Some years ago on this forum we discussed a possible multitrack machine using a standard VHS cassette running at say 3.75ips. It would have been relatively cheap to make as a standard VHS deck could be used as the basis for it, with the rotary head drum absent and stationary multitrack heads instead.
As far as I know such a machine has never seen the light of day although there was a similar Akai machine using a non standard cassette a bit like a Beta videocassette.
Many on this forum swear by analog tape because of its warm distortions but that doesnt necessarily apply to other analog means such as optical or mechanical. It's the combination of magnetic tape and analog that gives you the (sometimes) pleasant distortion.
One of the problems with any "analog" system is that noise is also analog. We went to FM encoding of radio signals to reduce analog noise in AM radio.
Even back when analog tape was all there was, the weak link was the noise of analog tape recording system. The microphones and preamps of the day (even though they were totally analog too) had far less self-noise than the analog tape recording system which captured them. In the early days of digital recording, tape was the obvious recording medium as hard drives were still in a state of infancy. The noise levels came down and without Noise Reduction, simply because they were now encoding the tape in digits.
I read of home recording guys who have been using digital. When they try analog tape they often complain of the noise, as they are used to far less recorder noise. When told that when analog was king, professionals used Noise Reduction, with all its extra complications, they often ask, "why did it have to be so complicated?" The answer is that it had to be that complicated to get recorder noise levels down to acceptable levels, especially with multitracks where wider tracks made for increased machine and tape costs.
By its very nature, recording direct with analog, with no coding, is noisy. Magnetic tape just happens to be perhaps the quietest analog recording system developed, but it's still noisy compared to the program (the source) you are recording. In trying to fix this, we reach the law of diminishing returns.
I just read the thread from the guy wanting his 16 track Fostex tapes transferred to digital and the link to Sonicraft. Just look at the time and money that Sonicraft guy has invested in his company. And for what purpose? To make new recordings to analog tape. No, to achieve the best possible playback of legacy analog master tapes to digital, which is not necessarily an easy task and can require great skill.
The guy has all sorts of legacy multitrack format analog tape machines in often better than original condition. For him it's a job worth worth doing because people pay him to remaster legacy analog tapes to digital.
To me that's mostly the future of multitrack analog tape machines - in a facility like his, used solely for playback. The value is in the recordings themselves. Coming from that era, of course they were recorded onto multitrack analog tape.
Tim
