The best of both worlds.

D

Dark Fader

New member
I've got a digital setup now running off of my computer. Great for hassle-free clean audio and GREAT editing. BUT...
I recently had a punk rock band in my studio. The recorded guitar sound was never quite right. It just sounded digital, you know? Really harsh, not like the sound coming from his amp. Anyway, for that and other reasons, i've decided to look into adding an analog deck to my setup.
Before you stone me for mentioning the A-word in a digital forum, remember, i'm not ditching digital. I want both.
I guess i'm just curious if anyone has ever had experience with synching up an analog 8-track or similar device to a computer-based digital system. I posted in the analog only forum, and they don't know much about digital or computers. My guy at sam ash says that I should be able to do it with MMC (Master Machine Control) but i think i might hafta buy some external sync card or something... Ah confusing. One of the decks i'm looking at i know has a sync connector... but again i don't know about how to actually sync things up. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or knows anything or can point me in the right direction, i'd appreciate it. Seems like you are either all analog or all digital on the lower end of the market these days, but a lot of the big boys use a hybrid of some sort. Wish me luck. Thanks everyone.
 
You'd need a sync box like a JL Cooper or Tascam (they used to make one). You'd lose one track on the analog deck because you have to stripe one with SMPTE time code.
I'm not trying to talk you in or out of anything here but if your recordings don't sound the way you want them to, there's something wrong. Either mic choice or preamp choice or something else. The digital "sound" is a myth. I'm curious, what mic/preamp and what's your set up?
 
I would beg to differ with the "digital sound myth." The beginnings of rock were recorded analog because there was no digital then. Part of the rock sound is a distorted guitar amp pushing tape hard. That's what i was looking for. Of course, that doesn't work for all situations and whatnot, but its another color to add to your palette. AND... CDs (and most home recording setups) use a 44.1khz sampling rate - which will max out your frequency response at 22.05khz, because you need to sample both the trough and the peak of the wave. Lets assume that I play a 22.05 khz sine wave tone and record it digitally. Lets also assume that the peaks and troughs are lined up to the samples of the digital audio, so one sample per peak and one per trough. What the actually gets stored on your hard drive or whatever medium you are using is one point up and one point down... basically a square wave if you don't dither it. Not the most accurate representation of the original. Now lets assume that the peaks and the troughs don't line up with the samples of the ADC. The tone is either much quiter or even non-existant, depending on where the ADC samples it. So with very high frequencies, most digital will probobly have a harsher sound, and less of it. Those high frequencies are where you get your "air" and "openness" of your sound. This is a pretty well known thing, and is really why people are starting to use 96khz instead now. And there is also a theory related to this about why people like bass.... in a digital medium, the low-frequency waveforms are much more accurately described and much smoother than the highs. Its an interesting theory whether you subscribe to it or not. Anyway, i don't mean to get into an argument about digital versus analog, i'm just saying that i want another tone color to play with. thanks for the info on the sync box, though. Should help a lot!
 
he he this isn't going to help my case either. I miked the amp with a sm57 (standard) straight into a mackie vlz mixer. the sound was actually pretty good, i just wanted something else.
 
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