I just found a reel to reel in the attic.(cheap one though).Recording question.

[JamesNylen]

Alrighty.....So I found a mono reel to reel made by webcor called the Regent high fidelity recorder(use's tubes I guess.) I have already researched and found that this isnt the most luxurious of reel to reels. It still works good though....

My question is I want to record some drums. I usually just go Tascam tm-d4000>D/A convertor>computer and im fine with that....

But was wondering....Do you think it would give the drums a better sound to go tascam tm-d4000>D/A convertor>computer then dump it to the 1/4" 1 track reel to reel> back to the computer?

or should I go tascam tmd-4000 record it straight to reel to reel.then dump it to computer?

I just listened to some of my fathers recordings on it from back in the 80's and wow it had such a good sound for just 1 room mic recording a band live in a basement.

Basically do you feel it would be worth the effort?

Thanks, James

[JamesNylen]

[zimv20]

no reason to not give it a try. personally, i'd track straight to tape.

[vernier]

Basically do you feel it would be worth the effort?

Of course! ...try anything, anything you can think of to utilize the Webcor.

[theblue1]

As Captain Beefheart said:

Webcor, Webcor




BTW... I've used several machines that fit that general description... though it was the 60's. I guess if it's been in mothballs... around here the corrrosion would probably have killed it 15 or 20 years ago.

I don't think you'll find the speed anywhere close to steady enough to really track a whole song. But you might get some interesting distortion effects for chopping up into samples. Depending on your needs you might get a real vintage type of sound.

Vintage ultra lo fi, at any rate.

I think a lot of folks who've grown up with desktop digital don't realize just what an enormous gap there was between good professional gear and really expensive home gear and then what a staggering chasm there was between that high end 2-months pay home stuff and the crap that 98% of us 'home recordists' used.

ANY kind of recording/audio gear was expensive then. I used to tell people that they could get an absolutely minimal home stereo for two to three hundred dollars. But that a really nice one was going to cost one to two thousand. You could buy a new car for two thousand at the time. (And you kids who grew up in the golden era of the late 80s and 90s when inflation was tamed have a RUDE awakening coming now that current political entities have decided to increase US debt by 42% in just the last 6 years... but anyway, that's for someplace else, innit? )

[JamesNylen]

Alrighty I did a little drum recording this morning tracking from the tascam tm-d4000 straight to the tape.Using the same settings and beats to compair the strictly digital to the one recorded analog.I must say I was surprised at the sound when using the tape. I got it so it wouldnt put out any distortion.It was so much more 3d and had so much more glue to it compaired to the strictly ultra clean digital sound. When recording just digital its like its so clean that you can hear the space between every beat(I think the clean crisp sound would be much better for pop).Where as using the tape everything was tied together better(much more of a good rock recording.)

Now I just need to get all the levels right with the console and do trial and error since the reel to reel has no metering on it....

But so far its rocked!