Which 8 Track?

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Frank Booth

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Hey im lookin at buyin a reel-to-reel 8 track that uses 1/4 inch tape but I dont know which one to get fostex?tascam?other? Im willin to spend around 500 clams for it but not much more.Everyones tryin to talk me into gettin a digital machine and usin my 3340s(when I fix it) to mix down to or the other way around.So far Ive resisted the urge. I need help finding a good reel-to-reel machine before I give up and buy some cold heartless unfeelin digital recorder. THANKS FRANK BOOTH
 
Frank, Frank, Frank. What can I say. Cold unfeeling digital? That sir is a myth. If you're looking for tape compression, 1/4' isn't going to do it. All's you'll get is tape hiss. If you have $500 burning a hole in your pocket and you wanted 8 tracks, pick up a used ADAT. That's about what they're going for and it'll do a WAY better job than 1/4'' 8 track. What ever you had in mind for a front end (a mixer, stand alone mic pre's) will sound better there, IMHO. Now if you can find an old 1" Studer or something like that, well that's different.
 
ADATS?

I've never liked Adats they sound cold and harsh to me.The first time I used them was in a "real" studio that had good mics,good pre-amps,a good board and a bunch of other equipment.I only produced the band there was an engineer to run the board and do the actual recording maby it was his fault but I didn't like how it sounded at all.Maby I should give them another try cause I've heard good recordings from adats I just dont know how they did it(o yea the band had good equipment and could play too)
 
If someone can't get a good sound out of an ADAT, it's not because of the ADAT - they simply don't know what they're doing!

You can get excellent results with an ADAT if you send it a signal worth recording in the first place! Garbage in, garbage out....

And there is no longer any truth to the myth of of "cold digital" - with good converters the recorder is taken out of the equation -- meaning it's up to engineering skills whether it sounds good or not.

Bruce
 
I thought this was the analog forum?I guess there aren't any good analog 8 tracks out there?So how bout the roland vsr880-hd anybody used one?I could plug my analog board right into it and there'er only bout 500 bucks new.Adats are way over priced and you can't smoke around them what good is that?
 
This IS the analog forum - we were simply dispeling your digital myth remarks.......

The truth is, for the most part, the digital multitrackers will outperform budget analog multitracks by a considerable margin.

You could look into a used reel-to-reel - the old A8s and the like were quite usable, but even so, for convenience, the digital stuff gives you the most bang for your buck.

Obviously, however, budget digital will have poorer quality converters overall, and as such arguably may not even approach the quality of the ADAT 20-bit units......

BTW, 1/4 8-track is going to be fairly noisy - that and the lack of wow and flutter is definitely where digital shines at the budget end.

If all you plan on doing is demos and scratchpad/songwriting stuff, you'll be fine, but for more serious work, none of the budget stuff is going to cut it - either analog OR digital....

Bruce
 
Yeah, I'll second that! The TSR-8 is an excellent machine. You can get great sounding results with a little care and patience. 1/4" 8-track might be a little too noisy for serious work, especially if you're planning to bounce tracks and all. Go for the 1/2" format.
 
I would luv to get a 1/2 inch machine but im poor and I dont think I could afford to buy 1/2 inch tape its bout 50 bucks 1/4 inch tape is only bout 10 bucks Im not tryin to do any commercial releases or any "serious" recording im just havin fun and anyway I can allready get a better sound then alot of the punk rock albums that I listend to when I was a kid had so im not worried bout a little tape hiss
 
Look for a Fostex A-8. Might be just what you want. Something else you might want to concider is a Tascam 238 syncassette. I still have one that I got started in the basement with. They sound pretty good all things concidered and you can find them for $300 or so.
 
Re: ADATS?

Frank Booth said:
I've never liked Adats they sound cold and harsh to me.The first time I used them was in a "real" studio that had good mics,good pre-amps,a good board and a bunch of other equipment.I only produced the band there was an engineer to run the board and do the actual recording maby it was his fault but I didn't like how it sounded at all.Maby I should give them another try cause I've heard good recordings from adats I just dont know how they did it(o yea the band had good equipment and could play too)
Click to expand...

Man, you must be on drugs!!! ADAT'S RUUUUUUULE!!!!!!!!!
 
Reel to What???

Frank, not to offend, but you've really gotta seriously look at going digital. I was a die hard reel to reel user for the longest time, I'm turning 51 soon. Made the switch to digital and can never go back. Like Blue Bear Sound said, it's not the device, but the user. Don't be scared, sure there's a lot to learn and it's a whole different head-set, but try it, before knocking it. You can go full scale, computer, software, the whole nine yards, or set your sights slightly smaller.
I'm utilizing twin D8's. The Korgs are a very friendly unit. Granted Roland's VS series are incredible for sound, but I honestly couldn't stand the manuals, and they tended, at least to me they did, to assume you're a rocket scientist from the word go. Again, don't be scared. Find a system to YOUR liking, not what someone tells you is best, after all, you're the making the music with it, not them...right??? Good Luck in whatever you choose..
http://sh-boom.freehomepage.com/index.html
 
If you can spring for 1/2" tape, look at the Otari MX-5050 decks. Well set up, these are some of the better sounding, most solid narrow gauge analog machines ever made. The last generation of Fostex and Tascam open real multitracks sounded pretty damn good, but they are two head machines, which means they absolutely suck to allign. And if you find a 1" 8 track you can afford (Ampex, Scully, Otari, and MCI are the likely manufacturers), and which you can budget initial maintenance for, I'd suggest you get it while you can.

Bear
 
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