The days of Analog are coming to an end

  • Thread starter Thread starter Krakit
  • Start date Start date
Krakit said:


I think it won't be long now before tape cassette as a recording medium goes the way of the vinyl record.


Carl
Click to expand...

You mean companies will be selling custom machines made from machined billet steel and glass, selling them for $10K and people will be hording old, clean cassettes?:D
 
Well I see it like this. Taking my analog tape recorders away would be like trying to take my guns. It ain't gonna happen any time soon. I'll be persuaded to give up my 3 potastudios when some of these engineers pull their heads out of there asses and make a hard disk recorder as rugged and versitile as a casset 4 track recorder. To be honest it's a bitch to record a live gig on a hard disk. Just try recording a set then go on break come back and get it Q-ed. With a tape deck just load up a new tape, punch the record button and your good to go. If a tape bounces off the floor it usually isn't turn to toast but what happens to a hard disk? I hate to think about that .. All of that work inside and now I can't get to it!!! such a nite mare. Yup I'm not trusting my live recordings to a HD recorder..
 
Gizzely,
That's what Smart Cards, Zip Drives, Memory Sticks, Orbs, CDR's, MiniDisks and Jaz's are for.

Carl
 
Days of Analog are coming to an end

I think it's true that digital is rapidly becoming the mainstream form of home recording simply because of the cost to channel ratio and also because of the ease of use (instant access and such). BUT-- there will always be analog because actual sound is analog. The idea that digital is perfect and always better than analog is not true. There are some things each format does better than the other. That's why vinyl, though no longer main stream is not dead and shows little sign of totally dying off. As a vinylphile myself, I can tell you that something like 50 percent of everything that comes out is still available in vinyl and although they usually press only 30 to 40,000 of a pressing; they mostly sell out. I often(not always) prefer vinyl to 16-bit CD for real reasons that I'm sure I could show you if we were together. I'm not saying you would run out and buy a bunch of records. I'm just saying that you would hear the difference and even prefer the vinyl yourself in some instances. That being said, I think you're right and the days of cassettes and even DAT are numbered.
 
I have over one thousand records in my collection (vinyl).

I don't think they are superiour to CD.

Just my opinion.

Carl
 
For me, convenience is just as big a part of new technology as quality. When the quality difference between two formats or pieces of gear is small but one is much easier to use I'll go for easy every time.

When you record your own stuff it's a lot easier to just start a new song on a DAW then it is to grab some new tape and string it up, stripe the SMPTE, lay the click track, damn, I forgot what I was going to record already ;)

When you want to play the multi tracks for somebody who has stopped by it's a lot easier to load up a session than pull out the tape and reset the board, tweak the effects, blah, blah.
 
supply & demand can be a strange thing. in this case, superior sounding technology was cast off because it was more expensive to make. for example, Betamax is much better than VHS but it lost the fight since it was shorter and a little more expensive to make and the VHS folks successfully flooded the market. remember 8-track tapes? well, they are better than cassettes but the cost of the machines & tapes were not comparable to the profit yield of the lesser, lighter, cheaper cousin, the audiocassette. vinyl is still around because of the insistence of folks who buy vinyl, be it for the sound or as part of a subculture. spinning CDs is just not the same as spinning a record. hell, because of the willingness of consumers to pay exorbitant prices for vinyl (it started costing the same as compact discs once CDs surpassed vinyl in sales back in the late 80s/early 90s) which is silly since it costs next to nothing to make vinyl but that is pretty much true of discs too. if you wanted to truly go with an analog sound that has incredible fidelity but needs really good amplification, you could go back to wire recording. just a thought.

go analog! :D
 
My father has a wire recorder, it SUCKS!!!

8 track better than cassette? Perhaps in fidelity, but you can't rewind these things and they all break eventually (the edit tape that joins the loop loses its adhesive).

Carl
 
Personally,I have a 16 track fostex 1/2" analog deck and 8 tracks of adat xt20.I've just recently started recording a few locals bands
and I've always given them the choice between digital or analog and suprisingly most of them decided to go with analog.I would imagine it's partially due to the fact that I've got 16 analog versus
8 digital but there's something about analog/old school that justifies the higher costs associated with analog tape.I have found by having a reel to reel in my studio I'm attracting clients based on that fact and there willing to pay the extra costs associated with it.... :D
 
Maybe, but I just like my TASCAM better. Twiggling real knobs is 100 times better than pointing your mouse cursur over an animated knob. Analog forever!
Dirk Demon
 
My first tape unit was an Akai 4000DS (Sound on Sound). This was followed by a Fostex X-18 4 track cassette. Occasionally I'll give a listen to some of the material I did on these first units. Granted the sound quality from my equipment today is so much better, but I think it's more an appreciation of the experience than anything else. I'd love to take some of the newer home recording enthusiasts, park them behind an old Teac 3440 and say "go for it".
Todays "I'll do it all for ya" programs and software, to me at least have taken a lot of the learning experience out of the formula. I'll always remember my early systems and will always have a better appreciation for the knowledge learned through their use.
Just my thots...:rolleyes:
 
Boooooooo!!!!!

Hisssssssssss............!!!

LOL

On the "serious" side...I do think some things - especially drums sound better on tape...

Too bad I'm all digital...

zip >>
 
The days of analog will not come to an end until the day when we can hear digitally. And that will never happen!

Come on folks, this is the stupidest argument ever. Without a digital-to-analog converter at the end of your signal chain, it's just a bunch of useless bits.
 
OK OK I can see that this thred is very interresting. The pro's and cons of analog vs digital. But I feel it is time to put this thred to rest. All that I ment to say was digital recording systems in the live recording gig is very difficult to use effectively. The analog system that I personnally use is more dependable in MY estimation. Granted I have to use the DBX noise reduction to get rid of the tape hissss but that is a small trade off for the type of recording that I do. I primarily do live jam type shows at local bars. I don't have the oppertunity to do over dubs and retakes of indivdule tracks so a digital recorder is out out of the equasion for me. Take just one or two minutes to think about this. If we take a 24 track digital recorder with hot swap drives to a bar and say we have an accident like maybe a drive get dropped off of the table we're set up on can the recording be retrieved? I hope so for your sake. If not all of that work is for nothing. But if a cassette TAPE (analog or digital) hits the floor WE are almost guarrenteed that the work is retrievable. The reason that I use analog is the fact that there are extremely many decks around that could be used to get the music off of the tape. I would probably be hard pressed to find a digital deck to get the project done. When it is all said and done analog is not suppior to digital in sound quality. But I live buy the KISS principle. That's (Keep It Simple Stupid) it helps to keep Murphy away from me and my recordings.
 
I agree with Grizzly. My tape unit isn't going anywhere. I love my 4-track. Sure digtal sounds clear but it doen't have soul.

Give me analog or give me death.
 
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