Regarding recording with tape.....

[Yamaha Man]

is it really worth it or is it the quality mixing board that makes the music sound lush.....I seem to remember that tape hiss seemed to be a problem that you don't get with digital recordings. I asking this question as I'm considering buying an older Teac 4 channel tape recorder. By recording to tape am I going to improve my sound or will I be plagued with tape hiss, wow, and flutter ??

The reason I'm asking this is as you know I just bought a Tascam M108 mixing board, and the recordings I'm getting with it sound super. Is the mixing board the real thing that makes that quality sound or is it tape saturation......

[rick-slo]

Sound wise I prefer the sound possible with digital recording and post processing gear.

[Doug Young]

Agreed, if you want that tape sound, there are plugins that do a pretty good job, and you can even take the good parts, and skip the bad (noise, wow and flutter, etc) if you want. The emulation might not be 100% , but its easier than maintaining a real professional tape deck, and probably a lot better than a consumer tape deck. I almost always use An Amphex emulator on my master buss these days. Its subtle, but sounds nicer to me in most cases. There are people who master by bouncing to tape, tho. I think Eric Skye did that recently? Laurence Juber does it sometimes If I recall.

[Yamaha Man]

So you are saying buying a Teac 2340 would be a waste of time ?? Get the plug in instead ??

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

There are people who master by bouncing to tape, tho.

When people talk about using tape these days, I've found that's the most common context.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by jim1960

When people talk about using tape these days, I've found that's the most common context.

Easiest and cheapest, for sure.

[Yamaha Man]

so you are saying I should by the Teac and use it to bounce my recordings to ….??

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

So you are saying buying a Teac 2340 would be a waste of time ?? Get the plug in instead ??

They might not say it but I will. Those who wax nostalgic about the sound of analog tape probably have never done much work with it. I wouldn't even bother with a plug-in.

[Bob Womack]

The first stage of recording, multitrack, is what benefits from analog. You push the levels and get the natural compression that results. When you run the levels that hot, the self-noise of the medium doesn't figure in too much. The combination of a class-A console and a well-maintained and aligned tape deck is a marvelous thing.

HOWEVER, maintaining a multitrack tape recorder requires a good technician and and aligning it continually is a lot of work and requires a LOT of knowledge. Tape is a major cost and storage requires a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment. Maintaining a real class-A console is also extremely expensive.

Bob

[Yamaha Man]

So you're saying I'd be wasting my time with a consumer grade tape machine such as the Teac 2340. This is the question I have, should I buy it for the sake of saying I can record to tape....?? With all the required maintenance, temperature and humidity control, it hardly seems worth the effort.

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

So you're saying I'd be wasting my time with a consumer grade tape machine such as the Teac 2340. This is the question I have, should I buy it for the sake of saying I can record to tape....?? With all the required maintenance, temperature and humidity control, it hardly seems worth the effort.

In this day and age, it isn't worth it.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

So you're saying I'd be wasting my time with a consumer grade tape machine such as the Teac 2340. This is the question I have, should I buy it for the sake of saying I can record to tape....?? With all the required maintenance, temperature and humidity control, it hardly seems worth the effort.

That's not the quality of machine some people are bouncing to. I'd think you'd quickly discover that it would not be an improvement, sonically. But if you want to discover how people recorded 30+ years ago (in a home studio sort of way - not pro-level), and see how far we've come, it'd be a fun toy to play with.

[Yamaha Man]

Thanks for the advice guys, I don't need or can afford a $300 toy to play with. I had one about 30 years ago and am starting to remember what it sounded like. What I already have now, works great and sounds good enough for my ears.

[KevWind]

I would tend to agree with Bob unless you are "tracking to tape" directly through an analog front end, on studio grade equipment, I don't see enough of a distinct advantage to make it worthwhile IMO

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by KevWind

I would tend to agree with Bob unless you are "tracking to tape" directly through an analog front end, on studio grade equipment, I don't see enough of a distinct advantage to make it worthwhile IMO

It should probably be mentioned at some point that there's a whole "tape as an effect" subculture out there. To make a long story extremely short, the kind of thing those folks are going for probably won't appeal much to most of the folks around here.