I've had a revelation

[Joseph Hanna]

I wanted to take the time in thanking everyone for the warm wishes. I suspect I'm not alone but "time", being the fickle thing that it is, Still finds me waking up some mornings convinced I'm still 21 years old. The mirror of course always puts things back in proper perspective and boy howdy.

Just working the word retirement into my vocabulary has been a bit of an ordeal but I'm gonna adjust for sure. Thanks all

[rick-slo]

Congrats on a long and successful career. IMO the main thing about retirement is having much more free time to do your
own thing and express your personal creative impulses. I know that's what I am looking forward to.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Congratulations on your long career and your upcoming retirement! Good for you!

I still have a Roland VS-1880 digital recorder in my studio. I haven't used it for quite a while, but it makes good sounding recordings. It is most definitely a different experience from using Pro-Tools.

I also have an even older Tascam 388, which is an 8-track reel-to-reel machine with a built-in 8-channel mixer. My son and I both used this machine so much that we wore out the heads. I have often thought of replacing the heads, but ...

Best of luck to you!

- Glenn

Gosh yes...I remember the 388 like it was yesterday. What a unique format and for a 1/4 machine sounded wonderful with that attached mixer. The mixer, as I recall, probably a little noisy by todays standards but if I had a 388 sit-in' around I'd be very tempted to bring it back to life provided there was still tape available..

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Congrats on your long career and upcoming retirement!!!

Bob

Thank you Bob Womack

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

A viewpoint not often espoused!

All I can offer is I VERY much like using a portable for audio capture and then doing the editing on a DAW, where it can be done properly.

I've had a number of portable multi-trackers over the years and recently moved from a Zoom R24 to a much simpler Zoom Livetrak L8. It was a toss-up between the L8 and the new Zoom R20.

Well first...the combination of really wishing to get out of Pro Tools for everything but my work world is weighing on me That said I have absolutely entertained thoughts of a portable recorder and then back to Pro Tools for edits. But that scenario inevitably leads me to think as much about "editing later" than getting it solid during the take. The old "I can always fix it later" certainly alters where my concentration is best applied. I'll certainly not completely abandon Pro Tools but for now I'll work to stay as far away as possible.

As I said earlier one of my "for sure's" is an analog console so that kinda rules out the R24 type portables to DAW

For now the Tascam Model 24 looks like it covers a lot of my intentions so I'm leaning that way.

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I bought one of the large Roland machines new, (I believe it was a VS2480?) which I disliked immensely for so many reasons!

Yes like the VS 880 the 2480 was a relatively small screen and very heavily menu deep I can understand why that might be problematic

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Gosh yes...I remember the 388 like it was yesterday. What a unique format and for a 1/4 machine sounded wonderful with that attached mixer. The mixer, as I recall, probably a little noisy by todays standards but if I had a 388 sit-in' around I'd be very tempted to bring it back to life provided there was still tape available..

I found this "Audio Masterclass" series to be a perfect antidote to any thought of all that analog stuff, and particularly "tape". (Watch the entire series for best effect.)

[Bob Womack]

The fellow who bought the Sphere consoles trademark now runs an analog equipment rehab business in Nashville as well. I'm on his listserve. He is constantly rebuilding everything from Neve consoles to prosumer gear, everything from tape machines to consoles to microphones. You might look him up, HERE. How about a Studer A-80-24 for $6500? An SSL 8048 E/G+ on a G frame for $50k? There's a Tascam 48 8 track for $1500.

His mail list link is missing so you may need to use the "contact us" form or [email protected].

Bob

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I found this "Audio Masterclass" series to be a perfect antidote to any thought of all that analog stuff, and particularly "tape". (Watch the entire series for best effect.)

Ha! I am totally on board when it comes to not working in a tape machine into my work flow. That ship (at least for me) has undoubtedly sailed.

You're however gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming all the way to here and back to get me to proclaim analog mixers, analog eq, analog compressors and analog synths have been surpassed by digital and are officially dead

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Ha! I am totally on board when it comes to not working in a tape machine into my work flow. That ship (at least for me) has undoubtedly sailed.

You're however gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming all the way to here and back to get me to proclaim analog mixers, analog eq, analog compressors and analog synths have been surpassed by digital and are officially dead

Every P-N junction within every semiconductor in a piece of analog gear is gonna allow to to evesdrop in on the background radiation generated by the big bang. Your choice of how many of those gain stages you want to listen to!

Therein lies the beauty of digital equipment. Provided you can do a CLEAN A/D conversion and another CLEAN D/A conversion on the back end then everything in between becomes a matter of working with ones and zeros. It's difficult for designers to mess up a process that's simply "off or on". (Yes, tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of truth involved.)

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Ha! I am totally on board when it comes to not working in a tape machine into my work flow. That ship (at least for me) has undoubtedly sailed.

