Digital Recording off the Playback Heads?

[channelpath]

One engineer i worked with printed his mix to 1/2" as well as taking a feed off of the playback head back into ProTools. We also took the mix straight of the console mix buss to A/B it with what we had coming off tape. Incredible difference in the clarity and tone of the mix coming from tape.

I was wondering if this could be done with a Studer 2" multitrack recorder while recording a band. The tape could even be reused a few times. I don't forsee any problems, but i've also never heard of anyone doing this with 2" tape. What d'yall think?

[djimbe]

It would work fine with a 2" machine, but the band has to work without headphones. The repro head output is delayed from the input signal. The delay time in seconds is the tape path distance from the record head to the repro head, devided by tape speed. Punching in on the tape couldn't happen, either...

[drumsound]

If the headphone mix was derived from the mic signals not the tape signals you could have the deck in repro, feeding the computer but the musicians are hearing what they're playing in real time. Punching would not really work the same way though. Also you couldn't play back the take to the phones easily.

[Ben Logan]

I just got a Tascam Two Track machine from my buddy here in town. I've been doing all my recording lately by recording digital off the playback head. You have to calculate the latency in order to get tracks to line up. It's pretty easy though: you simply record two tracks at a time, one straight to digital, and the other through the tape machine. Then you look at the wave forms and "line them up" using your DAW's track arrange window. Easy. Sounds great. Changed my life!

[TapeOpAndy]

If the headphone mix was derived from the mic signals not the tape signals you could have the deck in repro, feeding the computer but the musicians are hearing what they're playing in real time. Punching would not really work the same way though. Also you couldn't play back the take to the phones easily.

We recorded the drums for the last Flin Flon record this way. Playing back on headphones is easy enough if you've got enough inputs on your console (and the ability to recall scenes) when you want to switch back and forth between tape and mics.

[bniesz]

i've done this just for references before...
tracked to the 2-inch like normal and taken the repro to the MOTU inputs into DP.
then monitored the DP mix through a stereo return.

then i can give the band immediate playback in their phones through the stereo return.

[@?,*???&?]

One engineer i worked with printed his mix to 1/2" as well as taking a feed off of the playback head back into ProTools. We also took the mix straight of the console mix buss to A/B it with what we had coming off tape. Incredible difference in the clarity and tone of the mix coming from tape.

I was wondering if this could be done with a Studer 2" multitrack recorder while recording a band. The tape could even be reused a few times. I don't forsee any problems, but i've also never heard of anyone doing this with 2" tape. What d'yall think?

So the engineer had a mix from console and printed to 1/2" tape. The 1/2" tape repro head fed Pro Tools with the mix simultaneously. The original mix was coming out of Pro Tools as individual tracks through a console- or were you just listening to a Stereo feed out of Pro Tools of the mix?

Either way, the reason these things sound so different is that the dynamic range is way, way more open in the Digital domain. At 24-bits, a signal-to- error ratio of 147.8db. Tape at a high-print alignment will yield 73db. Tape will also give you some pleasant harmonic saturation.

In general, digital can yield too much clarity, particularly with rock music. The sooner your music goes to tape and stays there, the better.

As for never having heard of anyone doing this- EVERYONE working at a professional studio either does this, used to do this, or will do this if the bands they work with can afford to do this. People use tape all the time and the sound of it is fantastic.