JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum Analog Equipment

Just curious, does anyone still use analog? Do you incorporate old equipment into digital? Do you still use tape and transfer it to digital? Anybody know when digital became prevalent? It seems that the changeover was gradual. A lot of money spent from the studios, kind of a revolution that the general public didn't hear about. At least not as vast as digital TV, but of course everyone has a television.

Hi all,
Good question. Basically I wonder if recording studios still use tape or have sitched to digital. Seems a lot have but when it was announced that the last one to mauufacture tape was shtting down but I think they may not have.

Before Digital became a thing the term Analog was not used but is now a term. You should know that in the recording cycle everything starts as Analog, is converted to digital when recording a CD for instance and then converted back to analog in playback.

Is digital any better? Probably not but it is more convenent than Making vinyl records.

I would guess that analog was a term used among engineers that became part of general vocabulary. I started recording four years ago and have absolutely no experience with tape recording. A friend of mine had I think an 8 track cassette recorder in the 80's but I never used it. Cassette tapes tend to break, so digital files are convenient because you can save the file. Cassette and reel to reel tapes have to be fast forwarded and rewound, erased, recorded over, and replaced. Digital can reduce a lot of expense.

I never saw any early reel tape. the first one I may have saw actually had what looked like paper backing! Acetate was probably the next medium used. When it broke it would break clean so you could splice it back together and not lose anything. Later Myler was used but would stretch rather than break so you just had to cut out the bad part and if it was where something was recorded you just lost it.

I think I still have some reels of acetate backed tapes. There were plenty of reel home recorders made and sold just Google Reel to Reel Tape Recorders to see some.

And Video Tape developed out of Audio recorders. My number 2 Grandson brought me some old 8 MM Movie equipment the other day. We was wondering if they still use film to make movies. I know Kodak quit making Kodachrome Slide Film but may still make the movie film. Progress, it never stops.

Actually, the first Tape Recordings were done on Celluloid Tape..via a Needle..ca 1910..via the Goodale Phonograph..Patented in Canada. (Used Edison's Grammophone Pat's...was a 5-Track Recorder!) 4- 5-INCH reels...

Then came the Wire Recorder...spools of steel wire..to capture changes in Magnetism....I'm guessing in the 30's. By the 40's, Magnetic Tape..with various Celluloid..then Mylar Backings...& coated in basically RUST..captured the Magnetic Signal on it. (Chromium Compounds worked even-better, by 60's & 70's...& WIDER tape..Half-Inch...think it got up to 2-inches-wide..& More-than-8 TRACKS..were the Studio Rage in the '80's...as Digital Tracking slowly took-over.

The trouble with TAPE was the Inherent HISS on it...tho Dolby Labs developed a cancelling-system that eliminated most of it..in the later years of Recording on Tape.

With Digital, there's no hiss to deal with...tho the Sound just ISN'T what Analogue USED to Capture...JMO. (Listen to some OLD Vinyl...& see what ya think....It was prolly Originally-Mastered in Analogue & On-Tape.)

Best Wishes,
Stan

Early dictaphones were wire. I took Ray's advice and Googled "reel" tape recorders. Wikipedia's article says that a reel to reel was taken from a German radio station during WWII and sent back to the US. Ampex copied and revised it to make studio recordings for Bing Crosby. Crosby used his own money for the innovation.

My studio is my own little world but I use both analog and digital. I have an Otari MX 5050 1/4" 10.5" reel unit a TEAC 1/4" 7" reel unit and a couple of quite good cassette recorders. I will often use a professional Sony cassette recorder to record live gigs.

Strange coincidence that I brought up this subject today. Just watched "History Detectives" on PBS. They had a segment about how the allies took over a German radio station during WWII and brought back a "Magnetophon" reel to reel magnetic tape recorder and 50 reels of I. G. Farben tape. They used the machine and tapes as a foundation to develop recorders and tape for commercial use.

As I understand it, from info some time ago Ampex was charged with developing the tape recorder and the 3M Company Scotch tape was charged with developing the tape. The first reel tape I bought was Scotch Tape. Still have most of them. And as Ben noted, the Audio Tape Recorder was brought back from Germany after or during the second WW.

The old reel to reel tapes get brittle with age. There is a process of baking the tapes that brings back a suppleness to them before converting to digital. Its a one shot deal.

