Recording in 90's

  • Thread starter Thread starter EleosFever
  • Start date Start date
buzzard bass said:
Nagra gear is coming up in a home recording forum?
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Of course - Home Recording is not only cheap and nasty gear.

I know many "home recordists" who invest a lot of money and often have better gear than the professionals.

In fact it seems that the broadcasters nowadays are using cheap and nasty consumer gear operated by people who do not know how to use it (you can certainly see it on screen - cr*p sound and cameras focussed on the background instead of the person the face badly lit) and the amateur is using professional and quality gear because he/she is doing it out of love and wants to get the best.
 
John Willett said:
Of course - Home Recording is not only cheap and nasty gear.

I know many "home recordists" who invest a lot of money and often have better gear than the professionals.

In fact it seems that the broadcasters nowadays are using cheap and nasty consumer gear operated by people who do not know how to use it (you can certainly see it on screen - cr*p sound and cameras focussed on the background instead of the person the face badly lit) and the amateur is using professional and quality gear because he/she is doing it out of love and wants to get the best.
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Yes that is the case on our local TV news.
The Newscasters face is out of focus and the background is in focus, I always wondered why...!!!!

YouTube - Upon The Sea
 
A local TV studio that I go to for live/studio gigs is just that! Production room has three large racks that are now empty just has a multi band compressor in it. Kinda sad compared to the days of all the bells and whistles of gear that was thousands of dollars per unit.
 
In early 80's I in a trio that used a Linn Drum and the song files were loaded by a cassette recorder. Then the guy upgraded to some kind of computer - Amiga maybe? So computers were around back then. And he sequenced a bunch of keyboard tracks but I'm not sure how everything was sync'd. And big hair. lots of big hair.
 
leddy said:
The Tascam 246 is pretty heavy, and best acquired locally rather than risk damage in shipping.
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Sounds like the Casio FZ-1 all over again. I bought two, and they were both damaged in shipping. One was even in an Anvil Forge II case. Luckily, I've put a whole one together out of the two.

leddy said:
I have some open reel Tascams, as well as a Nagra IV-S. Tape can be rewarding, but there is a much bigger PIA factor when little problems arise here and there. (My Nagra is rock-solid, but the Tascams need more attention).
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I really just want a straight-ahead cassette recorder with Dolby B/C/HX Pro and normal/chrome/metal tape selector. It doesn't have to be a multitracker.
 
diggy_dude said:
I really just want a straight-ahead cassette recorder with Dolby B/C/HX Pro and normal/chrome/metal tape selector. It doesn't have to be a multitracker.
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Only an hour left, no bids yet, and the starting bid is ridiculously low: Tascam112R

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Only an hour left, no bids yet, and the starting bid is ridiculously low: Tascam112R

G.
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Got my eye on a couple of other deals. One is even more amazing than the Tascam. The other is a Technics with Dolby B only and automatic tape type selection that matches my amps.
 
Got the Tascam for $75. Thanks for the heads up, Glen! :D
 
diggy_dude said:
Got the Tascam for $75. Thanks for the heads up, Glen! :D
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Damn, I should have bought it and sold it to you for $99.

J/K; congratulations! ;) :D

Quite the bargain, I think. One good thing about that unit is there's a pretty dedicated market for it still, and probably will be or a while yet, especially since it looks like the only thing TEAC/TASCAM sells now are either the dual cassette deck or the cassette/CD combo deck, neither of which are as good. You could probably use it for a few years and get your money back on it or more by re-selling it again, if you wanted to. I have the feeling that if that thing popped up in January instead of a week before Christmas, when people are spending their money on themselves instead of on others, that you might not have been so lucky to be the only bidder.

G.
 
I'm going to PM you a link to another auction and tell you why it's a great deal (although you'll probably know as soon as you see it.)
 
EleosFever said:
hello, how they were recording in the old days?
i mean there were no powerful PCs and software.

what gear they used?
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I was just thinking about this and I remembered, the first studio I went in was in 1992. My friend was a singer and used to work with a guy that was Mick Jones of the Clash's cousin. They never used "real" instruments in that studio so it couldn't've been that drastically different to what's around now and he definitely was not using tape. I was a cassette portastudio guy in those days and even then people thought they represented the dark ages.
I still use it now on occasion. And some of my aunties still cook with fire and parafin stoves.
 
grimtraveller said:
Oh yeah. Even multi millionaires sometimes record at home, you know.:D
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It seems to be a source of consternation for some that there are so many pros on what at first glance would appear to be an amateur forum. It is admittedly a little off-putting sometimes when someone offers you advice that doesn't fit into an amateur's budget.

On the bright side, where else can you get the level of professional advice you get here without paying their huge hourly rates? :D
 
grimtraveller said:
Oh yeah. Even multi millionaires sometimes record at home, you know.:D
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Well, no, actually I'd have no idea about that, un-fortune-ately :(.

;)

That's the thing with "home recording" it's reverse-dovetailing in both directions. At the same time, on one tail, more and more folks with $300 and a daydream are getting into home recording; on the other tail, more and more prosumers and pros are also moving from commercial properties to their own home studios of every size from suitcase setups to full behind-the-glass desks, and everything in-between.

For various reasons - most of them bogus - the two sides often resent each other in forums like this.

But no matter which side one is on (most are in the middle somewhere anyway), it usually means that the saying, "it's only home recording" has almost completely lost any meaning it may have ever had to begin with.

But still...Nagra? ;)

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
it usually means that the saying, "it's only home recording" has almost completely lost any meaning it may have ever had to begin with.
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Very true. When I first got involved on the board around this time last year, although I was well aware that many artists had home studios and had had since the 40s {Les Paul recorded with Mary Ford in their garage or something}, they still recorded for labels for the most part and therefore though they may have recorded at home sometimes {like the Stones did at Keith Richards rented home in France for the recording of "Exile on Main Street"}, by and large artists wouldn't've been regarded as home recorders. Getting involved here was a good eye opener for me because as things stand now, all lines are completely blurred. The cross section of homerecorders here is one of the things that makes this board at present such a fascinating 'place'. Recorders of different levels of experience and opinion, full timers, part timers, old timers, young guns, jaded ex pros, enthusiastic amateurs, mixers, live PA'ers, producers, engineers, wannabes, newcomers, the undecided, the....well, you get the idea. Personally, I think the mixture is fantastic, even if it gets somewhat hairy at times.

No offence to bald men and women.
 
I just remembered a Toshiba VCR I bought in 1988 or thereabouts. It could record 14-bit PCM stereo audio on the video tracks. Which was good because it was about useless for watching movies.
 
Don't get me wrong the Nagra is an amazing piece of gear. I'm actually surprised more recorders aren't DC, my Mac computer is, has a large AC-DC transformer with it, DC is much quieter. I know Nagra's home stereo stuff is also DC. The Zoom R16 is DC.
 
Eh, sonny... I remember the invention of magnetic recording tape, when it replaced wire recorders. Then they invented cable TV, so we could get more than one channel. Whippersnappers! How did people record in "the old days"? You got "discovered", and signed a contract, and then you went to a "recording studio". Home recording gear didn't become a reality until the 60's, when good 4-track open reels became available for under $10,000, particularly by Revox. And by the prices of the time, a good reel-to-reel and associated gear cost more than a brand new Chevy. And even if you had the reel-to-reel master, you still had to pay a big label to press it onto *rubber*, because the so-called "unbreakable" vinyl LP wouldn't be invented until the mid-60's. Hey Harvey, do you think we can build a studio at the Nursing Home while we still have some hearing left? "The old days",-my ass.-Richie
 
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