How do you "hit" the tape when recording?

[Joemamma]

Fairly hot?
Really hot?
Not so hot?!

Do you try to get a lot of tape compression going on or not? Or only on certain things (drums, bass, vocals, etc.)? Does your method vary from song to song?

I'm also asking because, in some cases you have had to transfer songs to protools and then back to tape. How do you go about these songs not getting too "tapey"? If there is such a thing!

Thanks in advance!
Anders

[Russell Elevado]

Originally Posted by Joemamma

Fairly hot? Really hot? Not so hot?!
Do you try to get a lot of tape compression going on or not? Or only on certain things (drums, bass, vocals, etc.)? Does your method vary from song to song?
I'm also asking because, in some cases you have had to transfer songs to protools and then back to tape. How do you go about these songs not getting too "tapey"? If there is such a thing! Thanks in advance! Anders

hello again anders,
BTW, where are you from? you've been asking real good questions
it depends mostly on the instrument but sometimes i'll print extra hot for that "hot" sound. not really going for tape compression per say. i print all the sharp, brighter stuff like hi hat, tamb, clave, things like that fairly low, as these will be the tracks that are most susceptible to bleeding on adjacent tracks. and tracks like bass and kick, i'll print fairly hot. so midrange stuff, i print at medium levels. printing hotter definitely gives it a certain character. that was part of the "vintage" sound in the late 60's early 70's. but you have to use it carefully.

tape compression is (more or less) harmonic distortion which occurs when you're overloading the amplifiers of the tape machine. these harmonics are essentially the product of the signal get "squared off" or "clipped" at the output amplifier. so most of the time, it's adding harmonics that we all know and love. but too much and depending on the machine, it will just sound distorted. I had some great conversations with Tony Visconti when i did the angelique kidjo stuff. one of the things i asked him was how hot they printed back then. he told me they printed quite hot with a +3/185 alignment. tape is fairly forgiving so you can get pretty hot without hearing "bad" distortion.

i don't think (in my book) there's such a thing as too "tapey". the thing that happens is a generation loss which also introduces more tape hiss with each bounce. i don't mind the sound of one or two generations down but that's purely subjective...

all the best

[Joemamma]

Thank you again for your answers!

I come from Denmark, and I'm living in Copenhagen at the moment. But I've lived three years in Washington D.C. ('97-2000) amongst other places...

At the moment I'm working on a short 4 song demo which is very much inspired by your work with D'Angelo, The Roots, and Erykah Badu. I got to track the drums to tape, but unfortunately everything else went to protools, for different reasons!
The demo should be done within a month or so! I'll put a link in my signature and let you know when it's done!

Best regards,
Anders