The rust is iron oxide and is magnetically arranged on the tape into patterns. We had a developer solution that we could use on damaged tapes and duplicate by hand the info and splice it back in if it wasn't too badly damaged. I love history...we are part of it nowadays.

To answer the question about analog equipment, yes its nice to be able to physically move a slider with your finger and turn a pot to hear a difference. Easier for my brain too, when I don't have to use a keyboard and a mouse and look at a screen to get a desired effect. I am slowly getting used to it though.

There are a very, very few studios that use tape. No many though.

At Justice's recording session on Saturday (Sadson Music Group Studios in Lincoln, NE), I was talking about how tape with the recording engineer. It is hard to even imagine cutting and splicing.

Tom

When I was in college I produced an lp, which had groups from the college playing songs. I recorded it on an open reel deck. It was a lot of fun. The sound is, of course, very primitive compared to today.

Analog equipment is more fun than digital stuff. I even bought a turntable a couple years ago and some new lps. Very enjoyable but the clicks and pops and limited frequency range is startling.

Tom

A good many of us Troopers-in-'Nam brought back LOTS of Tape Recorders from the PX over there. AKAI, TEAC, were the 2 top brands...1/4 inch tape..10-inch Reel-to-Reel. (12" & Up were the Pro Sizes back then..best I recollect.)

One of its Reasons-for-Popularity was ya could PIRATE Lots & Lots of Songs from Vinyl Albums & Singles..as-well as Off-the-Air..which ya couldn't easily-DO prior. (&, for most folks, Tape Recorders were originally pretty-Pricey~!) Then, along came CASSETTES...(8-tracks came Earlier, but other'n Akai's 1800-SD, it wasn't EASY to make your own 8-Tracks.) When Cassettes..& Cheaper Recording Devices..came-along, Voila..The ERA OF Pirating got a-Rolling Along.

Digital Sound meant What Ya Pirated sounded basically as Good as What The Record Labels could put out. (& Guess What That's Led To????) What's Interesting is NOW..Who Really NEEDS a Record Label to be In The Music Business?

Exciting Times We Live In...

Best Wishes,
Stan

Ben

They had to peel my 8 track reel to reel from my hands LOL...

I loved tape, when i went to rebuild my studio after a short break I walked into the music store and they had NO tape machines of any kind.

So naturally the next best thing for me was a standalone digital deck/machine. I physically touch buttons to arm 24 tracks and to rewind forward play, stop, record ....I use it with an analog board. It has hands capabilities and does not require a computer at all, ONLY you don't want to edit on the machines tiny window, counting measures etc...

So with only a $10 ethernet cable you can view the nice editing window on your computer.

I use outboard gear, from a mic pre to actual PATCH BAYS lol...

If I had the money I would at least get a great 2 track reel to mix down to as a nice potion. But!!!

Analog rules! but I could not even conceive of going back to 100% all analog, My goodness Cutting tape??

MIke

I like sending the signal through a tube preamp before the A/D converter. But aside from that, I feel like digital is the way to go.

Mike, isn't cutting tape an art in itself(sarcasm)? I listened to an interview on the radio with Geoff Emerick a few years ago. He eplained all about cutting tape. The Beatles "Tommorrow Never Knows". He said that Paul recorded the "Seagull" sounds on a guitar at home and brought the tape into the studio.

The ultimate splicing job, "For The Benifit Of Mr. Kite".

I do like the "Punch in", "Punch out" feature with digital.

I remember when there was an art to actually hitting the record then pause buttons on the exact phrase that the artist had to punch. I never got very good at it because digital markers made it an exact thing. A couple of the guys who taught me, however, could reliably use the tape transport to punch in and out on a single vocal syllable.

You just had to get to know how soon before the syllable to punch in as most of the later decks had a slight delay to allow for the gap between the erase and record head. This was done to give you a gapless punch in.

I learned on a Fostex E8 which made you press two buttons every time you wanted to punch in or out. I can still feel the buttons under my fingers - even though I've not used one for recording for many years. Our later Otari MTR90 was much better as you only needed to press one button to punch in and another to punch out.

James.

I still have the format. I went kicking and screaming into the digital world though and now also use stand alone hd and software. I like the digital stuff, a little labor intensive but the editing capabilities are nice. I still marry the analog and digital. I still can't get over the thump of kick and bass and vocals when I track with my 1" 16 though.......hard to reproduce with digital.