Why do you record in analogue?

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James K

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So,
thought I'd ask people for their reasons why they record in analogue. Here are mine:

(these are my opinions not facts)

1.It sounds better
2.It's easier to work with
3.It's easier to mix with (you don't need as much processing on the tracks to make them sound nice)
4.It works in a more predictable way than a computer (no random, unexplainable errors)
5.It's not as distracting as a computer, there are no waves etc. on the screen. I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
6.It looks and feels cool to work with ;)

so, what are your reasons?
 
sorry, I meant to post this in Analogue only. Could a mod move it?

Thanks
 
5.It's not as distracting as a computer, there are no waves etc. on the screen. I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
Click to expand...
That's actually probably the biggest point (and why I rarely ever look at meters & displays unless my intent is to check or confirm calibration).
 
I'd say some people record in analogue because they can... they have the gear, which still works and can be used in the hands of an expert to produce great music....

I don't have the gear, so I can't.
 
I still use analog because I have a load of songs that I'm mixing/finishing off from my Tascam 488. Once they're out of the way, I'm done with analogue.
It's what was there when I began recording. I've long been a tape guy. But in truth, if my 12 track DAW had been around in '92, it's what I would have gone with.
 
There's lots of opinions but a popular one is that analog "sound" has not yet been recreated in the digital world.
 
James K said:
So,
thought I'd ask people for their reasons why they record in analogue.
Click to expand...

I don't record analogue - too much distortion.

I ditched analogue tape back in 1983 - too noisy, too much distortion and too much trouble.

For the last 5 years I have been recording mostly with digital microphones to remove as much analogue from the chain as possible.

The sound is made by the best choice of microphones and putting them in the right place.
 
I agree with MM, point 5 is a good one.
Another point is that in analogue you generally have a much more limited amount of recording time available on tape than you would with a pro tools rig. Often a tape can be half an hour long, so if you want to get 4-5 songs onto it then you can only get one or two takes of each song, so you have to be discerning.
You also have to record "destructively" in this case, which means if you want to re-do a guitar part then you literally overwrite the previous guitar part of that take, or find an entirely new channel to record it on. You make a decision: "is that last performance as good as it's going to get? If so, great, if not, let's do it again!" Unless you digitize it all afterwards, you cant easily pick and choose between two different guitar parts on different takes because they are physically separate on the tape.

All this changes the way the session is run, and hence the way the musicians play. Generally it encourages more of a complete performance from each musician, and it can give you incredible results.

Of course if the musicians are not good enough to give you complete takes, well then you've screwed anyway ;)
 
The thread has been moved to the relative safety of the 'Analog Only' forum, where you may not get as many contrary responses.

But . . . just for the record, I record in digital because:

1.It sounds better
2.It's easier to work with
3.It's easier to mix with (you have so many choices on how you can make tracks sound nice)
4.It works in a more predictable way than tape (you don't get dropouts, tape stretch, tape hiss)
5.It's not as distracting as tape (there are no mechanical tape machines to mess with). I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
6.It looks and feels cool to work with
 
gecko zzed said:
The thread has been moved to the relative safety of the 'Analog Only' forum, where you may not get as many contrary responses.

But . . . just for the record, I record in digital because:

1.It sounds better
2.It's easier to work with
3.It's easier to mix with (you have so many choices on how you can make tracks sound nice)
4.It works in a more predictable way than tape (you don't get dropouts, tape stretch, tape hiss)
5.It's not as distracting as tape (there are no mechanical tape machines to mess with). I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
6.It looks and feels cool to work with
Click to expand...

Well, I can't disagree with that. Like I said, opinions :)
 
One thing that attracts me to analog recording is the robustness and relative permanence of the recording media. I recently spooled up a tape I recorded over 13 years ago and it played just fine... some digital tapes from that same time period are already dead and unplayable. And computers? What will the format of digital recording be 20 years from now? Will my .wav files still play? MP3s? Will the old hard drives and CDRs they're stored on still function? The mechanical nature of hard drives means, they're destined to fail eventually, and who knows how long a CDR or DVDR will really last. It's already becoming rare to find new quality motherboards with IDE channels on them... think of all those IDE drives out there with your music on it. And SCSI! As computers move on, the old formats die and quickly get replaced by things that aren't necessarily backwards compatible. Plus, if you're put in a position of needing to refurbish/rebuild an old computer 20 years from now just to be able to play some old music files, you'll likely be in a tough position if you require some odd chip that's no longer available or able to be remanufactured. In comparison, fixing up an old tape machine or turntable is relatively easy and requires only a minimal amount of knowledge or special tools.

