Running a digital desk in to Tape machine (advice)

[dojo]

Hi all,

I currently have an old Eurodesk 3208 (behringer) - I know they're regarded as rubbish.

Im upgrading my laptop soon (which I use to do day to day recording) and I was thinking about getting a digital desk that also had some direct channel outs or bus outputs and using that to run in to the E-16.

It would hopefully allow me to get a smaller desk and maybe clear out my patch pays and outboard gear (use inbuilt compression on desk??) with the idea of still being able to hit the tape hard.

Is this viable or will the digidesk and inbuilt compression sound horrible??

ALso I'm about to suggest something horrible, but how about recording straight onto the Mac - a really clean sound, then recoring onto the E-16 to get tape sound on mix down??

It would be far more portable just dont want to lose organic sound!!

thanks in advance

 

[miroslav]

Also I'm about to suggest something horrible, but how about recording straight onto the Mac - a really clean sound, then recording onto the E-16 to get tape sound on mix down??

It would be far more portable just don't want to lose organic sound!!

The E-16 is not really a mixdown deck (though I guess you could just use two of its tracks).

Here's the deal (and that's mostly my own opinion)....
To really get that "organic" sound and some favorable benefit out of tape....you would want to track to tape first, then dump to the DAW.
Yes, people have gone to DAW first and then brought out some tracks to hit some tape...but it's kinda of an afterthought when you do it that way.

I guess a lot of it will have to do with your SOP.
Is it just you playing/recording....or are you doing full bands?
Do you really want to work with analog audio...or is digital more friendlier to you overall, and you just want be able touch some tape for pure effect, but without the whole tape recording SOP?

Just scrubbing some tracks from a DAW out to tape is not going to really leave you with any "Oh Wow!" impressions, so you want to consider what you are shooting for and what you willing to do to get it before ending up with some rig that is more a waste than a benefit.

There is a recent thread in this Analog Forum about Digital VS Analog mixers....read it.

 

[Chilljam]

Recording to the Fostex through a digital mixer won't sound bad, it will still sound distinctively tape-y. But I ask what is the benefit to you in recording to Mac first then to the tape machine? Is it because you want a smaller set-up when tracking?

You probably shouldn't mixdown to the E16 because it's a 16 track 1/2" machine. Usually people mixdown to 1/4" 2 track tape.

Sounds like you already have outboard gear, maybe if you don't want to complicate the tracking process too much you can just get an analog mixing desk and use that with the Fostex E16 and only use the outboard gear when mixing/mastering.

Otherwise I would probably just try using the Eurodesk with the tape machine and see how that sounds comparing the on board effects with your hardware ones.

 

[miroslav]

Recording to the Fostex through a digital mixer won't sound bad, it will still sound distinctively tape-y.

Yeah...but he's going to be adding extra conversions.

Digital mixer ---> tape deck ---> Digital mixer or DAW ----> mixdown to tape deck ----> tape stereo mix back to DAW for final CD files.

 

[Chilljam]

Yeah...but he's going to be adding extra conversions.

Digital mixer ---> tape deck ---> Digital mixer or DAW ----> mixdown to tape deck ----> tape stereo mix back to DAW for final CD files.

Yeah, that's about 2 A/D conversions more than anyone in the Analog forum could possibly get away with.

I would suggest skipping the mixdown to tape and just go from digital mixer --> Fostex E16 --> DAW, especially if you don't have a 2 track tape machine.

 

[dojo]

Ok, thanks for the reply guys.

I should probably explain my situation /dilemma in more detail.

I use my laptop for recording students projects at school and pre recording a weekly radio show I do. (I also use it for putting down ideas etc)

Carting around a tape machine and desk is not viable

The tape machine is used for recording my own projects/original bands, where getting an authentic sound is key: saturating the tape and getting big crunchy drums. (think early daptone sounds)

The problem I have is that bringing a full band to my place makes me a bit unpopular and I'm not a fan of moving the E16 when I don't have to.

I was wondering if in could upgrade the desk and have a desk that could usb link into laptop.

I could save space and take laptop out to record source sounds the come back and mix at my desk at my own lesuire.

I don't think that a mid range desk will allow me to do all this any (with a small footprint)

Thanks again