Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson  Running cymbals with digititus through tape isn't going to make them sound like they were recorded to tape! |
Dumping to analog won't change the entire sound to the point that it would sound like it was cut on 2" or any analog format, but it might improve it. Couldn't hurt to try!
I was just making a comment about the "good" points of analog.
I have always liked how cymbals, vocals and other stuff with high freq. information sounded on analog MUCH better than it does on digital.
Truthfully, up until rather recently our entire perception of popular music was based upon hearing material recorded on analog tape. Yeah, yeah, there is older stuff that was cut to disc and I even have a copy of Licoln Mayogora's direct to disc sessions somewhere in my LP collection, so it's not an absolute. It is pretty close to why film looks better than video in many cases. Video is getting closer, VERY FEW films are released in video for theatre projection. Now if popular culture quits wanting to experience film and prefers to watch films at home the "beauty" of film could be a forgotten thing. The same thing applies to audio.
Still, there seems to be a consensus going on that digital is somehow more "true" and closer to "real life" than analog in recording mediums. This is simply not true because NEITHER is a mirror image of reality and when you think about it, VERY FEW recordings are intended to be a mirror of reality.
It is painting a picture. By recording and producing music we are basically putting a picture frame around a musical idea. We are trying to either please ourselves or a listener. Pleasing one's self is a HUGE part of what we do because ultimately the artist and people creating the "piece" need to be pleased by it. Second it should please the other listeners. The other listeners who were not part of the creation process have very few "clues" to go by when they listen to the audio event we have framed.
Case in point:
I have always thought that Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" was supperbly recorded piece of music and I thought that the instruments were so very cutting edge. Now that I have been able to download the original tracks (yeah.. I realize that they are just .mp3 files) and I can hear the parts individually I come away with a whole different opinion. The "magic" I percieved was largely due to the MUSICIANS (imagine that!) because when that record came out I was already using a Linn drum, Prophet, a Musicman bass through a harmonizer, guitars, so the sounds were not that diffrent than what I was using. We didn't have a Fairlight or any sampler, but those sounds are not what make the track work.
I should start a whole tread on this phenomena, I guess.
Hell yeah.... running the mixes through analog tape COULD improve things!
Wasn't there a Roling Stones record that was from a cassette?
Was it "Get Your Yah Yahs Out"?
It was mixed partly at Summit Audio in Dallas (at least they listened to the tapes there while recording in the early '70s.)
Danny Brown