Old School recording. It's all I really know.

I wonder if there will come a day when good analog audio engineers will be viewed as skilled technical craftsmen. For example, its no argument that cars have replaced horse-drawn carriages for the general public. However, they are still made and those who build them are viewed as skilled craftsmen building a nostalgic and, often romantic specialty item.

Analog audio recording may end up the same way. True, most won't be doing it, but those who do may be viewed as the real recording craftsmen.

Anyway, just speculation...

 

(stepping on my soapbox)

I may use digital gear - but the essential features of recording are the same as when Edison set up the first was cylinders to be recorded acoustical-mechanically.

Meaning:

The musicians have a good song with a good arrangement (and lyrics if applicable) ready to record.

The engineers put the mikes in the right place to get the sound of the musicians. They record it with no distortion, etc.

This is NOT like the concept of recording stuff and "fixing it in the mix" "drum replacement", "re-amping", whatever.

I may use digital gear but I learned on good old fashioned tape.

 

Tape recording ... wow, (shivers down spine) . I don't know if I could go back to that or not. The last tape recorder I had was a Fostex 4 track and with 4 measly tracks it was so limiting.... especially the hit on quality if I had to punch in or out, or dub a track.

I don't do DAW recording so I feel stuck in the 2000s .....

I'm using an Alesis HD24 hard disc recorder and piping it through a Mackie analog mixer down to a CD burner. I have to tweek everything real time to adjust for variations in levels because I suck at compression techniques. I use all analog effects and of course mic real amps and stuff like that. The drums for the most part were Rolands but live mic'd cymbals ... it's on the project I'll post below. The first song was all acoustic drums but then that was it.


Anyway, here is the latest project I completed with the Alesis.... it's kind of silly here and there but was a fun project. :)

Whatever Happened to the Good Ol Days? by Joe Bean on SoundCloud - Hear the world

 

Digital recording has reared it's ugly head AGAIN!

Well in the digital world I am in constant battle. On the one hand, I have acquired a sophisticated digital compact camera that houses a multitude of fascinating and wonderful features that are beyond my imagination. Yet in the short time I've had this photographic device I've mastered nearly all of it's amazing uses and am enthralled with it's dynamic wonders. I'm quite impressed with it and almost at home with it's use. Bottom line with THIS digital device, I'm a happy camper.....

On the other hand, in the world of digital recording I am once again under attack by it's agents of darkness and woe. This assault upon me had in truth began the day I first attempted it's use and has to this day continued to plague me. Last night, having a very melodic theme running through my head and having a desire to get it recorded in order not to loose it so to speak, I attempted to record bits of it for that purpose. The following events unfolded like scenes from a bad movie....

The amp and guitar were sounding wonderful. My playing, in the most humble manner of speaking, was good to go. The mike was placed with care for the best dynamic response from the amp in use. The program for recording was pulled up and set in place on the computer. Sound levels were checked by visual inspection and thresholds were all in accordance to taste and levels. In short I was ready to lay down some good stuff......

Recorded a rhythm track on the device and could see the visual imprints upon the device as has been noted in the past efforts to be correct. All looked good and I was all primed to lay down a sweet melodic lead track with lush tones and tasteful bits of delay and chorus to enhance the great tone from my instrument. However, upon simply hitting "play" on the device I was met with silence. Oh the meter and displays indicated there was a signal there, but it was dead silent. Re-checking all my settings and such it was supposed to work. It didn't. I was forced to reload the driver for the interface EACH AND EVERY TIME I wanted to get playback!

Now I have infinite patience in shooting. I can lie in wait for days if need be to make a shot. But I'll be damned if I'll put up with this digital disaster in order to record simple musical moments that by the way, were lost due to the digital dementia this thing is possessed with. I truly feel that in the end I am destined to use tape for all my recording means and I now have abandoned all hope of ever using another digital device for sound reproduction in recording. I am, as of this date, through with digital recording. I'm returning to my trusted tape device and will use it with the skills developed from times well before many of our member's birth. That is no reflection upon our younger members of course, but more of a reflection of my advanced age to most.

I find the digital recording to be, in the long run, an unnatural method and means for my understanding and further, it simply has failed to provide the comfort and ease of use that tape has provided me for several decades. Therefore I have returned to my tape and will continue to work with a medium that I understand and does not require massive computer manipulation and constant headaches. Digital is dead to me. The camera is fine, but the recording system..... forget it. I'm 100% analog tape and proud to say it in fact.

And please, for my own stability, don't recommend another digital recording system to me. That might just push me over the edge and that would not be a pretty picture. Old Ranger snipers are known to be....ahhhh, well shall we say, radically hostile in reaction to something that they consider to be a force against them.
I'll stick to my tape thank you very much....

Wow! This turned out to be as long as some of Barry's posts huh?

 

a lot of people have a hard time with the fact that I still use an MR-16 Fostex w/built-in CD burner.....obsolete as far as digital is concerned by leaps and bounds.....but I do well with it and know what NOT to do with it. Everybody else has a Mac-book pro.....
I'm sure analog and audio tape are the way to go, but at least I have a working set-up that don't sound too bad right now

 

Yup. I fought it at first. Got kinda sorta OK with it. Messed up and walked away. Came back and tried again and did OK for a little more. Then last night put the cork in the bottle. I'm all done with this stuff and gone back to what I know. If it don't have tape inside it I ain't playin' into it!

So tape may well be old school, but at least I get an "A" when I take my tests!!

A very wise man once said "Take that which serves and discard that which does not."

 

my brother-in-law rick knows a bit about audio tape, reel-to-reel and stuff like that....got my first decent turntable from him too....

 

I spent years recording with Pro Tools but had lost interest in sitting at my desk and looking at the music. I decided to go a different route. Just bought this beast. I'm finding a new love of recording. Old school
image by karljakobsen, on Flickr

 

now....THAT is dead sexy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Had a 388 about 15 years ago. Nice musical EQs. Decent enough pre-amps. Sold it as soon as I could do go digital (still have a nice analog front end though and I sum the outputs analog). I could not go back to tape even if you paid me lots or money.

 

Nor would I - 2 reasons:

command (control) Z, the undo button!

no razor blades for tape editing

 

Yes...the undo/redo button (a nice feature on my obsolete Fostex MR-16)

 

In terms of editing in digital - being able to cut at the zero crossing of a rising edge every time means edits without clicks. With tape you had to cut at an angle which meant every edit was about a tenth of a second long.

 

Yeah, Don, I don't miss that tape editing either.

 

Well I primarily record with a mike on tape.
Mixing is done on the 'pooter.
I'll also record some on the computer but it has to be done direct as miking to it simply stinks.
And I still do things in one take as I can't edit with the computer and thus I get it right the first time or it doesn't happen at all.....

 

My ex took all of my vinyl, stereo, car and anything else that I loved many years ago. Now I have regained all of my music collection from downloads. Unlike Joe Walsh, I am no longer an analog man.