Mastering from 1" 8-track

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Seanyworny

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Hey,

I've just invested in a 1" 8-track but i'm in the dark as to the best way to master from it. I'm contemplating buying my own mastering deck but my before I do, i'd like to know, regardless of price, should I be looking to get a 1/2" or a 1/4" machine?

Is there really any difference? Should I be looking to keep the Inch per track the same e.g. by buying a 1/4 or could I improve my original recording in some way by investing in a 1/2 inch machine?

Any help (audio examples) would be kindly appreciated- at this moment, resolving this quandary is my sole priority and it's bugging me!

Cheers fellas,
Sean
 
(Do you mean mix? from it? To another deck?)

That said, I'm a fan of 1/2". THAT said, good 1/2" decks are fewer and fewer lately. The poorly-cared for units are getting ridiculously cheap, and a nice ATR in good shape will run you north of $10k.

Personally, if I were looking for a solid mixdown medium, I'd probably go DSD.

DISCLAIMER: I'm an analog nut with a 1/4" & 1/2" convertible completely refurbished MCI/Sony JH110C. And I'd still probably use DSD most of the time.
 
Cheers for replying mate,
To give you some context/clearer picture of what i'm trying to achieve i'll try and explain in a little more detail.

I've recently got hold of a 1" 8track and i'm considering the best way to master from it. My latest understanding is that I have a few options- namely:
(a) Master to a separate 2track deck (some say pointless)
(b) Try keep 2tracks spare on the multi-tracker and master to the spare 2 (is this even possible?)
(c) As you described, mixing down from tape to a 2-channel DSD (is PCM shit?)

To give you a little idea of the sound we're hoping to ultimately achieve, rather than a pure audiophile 2" 8-track 30ips kinda crystal sound- we're thinking more early Columbia Dylan & Nick Drake. We know with the right pre-amps/mics/room/micin' etc that we'll be able to achieve a more than decent sound but i'm as yet unaware as to the best way to master...given that the songs will eventually be ending up on CDs anyway.

If you could offer any further advice, I would be very grateful,
Regards, Sean
 
I'm still under the impression that we're mixing - not mastering... Am I wrong in that?

Assuming we're talking about mastering - I don't know what to tell you. Doesn't really make any sense.

Assuming we're talking about mixing - I'm still in the dark about if you're tracking to the 1" deck. If that's the case, then mix to whatever you want, have the mastering guy bring it to the chosen replication medium. If you're mixing digitally and you want to sum to tape and then stem it out, that's fine also. If you want to mix TO 1" 8-track and then find a mastering engineer somewhere that will run from stems who also happens to have a 1" 8-track deck, you'll probably be looking for quite some time. If you're tracking to 1" and you want to sum it down to 2, you can either invest a small fortune in a 1/2" 2-track deck, or a much smaller fortune into a Tascam DVRA-1000 or the new Korg (2000?) DSD recorder. Not that I'm not a big fan of mixing to tape - But I'm a much bigger fan of tracking to tape.
 
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You are not wrong and I apologise mate- a lapse of the grey stuff!
I'm looking to mix down (not master!) from a 1" 8track and i'm largely ignorant to the merits and pitfalls of choosing one method over another.
 
Seanyworny said:
You are not wrong and I apologise mate- a lapse of the grey stuff!
I'm looking to mix down (not master!) from a 1" 8track and i'm largely ignorant to the merits and pitfalls of choosing one method over another.
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The next question is what to use to actually perform the mixing. It's not - or at least shouldn't be -a simple matter of mashing your 8 tracks of tracking together into two tracks, whatever the medium. You'll want/need to adjust individual track levels, not just in general, but also provide at least some modicum of "fader jockying". And, while not necessarily 100% necessary, it's more than likely you'll want at least some degree of control over EQ, dynamics and reverberation.

Do you have an analog mixing desk or summing board, or a digital audio workstation of some type - or a preference either way?

G.
 
Hey Glen,

No i'm yet to purchase my board- I've a couple in the house but nothing that's good enough for what I'm after- just cheap old rubbish. As yet I've no idea to what my preference would be- I was just trying to take it one step at a time and begin by trying to get some info about my multi-tracker and then mix-down. Nevertheless, you're certainly right to point out that I'm gonna need a decent board to mix/fade/equalize with etc.

As yet therefore I have no preference between an analogue/digital mixer and I'm open minded and naive as to what to use. After tracking to tape, is it not necessarily beneficial to stay analogue? And are there any desks that you'd recommend given the recorded examples that i've outlined I would like to somewhat emulate if possible.

Best regards,
Sean
 
Seanyworny said:
After tracking to tape, is it not necessarily beneficial to stay analogue?
Click to expand...
Ask 5 different guys and you'll probably get 7 different answers to that ;) (and I welcome others to add their two shekels to the pot).

IMHO/IME, I think the most important stage for analog tape is in the tracking. Get the source on analog and you're halfway home. Plus it's much better than to start digital and then try to "warm up" the results by mastering to analog. Would it be best to go analog all the way? There are pluses and minuses to that. What I love about digital is the flexibility and ability you have in mixing and editing (at low cost as well). As I just mentioned in another thread in a perfect world (when I get the budget to do it) I'd run a hybrid system that tracked everything to analog, get some A-list converters and clocking, edit/rough mix in digital, and then do my final mix through an analog summing board.

But that's only one opinion and one way to skin the cat.
Seanyworny said:
And are there any desks that you'd recommend given the recorded examples that i've outlined I would like to somewhat emulate if possible.
Click to expand...
If you'd like OEM stuff, I'd search the used market for refurbished classic boards. Blevins Audio is a nice source for these, but there are others as well.

If you don't want to mess with/worry about older gear that may or may not have a lot of legs left in them, for a brand new board I'd take a serious look at the new series from Toft Audio Design, which are brand new boards designed by the guy who designed the original Trident boards. the Toft boards don't sound exacty like vintage Tridents - but then again, neither do most vintage Tridents. But they are very true to that good ol' analog sound and Trident-style EQ.

G.
 
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