generation loss

[jpmorris]

Thanks JP! I was googling that and searching here the other day. Could not find it anywhere.

I probably would have lost it too if I hadn't remembered posting it in one of the AG440 threads.

 

[sweetbeats]

Sgt. Pepper done on 4 track. Loads of bouncing at every turn. Now has anyone ever dared to say it sounds bad? Virtually everything done before 8 tracks had sub mix bouncing. Some of that music is held in the highest esteem. However its best to be running at at least 15ips on a professional machine or at the very least a prosumer machine.

Keep in mind Sgt. Pepper was tracked on a Studer 1" 4-track.

 

[lonewhitefly]

Just want to point out that the examples of bouncing used on recordings from the early classic era were done on big format machines like half inch 3 tracks and one inch 4 tracks. And Quarter inch mono decks.

Keep in mind the typical quality of playback equipment the average user had then, also.

Probably bookshelf speakers at best or AM radio.

Also I like to print a little bright if know it is going to be collapsed later.

1" 4-track was actually fairly rare, the beatles being the notable exception; most were 1/2" 4-track ... i don't believe there are any american recordings done on 1" 4-track. it was also rare to bounce to a 1/4" machine and go back into a multi-track in those days. worth noting is that most of the '60s classics were bounced from one multi-track directly to another multi-track as opposed to internally within the same machine. in lower budget studios, you would see internal bounces, for instance "rag doll" by the 4 seasons and "i think we're alone now" by tommy james were both done on 4-track 1/2" with several internal bounces.

great tip to print bright as well because if you boost highs after the fact, you boost hiss too

and yes, they were large format machines but tape was low output, so i don't think it was THAT different than "prosumer" formats when it comes to signal to noise. the more important factor is the electronics in the machines were much better than the prosumer stuff.

 

[jpmorris]

worth noting is that most of the '60s classics were bounced from one multi-track directly to another multi-track as opposed to internally within the same machine.

What they did for the Rolling Stones song 'Wild Horses' in 1971 was make a safety copy of the master before doing any kind of reduction. There was an interesting note about this in Sound On Sound April 2004.

Basically, the trainee engineer (Chris Kimsey) was assigned to make the copy, which he did after everyone else had left. The playback machine (1" 8-track 3M recorders) was in the control room for that studio, the target machine was in the mixing room on the other side of the building. When he got back to the mixing room, he heard the music slow down and stop. Panicking, he ran all the way back to the control room and found that the takeup spool had bent and the master had wrapped itself around the capstan until it stopped turning. He very gently extricated it from the machine to find the tape had creases every inch and a half.

Apparently he spent the entire night trying to un-crease the master until he was found by Keith Grant at 6am who helped him flatten it out with an iron.
He then spent hours playing the tape again and again to get the creases out. The Stones were never told about it.