You're however gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming all the way to here and back to get me to proclaim analog mixers, analog eq, analog compressors and analog synths have been surpassed by digital and are officially dead

Few years back I was able to go to a demonstration (at a commercial studio) from the guy who makes the CLASP system (integrated Pro Tools Tape Deck)
But it is pretty expensive and you still have to service and maintain a tape deck which I have no interest in either....

But I agree about analog,, this is the front end of my system
with an 2 channel Tube mic pre,, 2 channel Tube Bus compressor,,, and a 2 channel stereo reverb unit (which is digital but still pretty impressive )

[Bob Womack]

Think about this: the big studios in large metro areas would often do four sessions a day. The machines had to tweaked between every session to guarantee that they were aligned to the producer's or engineer's choice of tape. That means the second engineers often did four alignments per day on all the machines.

The 24 track in my room is a Sony APR-24 with software-controlled alignment. I can store three setups for each speed. All I have to do is call up the setup for the tape in question and then tweak it for the particular media I'm working on. These days you don't have a wide selection of tapes - it is only ATR Magnetics tapes, so there's less fiddling.



But lets be honest, I haven't had a 24 track analog session in five years. Two track? Yep. Oh, and I am the last guy on staff who knows how to tweak and operate the analog machines.

Bob

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Every P-N junction within every semiconductor in a piece of analog gear is gonna allow to to evesdrop in on the background radiation generated by the big bang. Your choice of how many of those gain stages you want to listen to!

Therein lies the beauty of digital equipment. Provided you can do a CLEAN A/D conversion and another CLEAN D/A conversion on the back end then everything in between becomes a matter of working with ones and zeros. It's difficult for designers to mess up a process that's simply "off or on". (Yes, tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of truth involved.)

Ha! Well there's that

In my world it's decidedly not about clean high-end D/A and A/D although obviously I'm completely aware that it is an undeniable merit and something spec-wise and sonically that absolutely has come a long, long way over the years. That's never been my point. It's not at all about clean audio or low (no) noise or high headroom or broad frequency reproduction or any of the great sonic advancements we've made in the digital world. The equipment I use at work is about as high end as unlimited budgets allow so the concept is not lost on me.

The difference (and again, maybe this is just me) is the tactile, immediate response and tangible connection between my hands, ears and my own personal musicality when it comes to analog circutry, analog faders and analog eq. By comparison we did have full-blown Digidesign Pro Controls at one point and there was an absolute disconnect between feel and reaction time and my head and ears. That sentiment was shared by every single engineer on staff.

I also had mentioned in a previous thread about a project I did a year or so back in a studio out in Topanga. The composer had a fairly sophisticated Digital Performer rig which was routed to a relatively modest (at least in cost) Allen and Heath analog console. I think we worked for three straight evenings and the mixing experience was just transforming. Or perhaps I should say for me re-visiting.

I can relate a similar personal experience in that for me (and for my television work) I've used Spectrasonic's soft synths, Atmosphere and Omnisphere, daily for years and years. Really since day one of Atmosphere since our original Production facility was right next to Spectrasonic's original Burbank facility. The proximity between us lent itself to some industry favors. Omnisphere in my opinion is one of, if the not the very best, all around soft synth on the planet. If you're familiar with it you know the capabilities are simply staggering. But if I sit-down and play a great Omnisphere patch then fire up my puny 4 note polyphony Korg Minilogue the sonic impact and immediacy is just undeniable. Of course I recognize Omnisphere will do about a bisqullion things and the Minilogue can only do one but still...

I do absolutely think if you asked Eric Persing who is the founder of Spectrasonic's and has been programing synths for every major manufacturer including a 15 year stint as Roland's head of patch programing, he'd, to this day, admit there is a tangible touch, feel and sonic difference between analog and even the best of digital.

I dunno maybe it's just me I am by nature a "great tone at all costs' kinda guy and I am willing to make some sacrifices to get there but I absolutely hear and even more importantly feel a major difference.

Just my 2 cents though

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Few years back I was able to go to a demonstration (at a commercial studio) from the guy who makes the CLASP system (integrated Pro Tools Tape Deck)
But it is pretty expensive and you still have to service and maintain a tape deck which I have no interest in either....

But I agree about analog,, this is the front end of my system
with an 2 channel Tube mic pre,, 2 channel Tube Bus compressor,,, and a 2 channel stereo reverb unit (which is digital but still pretty impressive )

Well the M7 is just a second to none reverb. I've heard one on more than several occasions and it defines reverb for me. I always thought the 480/960 was the pinnacle until I heard that box.

I rented a Charter Oaks analog compressor a few years back and I was so gosh darn impressed even for someone who by and large stays away from compressors if possible. For acoustic guitars it was luxurious. Even working fairly hard it was almost indictable. I do know if I had one I'd print it on virtually everything to some degree. But not to beat a dead horse, analog is definitely not singularly about tone (although that's a big part in my world) it's, for me, also about touch and response.

Maybe I'm just old and loco, who knows?