What classic hip hop records were recorded to 2"?

[t.dizzle]

Originally Posted by parkay909

Screw the lynx, the BTX is where its at!

Never heard of it or seen it at any of the big studios in Los Angeles. Lynx I and Lynx II only.

[paultools]

Originally Posted by Joemamma

How do you "fly" things on tape? I never quite understood this...
By "fly" you mean "copy" in a way, right?

A little insight on this would be cool!

I used to bounce stuff to 1/2" tape at 30 ips and then bounce it back to 2" by hand with no synchronizer. Almost always got it in sync on the 1st try. The "secret" was to put a mark on the 1/2" tape over the record head with a china marker. Roll the 2" and hit the 1/2" record button on a snare before the hook. Then, rewind the tape, and put the mark over the playback head... roll the 2" and then hit play on the 1/2" on the same snare beat.
With a little experience, you could get it on the first take 90% of the time. It would freak people out!

[signalflow]

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

Your 3348 musta been busted 'cuz they sound great. Lots of engineering Grammy's have been won with those. TLA used them for years. 20-bit ADAT can sound really good if you work 'em right.

TLA STILL uses them.. So does his brother Chris..

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

How 'bout a H3000? A lot of peeps don't even know that you can sample with them. I think there was some kinda mod or something that you could get to increase the sampling time. I've seen more MPC's used for flying hooks than S1000's, but I was doing rock during the S1000's heyday.

Dizz, (Every time I call you Dizz, I think of Charmaine Neville's son who killed Mystikal's sister. He was a cool dude growing up, I don't know what happened with the murder stuff.) I think it was and expansion for the H3000 to expand the sampling, but no matter where I went I always encountered an H3000 in need of repair, so I always used the S1000's. I think the S1000s got more use in R&B/pop than anything. It used to look fly to have the MPC 60II sitting on a rack of S1000's (I tried to find a pic online but turned up nothing)

[Stitch333]

Originally Posted by illynoise

I used to get really good sound out of a tascam 488, if I did it right. But the bigger studio did sound "better".

I used the 688 for a couple years as a teenager. It was fun but 8trks to 1/8" cassette will just never get as much fidelity as 24trks to 2".

Originally Posted by cherrymusic

I love going to big studios to ask them the last time they turned on the old 2" one guy said he had not used it in a session in 7 Years, but once of month checks to see if it still turns on!

That must have been a crappy 2" or they dont know how to service their tape machine correctly. At most of the studios I frequent, the 2" machine is used regularly. A good Studer 2" machine, well maintained with great heads will sound fuller and more musical than any recording media Ive heard. In general, For ease of use and budget restraints, ProTools is the recording foundation. It'd be a trick to send 2" reels to LA via AIM from up here....

I didn't know the S1k was used to fly hooks back in the day...Im surprised considering the memory constraints of the piece (32MB is puny!)...

[t.dizzle]

Originally Posted by Stitch333

A good Studer 2" machine, well maintained with great heads will sound fuller and more musical than any recording media Ive heard.

No shiz. I've been listening to some older stuff lately and it all sounds fvcking huge.

Didn't know that about Mystikal's sis...terrible. I miss that guy. One of the most awesome dudes I ever worked with. When's he gettin' out?

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by Stitch333

I didn't know the S1k was used to fly hooks back in the day...Im surprised considering the memory constraints of the piece (32MB is puny!)...

You could expand the memory also. Remember we are talking about flying a 2 track vocal chorus mixdown.

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

No shiz. I've been listening to some older stuff lately and it all sounds fvcking huge.

Didn't know that about Mystikal's sis...terrible. I miss that guy. One of the most awesome dudes I ever worked with. When's he gettin' out?

I have no idea when he's coming home. I thought he'd be home by now.

[paultools]

For the S1000, I used to run Performer in sync with the 2", and use a midi note on command prior to the to hook to trigger the sampler to start recording, then map the midi note to the appropriate palces for the other hooks to trigger playback from the sampler. Kind of a jack-leg Protools!
You could do something similar with ADATS and a BRC, as I think someone else already mentioned...

[TapeOpAl]

Originally Posted by paultools

I used to bounce stuff to 1/2" tape at 30 ips and then bounce it back to 2" by hand with no synchronizer. Almost always got it in sync on the 1st try. The "secret" was to put a mark on the 1/2" tape over the record head with a china marker. Roll the 2" and hit the 1/2" record button on a snare before the hook. Then, rewind the tape, and put the mark over the playback head... roll the 2" and then hit play on the 1/2" on the same snare beat.
With a little experience, you could get it on the first take 90% of the time. It would freak people out!

I'm still processing that in my mind but thanks for the info.

[7161]

the problem back then was you'd have your realtime midi stuff and the management and labels would force you to transfer to 2"... and try arguing it's not required back then... sheesh!

"Look see all the backing is live! direct from the hardware instruments/sampler!, so we can go straigh to dat or 1/2"

scratching of heads.. "but everyone uses 2 inch, thats the way it's done"

then you'd be lumbered with another recouperable fee on your account cos some bod in a label didnt get it.

mind you, alot of it got transferred to 2" just cos it was easy to freight it to someone to remix, they coudl always add a smpte stripe if they wanted to resequence new parts.

and you'd use old Bel delays to fly in before s1000's if there was one around, althought i like flying on from a 2 track myself

Anyways, now the irony (as noted) is that you'd kill for a good 2" if you had the space, time and money all together.

[phillysoulman]

FYI..

Pro Tools started as Sound Designer and then morphed into Sound Tools which was mainly used for stereo editing.
Back around 94 it became 4 track,then 8 then 16, 24 and......then it became industry standard in the early 2000 or so.