Tape vs digital with a new song

[FrankD77]

Don't get me wrong I love digital.
I love plugins, but I do prefer the old vintage FX gear and tube amps so why not use both

For storage I was brought up on tape, in the studio we used 8 tracks recorders, a disaster with calibrations and tape wore out, but it sounded awesome (well what I remember).
I tried some things with old reel2reel tapes but they sounded more lo-fi than lo-fi should.
A S-VHS tape did something great, but that was more in the range of great for sound quality but it doesn't add anything.

So when my wife stumbled on my old Yamaha KX630, which we though sold years ago. I decided to clean the heads, get a c90 tape and try something different.

I didn't want it to be a "here is the same version on both".
Digital will probably win from a C90 cassette.
But what if....

Start with a RAW file.
One version using the mastering tool from Logic Pro and just save it like I would normally with only very small adjustments.
And dump the RAW file to tape, and route it back via on old IntellifexII (yes from Behringer) and than run the same mastering tool in logic.
Of course you would get two completely different mixes, but which one would I prefer....

And which one do you ?
Which one do you think is digital and which one is tape.

Something completely different - Frank Doorhof

Just for fun something completely different today, how does a recording sound on tape vs digital.... it's different that's for sure.

frankdoorhof.com

I do link to my photography website because I can store the WAV files there, it's not meant as advertising or whatever, Music is my hobby/passion and I share regularly on the blog about it.
If it's not allowed feel free to remove my post.

 

[Papanate]

The second one sounds like Logic to me.

 

[FrankD77]

Ps you can always pm me for the answer.

 

[TascamJimi]

Another one of those posts where I'm supposed to be listening to the recording and after 30 seconds I'm digging the music and forgetting my ' critical' thinking cap !! To my ears the second is obviously digital, but who cares the material is great !!! You got a killer guitar sound on there !!!
I have an old Sony D-6C that I used to record 100's of live shows throughout the 80-90's before going digital in my taping rig. I might have to dig that out for a similar experiment !! I used to love that thing, but tape flips mid show always sucked !!! :O)

 

[TalismanRich]

I'm with PapaNate here. The second one sounds like the digital mix. The first one sounds like the upper frequencies are down, which gives the impression of lots more bottom if you get the volumes more equal. That makes it sound warm and fat. and everyone knows that warm and fat is the way, right? (not necessarily my preference). It also doesn't have the distinct separation that the second one does, which tape tends to do since the crosstalk is always lower than digital.

As I'm 400 miles from home, I only have some Sony Earbuds to use for judging, but it sounds pretty distinct to me.

 

[TalismanRich]

Don't get me wrong I love digital.
I love plugins, but I do prefer the old vintage FX gear and tube amps so why not use both

For storage I was brought up on tape, in the studio we used 8 tracks recorders, a disaster with calibrations and tape wore out, but it sounded awesome (well what I remember).
I tried some things with old reel2reel tapes but they sounded more lo-fi than lo-fi should.
A S-VHS tape did something great, but that was more in the range of great for sound quality but it doesn't add anything.

The problem I had with tape was that as a storage medium is was "one shot", and I'm not even thinking of sticky shed problems. I had several cases of tapes in the basement when the water came up about 18 inches. All of those boxes were lost, along with the content. Since then, things that were not ruined have been transferred to digital, and I've got multiple copies in different places. I also had boxes of 35mm slides that were totally ruined.

 

[FrankD77]

Thanks for the replies.
I personally prefer number 1 which is the tape.

The thing that surprised me is that both were done with the mastering tool in logic and i adjusted from there like I would normally do. I expected some highs en lows but i actually like the guitars better on the tape.

I have to say the intellifexII made a pretty big impact in the low frequenties and spread.

Think I'm going to hunt for some better tapes

 

[RFR]

I like #1
For some reason the drums sound better. But that aside, #1 is more pleasing to my ear overall.

Same mix on both versions? I think #2 is the digital.

 

[FrankD77]

Same mix only difference is the intellifexII and mastering (logic owns mastering with on both very minor adjustments)

Both were normalized during export. So that one i will check as soon as I have the time