C
ceedubindustrie
New member
Dear all,
I've been lurking, reading past threads in "Analog Only" after finding this BBS during a search for information on Tascam 80-8's. I'd like to thank you all for sharing your knowledge on these seemingly archaic technologies. I was scared to death about plunging into reel to reels, but your suggestions/tips/procedures have been helpful and increased my confidence that analog production can work for me.
After reading various installments of the infamous recurring 'analog versus digital' thread, it seems like user experiences are welcomed here. I would therefore like to explain my own past and future direction.
I began by making electronic music entirely in the box. Everything from the beginning waveform to the compression, EQ and mixing was digital. As time went by I started to collect analog versions of the software synths I rely on. The ease of wave manipulation, plugin selection and variation made life easy but my mixes always seemed to lack some life (I like referring to it as 'unf').
A few months back I won an auction on ebay consisting of a Tascam M30 8-channel mixer and a 34 series 4 track reel to reel. I also bought a cheap-ass Sony dual cassette deck from the local salvation army. Your past thread regarding packaging was a few months too late as the 34 was totally smashed in transit. The mixer, however, survived.
In the last two months I've experimented with piping my analog synths AND my vsts through the Tascam to cassette. All compression, mixing and EQ is done in analog. I then bounce the cassette back into the computer and do some final EQing and limiting.
My first listen to the recordings on cassette made my jaw drop. While my drums are currently provided by a vst simulation of a famous analog drum machine, their travels through a wonky old mixer and onto a cassette have breathed a life into them that has been, heretofore, absent. Once piped back into the DAW for EQ and limiting, tears came to my eyes as the phatness and subtle anomalies still exist but the mix becomes clearer thanks to plugins emulating hardware I'll never be able to afford.
This finds me setting out tonight to investigate a Tascam 80-8 with the DBX noise resistance machine. While I love what a cassette has done for my recordings, I can't wait to cut the hiss and gain better frequency response, as well as experiment with tape overdubbing and forced coloration (i.e. saturation/compression, bleed over, wow and flutter).
To summarize, I find value in having both digital and analog components in my studio. Even though I have a beautiful Roland tb-303 clone (x0xb0x) for dripping analog saw waves across the mix, I still find use for the digital recreation (phoscyon), and I doubt I'll ever have a 30-channel parabolic EQ in my rack. And so on.
I look forward to absorbing more of you collective wisdom in the time to come.
-C
I've been lurking, reading past threads in "Analog Only" after finding this BBS during a search for information on Tascam 80-8's. I'd like to thank you all for sharing your knowledge on these seemingly archaic technologies. I was scared to death about plunging into reel to reels, but your suggestions/tips/procedures have been helpful and increased my confidence that analog production can work for me.
After reading various installments of the infamous recurring 'analog versus digital' thread, it seems like user experiences are welcomed here. I would therefore like to explain my own past and future direction.
I began by making electronic music entirely in the box. Everything from the beginning waveform to the compression, EQ and mixing was digital. As time went by I started to collect analog versions of the software synths I rely on. The ease of wave manipulation, plugin selection and variation made life easy but my mixes always seemed to lack some life (I like referring to it as 'unf').
A few months back I won an auction on ebay consisting of a Tascam M30 8-channel mixer and a 34 series 4 track reel to reel. I also bought a cheap-ass Sony dual cassette deck from the local salvation army. Your past thread regarding packaging was a few months too late as the 34 was totally smashed in transit. The mixer, however, survived.
In the last two months I've experimented with piping my analog synths AND my vsts through the Tascam to cassette. All compression, mixing and EQ is done in analog. I then bounce the cassette back into the computer and do some final EQing and limiting.
My first listen to the recordings on cassette made my jaw drop. While my drums are currently provided by a vst simulation of a famous analog drum machine, their travels through a wonky old mixer and onto a cassette have breathed a life into them that has been, heretofore, absent. Once piped back into the DAW for EQ and limiting, tears came to my eyes as the phatness and subtle anomalies still exist but the mix becomes clearer thanks to plugins emulating hardware I'll never be able to afford.
This finds me setting out tonight to investigate a Tascam 80-8 with the DBX noise resistance machine. While I love what a cassette has done for my recordings, I can't wait to cut the hiss and gain better frequency response, as well as experiment with tape overdubbing and forced coloration (i.e. saturation/compression, bleed over, wow and flutter).
To summarize, I find value in having both digital and analog components in my studio. Even though I have a beautiful Roland tb-303 clone (x0xb0x) for dripping analog saw waves across the mix, I still find use for the digital recreation (phoscyon), and I doubt I'll ever have a 30-channel parabolic EQ in my rack. And so on.
I look forward to absorbing more of you collective wisdom in the time to come.
-C
]. I'll try to do better on bumping that "packing / shipping" thread more often. On the other hand I always recommend buying local [or pickup], as a first line of action, leaving the shipping as a last, last, last, last, resort but with cautions stamped all over the place.
