Gear_Junky said:
Thanks, Tim. Of course, if I had my way, I'd close mic every drum and I'd want a couple tracks for basses and guitars and so on, but... "reality gets ya". The truth is it's possible to make good sounding recordings even on 4 tracks, it's just a little easier on 8. I don't think I'm gonna "go digital" any time soon, unless I make a business out of this.
I know that I personally fought against Digital for YEARS; because Bad Digital is WAY WORSE than Bad Analog. I was vehemently against Digital, but then I heard some things a few friends were doing-and it changed my mind on the whole Digital Issue-the key was doing some things that were kind of unorthodox-such as using Distortion on the Drums to simulate tape distortion, and making perfectly sure that you had the sound you wanted as it was being printed to tape-you also have to watch out how much you E.Q. things-especially if you're on a cheap board like I am (
a Mackie 1604 Vlz Pro) You just have to learn the limitations of your system, and work within those parameters-that applies to Analog as well-it's just that you have to pay a little more attention to the details in digital; things that you could "get buy with" in Analog, will stick out like a sore thumb in Digital.
To me, it's worth it to lose the Hiss; plus-I LOVE the fact that the Digital recorder will capture the "kick" of my Kick drums- they go at least an Octave below what my 1/4" 8-track can capture(about 40Hz)-and man, even though I wind up rolling off the low end a bit on playback-it THUMPS bigtime!
I swear to God, if Drummers would try using 28" Kicks, they would probably never go to anything smaller! (okay, so it's not really "portable"-but it's worth hauling them around to me!)It's literally changed the way that I play.
But Like I said, Bad Analog is better than Bad digital-Bad analog will just sound like a messed up tape, Bad digital you can't even listen to.
They both have their fine points. I know that those who are "purists" would have a fit at some of the unorthodox things that I do, such as the mentioned Distortion on Drums, or the fact that I compress the heck out of everything.
But for me, I KNOW what I am after-and I know what it will take to get the sound that I want on tape.
I just look at digital as being a better tool for the way that I work. That's all.
And remember, I was Anti-Digital for years.
Actually, When I bought the machines that I have-I had bid on an MCI 2" machine with 16 & 24 blocks for $8,500, along with an old Trident board. The Board was kind of ragged out-it was about 8 feet long, and about a billion lbs., AND I was going to have to go to Toronto, Canada (from Jacksonville, Florida) to pick it up. Somebody else got that setup-and I decided that IF the guy SELLING that Stuff was going digital, maybe *I* should look into digital...
Well, you won't catch me completely recording on a PC, because I'm not into all the "Plug-in" crap; I'm a "knob twisting" kind of guy_ I like Mixers and Effect units-actually, I use alot of Old Spring Reverbs on things-and I find I actually PREFER "Mechanical" Reverbs with Digital.
I use a Spring Reverb on my Drumkit and LOVE IT with Digital, but when I was recording Analog-the same spring reverb didn't sound so great on the drums! Go figure! Hahaha
Tim
[Edited by Tim Brown on 09-20-2000 at 15:04]