don't have to learn all those different plugins and editing techniques and different types of metering scales, and blahblahblah.

When all you have is a mic and a tape recorder, you have a lot less to learn and a whole lot less to go wrong. And you can spend more time worrying about the "little things" like whether you cn actually play your instrument or sing in key.

G.
 
Tetra,
Ahhh...the 626 rings back memories...I first recorded on that. Live to 2-track,through a Realistic Stereo Disco Mixer (with a piece of tape covering the word "disco") with my buddy "playing" the 626 (snare volume down, then up; highhat up, down...)! My guitar was straight through a Boss DS-1. Casio took care of bass (played admirably by my other buddy!).
We would compose and record a song in a hour...I miss that spontaneity. Now I spend too much time playing softsynths, tweaking windows,recovering from crashes, and reading this damn forum :(
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
We may have had only rocks and spears 30 years ago, and today any audio general can go out and buy cruise missles, armored tanks and aircraft carriers. But if the owner of all that stuff knows nothing about logistics, strategy and tactics, they will lose every battle they join.

Todays digital audio gear doesn't do the job of the engineer any more than tanks, planes and boats do the job of the general. And it's speed, sophistiction and variety makes both the general's and the engineer's jobs that much more sophisticated.

G.
Click to expand...


Hi General.....Douglas MacArthur :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top