2" reel to reel tape in recording studio

[David Mitchell]

Chris Lord Algae I think. Like the stuff tropical fish eat. He's got a truck load of urei 1176's he says he never adjust. So he has one specially set for bass, one for piano, organ, guitar, about 5 for different vocalist. I find that strange and actually hard to believe. He might as well mix in the box so they will all be the same on every song. I got a 1176LN free plugin that sounds just like the 4 urei hardware units I owned. I also had 2 of the old blue stripes that I got a small fortune for. Don't you just love pulling up a mix you made 10 years ago and everything is still the same? All I can say is What a Way To Live.

[werner althaus]

Chris Lord Algae I think. Like the stuff tropical fish eat. He's got a truck load of urei 1176's he says he never adjust. So he has one specially set for bass, one for piano, organ, guitar, about 5 for different vocalist. I find that strange and actually hard to believe. He might as well mix in the box so they will all be the same on every song. I got a 1176LN free plugin that sounds just like the 4 urei hardware units I owned. I also had 2 of the old blue stripes that I got a small fortune for. Don't you just love pulling up a mix you made 10 years ago and everything is still the same? All I can say is What a Way To Live.

Chris Lord Alge, not Algae
I personally don't get this guy and don't like his mixes at all BUT he works fast and knows exactly what his clients want. Good for him. I usually prefer albums recorded and mixed by the same guy.

[Finis Spier]

I had a four track studio in texas city when that was state of the art the only problem i had was the technology was updating every six months i could not keep up I had sound with sound ability for multiple takes but i found with tape the hiss would build up every time you added sound with sound I was able to cure some of that with dbx but it was fun while it lasted still have all my analog equipment if anybody is insterested in giving that whirl

[b0b]

I play bass in a rock band. We recently recorded an album, mostly live in the studio, onto 2-inch tape. We're really happy with the way it came out, but we knew going in that we weren't going to build it in layers or do much overdubbing. There were 2 full-band sessions with a few vocal harmony overdubs, and 2 smaller sessions where the guitar players fixed things they didn't like.

Afterwords, the engineer did the mastering on his own time and we signed off on it with a couple of minor corrections. All-in-all, the method was cost effective, and the CD sounds plenty good enough for promotional purposes. Here are the initial mixes of the first session, squashed down to MP3 for the internet:

http://wearethecoolers.com/songs-record ... ad-studio/

If we had been going for perfection, I think it would have been much more time-consuming to use tape. You spend a lot of time rewinding and cuing up if you're going for a layered production. But there's no denying that analog recording onto 2-inch tape sounds great if you have a good board and an engineer who knows it well.

[werner althaus]

... But there's no denying that analog recording onto 2-inch tape sounds great if you have a good board and an engineer who knows it well.

I'd add (or repeat myself) that there are vast differences between analog tape machines . A Trident 80B and a Studer 2" are a rather high end setup, no doubt you'd get great recordings if used by capable hands. Tracks sound good to me.

[b0b]

I just realized that we have a page with the whole CD, live to 24-track, 2 inch tape, with just a few overdubs. It was a fun project.

http://wearethecoolers.com/cd-release-nats-scat/

[Godfrey Arthur]

If analog is still being used it's the young people that think old is better.

Hehe, love the old API channel strips etc but a digital DAW is where it's at over tape.

Who wants to go back to linear recording multi track?


But mastering houses still use these.

[Robert Jackson]

All of you make valid points. I think the problem today is not many musicians record together anymore. They build up from a drum track. There is no interaction. At my last session we all recorded together live to digital. The lead vocal and some backups were redone but the track had the energy!

Just my 2 cents

[Godfrey Arthur]

All of you make valid points. I think the problem today is not many musicians record together anymore. They build up from a drum track. There is no interaction. At my last session we all recorded together live to digital. The lead vocal and some backups were redone but the track had the energy!

Just my 2 cents

It's economics.

Many can't afford the expensive suites so hit album drummers like Kenny Aronoff, built his own drum studio so that he could keep working.

He builds tracks for clients and albums are put together that way.

And with drum loops, it's put up or shut up.

Quality and vintage preamps as well as mics are still in demand to go in front of digital.

And yes building tracks from the bottom up is getting to be a science.

But even during tape days, the drums were labored upon getting the right sound sometimes taking weeks in the days of extreme money is no object, I-tracked-my-hit-song-while-on-the-floor-drinking-Jack-while-getting-roused-by-some-hot-chick-Morrison.

Actually the Beatles did that. Paul would do most of the tracks including the drums after awhile, and the rest of the fab four might've added something later but not as it was in the beginning.

Lenny Kravitz is known to do all his tracks same was for Prince.

Instant Ramen...

But all that said, some producers want the sound of tape, record on their 2 inch machine of choice and then dump it all into Pro Tools and mix from there.

There is Endless Analog’s CLASP® (Closed Loop Analog Signal Processor) that allows your choice of popular reel to reel recorders to interface with Pro Tools.





This has been out for a number of years and some major artists have used it with some studios having redundant CLASP systems in place.



While we're on the topic of reel to reel, these are being made today:



Portable designed to be for on-location as well as studio. Named after Georges Quellet for his Stellavox, the Metaxas & Sins ‘GQT’ (Georges Quellet Tribute) is available for the enthusiast.

https://theaudiophileman.com/metaxas-si ... rder-news/