I want to be able to spool up a reel of my music 40 years from now when I'm an old man and be able to listen to it. With analog, I am assured of that possibility.
 
While I agree with the post above that archiving is a big problem with digital formats, keeping analog decks together going forward is not going to be a picnic, either.
 
I record analog because the workflow, the handling of materials, the hands-on way of doing things and honestly because the music I make can't be made any other way.

Experimental music, made in the digital domain, just sounds too cold and soulless. I don't like "straight lines" in music, if that makes any sense, and the miniscule amount of 'slop' introduced by tens of hand-edits and tape loops really opens up my music and lets it breathe. The analog production workflow is such a part of the way I make music that the two can't be separated.
 
James K said:
So,
thought I'd ask people for their reasons why they record in analogue. Here are mine:

(these are my opinions not facts)

1.It sounds better
2.It's easier to work with
3.It's easier to mix with (you don't need as much processing on the tracks to make them sound nice)
4.It works in a more predictable way than a computer (no random, unexplainable errors)
5.It's not as distracting as a computer, there are no waves etc. on the screen. I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
6.It looks and feels cool to work with ;)

so, what are your reasons?
Click to expand...

All these same reasons. Plus I tried digital for six years and I spent the whole time trying to make it sound better, like tape. There may be better processors out there compared to what I used but I'm not going to bother wasting my time and money on it as long as I can find good tape decks to record to.
 
lo.fi.love said:
I record analog because the workflow, the handling of materials, the hands-on way of doing things and honestly because the music I make can't be made any other way.

Experimental music, made in the digital domain, just sounds too cold and soulless. I don't like "straight lines" in music, if that makes any sense, and the miniscule amount of 'slop' introduced by tens of hand-edits and tape loops really opens up my music and lets it breathe. The analog production workflow is such a part of the way I make music that the two can't be separated.
Click to expand...


I feel the exact same way.
Analog is about the process of Recording, not the sound it gives so much.
We see all of this Analog-emulation plugins which are supposed to make
the music "warmer", but the warmth is in the performance and the
working with music hands-on in "real life". It's like painting a picture with paintbrushes
and painting a picture in Photoshop.
There is a certain feeling that spinning Reels and someone saying "rolling"
that gives off the sense that music is actually "happening" and being physically documented.
Seeing the little bar moving across the freq graph doesn't give the same feeling so much.
 
A little while back, my friend was having a lot of trouble getting his Recordings
to sound good. He was working in Cubase. Anyways, I thought I would share
my knowledge in the analog domain to help him out a bit.
I could not get a good sound for the life of me!
Applying what I do on Tape and a Console did NOT yield
the same result. It was very different.
I don't know if it was because of the program.
But it was so tedious and hard to get through all the
mush to do one thing. Digital to me is not more convenient.
The only thing about digital that is nicer is not having 2 million cables.
Analog is straightforward, easier, sounds better, and MORE FUN!
Getting behind the Console to patch in a bunch of Cables is part of the fun.
You need to know what you are doing.
Most people in Digital do not know how to actually put Effects
onto the track they are working on. They just know to right click
and hit "Fairchild-Compressor".
They don't know how signal flow works.
Where things go out and back in. It's a shame really.
 
gecko zzed said:
The thread has been moved to the relative safety of the 'Analog Only' forum, where you may not get as many contrary responses.

But . . . just for the record, I record in digital because:

1.It sounds better
2.It's easier to work with
3.It's easier to mix with (you have so many choices on how you can make tracks sound nice)
4.It works in a more predictable way than tape (you don't get dropouts, tape stretch, tape hiss)
5.It's not as distracting as tape (there are no mechanical tape machines to mess with). I feel it allows you to focus more on the music and isn't intrusive.
6.It looks and feels cool to work with
Click to expand...

Could this "just for for the record" note be moved back where it came from? Pleeeeeease!!!!?
:drunk::D

also,
...just for the record:

1. One man's meat is another man's poison.
2. Someone for whom recording music is WORK should not do it at HOME.
3. Choices always make life more complicated and never make it easier.
4. Having errors when working with digital equipment is pretty predictable.
Dropouts, tape stretch and tape hiss - are the indications of presence of a not-so-knowing-how recordist in the house.
5. One who gets "distracted" by images on a computer screen can always hang a towel over it.
One who gets "distracted" by dealing with recorers and recording media should not record himself but instead ask somebody else to do it for him.
6. I prefer stuff that looks and feels hot. I guess it's because I don't really WORK with this stuff.

;)
 
IMO Analog is much more demanding performance wise (limited tracks, limited space on tape, do-overs are more problematic) yet much more forgiving transcription wise (no 0dBFS) which to me makes it more musical if that makes sense.

That is my philosophical rant.
 
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