analouge recording question

[grouper]

hello people.

i'm new to recording. in fact i'm a total noob. all i know is that as long as i record only vocals and folk guitar i'd hate it to be digital.

because it's very hard for me to put my hands on a 4 track cassette where i live, i was thinking about taking an ordinary tape recorder and plug it into a shitty lexicon lambada sound card that i own that would plug into my computer.

my question is, based on your experience, would the tape recording sound will go through the digital proccess in its sound and do you think that the outcome would be listenable? (lo-fi but listenable enough to market)

thank you very much guys!

[dfuruta]

there's nothing wrong with digital.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

yeah. digital is not the enemy. it's fine.

by 'ordinary tape recorder' you mean a 2 track cassette deck, right? there's nothing wrong with running through that on the way to the computer, but realize that the cassette deck is going to effect (affect?) your sound way more than the computer will. like, orders of magnitude more. and probably not for the better.

if it were me, i wouldn't bother with the cassette deck, but don't let me stop you. try it out and see.

[grouper]

it's all a matter of taste you know... i'm not saying it's all wrong. i like a lot of digital recorded albums. then again, my feeling is that digital tends to separate the instruments out of their environment. again, my recording knowledge equals to zero. it's just the feeling i get. when it comes to just vocals and acoustic guitar i feel like digital can't quite level with the intimacy of it. analog on the other hand captures it with its warmth.

whenever i get to this debate with people i feel like it's a more philosophical one than technical. because really, it's just a matter of what you like better.

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi Grouper,

Let me ask you, do you listen to which formats?
CDs, online music MP3, vinyl, open reel tape, cassette,
eight track, SACD, DVD Audio.

If you did, you would know the differences between these things,
which are just different ways of music fans to listen to music.

You mention folk music. Have you heard any folk music recorded in the
last 20 years? It most likely went through some digital equipment at some
point in it's creation.

As to your idea that digital "my feeling is that digital tends to separate the instruments out of their environment"
Is completely depending on what you listen to. If the engineers and producers
that you listen to make albums that sound that way, then I understand.
But that is not at all every record. It really depends on the skills of the
production team, and not with the equipment.

Cheers

[ott0bot]

keys to good sounding folk music, in order of importance:

1. the song

2. the performance

3. the instrument

4. the room

5. the medium used to record

so...get a good song, performed well, with a nice guitar, in a nice sounding space and then just capture it with whatever means you have.

[CedarSound]

Just out of curiosity, do you have any specific folky type albums that were recorded to analog that have the sound you are looking for? I noticed that you say that you don't have a lot of recording experience, and sometimes the sound that we associate with older analog recordings has a lot to do with other parts of the recording chain... stuff like ribbon mics and tube recording desks for example. Tape can definitely impart a certain character, but it may not necessarily be what you are looking for..it depends. Cheap digital can sound a lot better than cheap analog... For example, a 2" 24 track tape machine is going to sound a lot bigger and true to life than a cassette tape machine (in general).. so, analog doesn't automatically equal better..it really depends on what that analog medium is..

Digital has come a long way in the last 10 years, and there are even plug ins and things that can give you more of that "analog character" if that's what you are looking for..

That said, it won't hurt to try a cheap tape deck..hell, it might be exactly what you are looking for.. I think what everyone is saying is that, all other parts of the recording chain being equal, it's not going to automatically make things sound more or less glued together, if you see what I mean.

p.s. There are thousands of pages of people arguing analog vs. digital.. I'm not trying to go there, just letting you know that digital has gotten better and better, and that I've heard some digital stuff that I would swear was analog, and vice versa.. the lines are blurring more as the technology gets better

[ott0bot]

^^this^^

[grouper]

thanks cedarsound for summing it up for me

i really didnt wanna go there either. bottom line is, there's no good or bad, but there is a difference and there is a preference of mine. if i can listen to ty segall, thee oh sees, grouper and earlier elliott smith and know for a fact that it was recorded on analog without questioning it and loving it then it matters a lot to me that my music would try to go the same path.

back to topic, i really appreciate your comments and thoughts and taking them into consideration. i decided not to focus on plugging a tape machine into my soundcard (although i'm going to try sooner or later) and repair a broken tascam 244 that somebody gave me. i really hope it turns out well and i can finally get to recording.

just out of curiosity, anyone familiar with that machine and knows its pros and cons?

[chris harris]

Good luck!

[Snarl 12/8]

... and repair a broken tascam 244 that somebody gave me. i really hope it turns out well and i can finally get to recording.

Seems to me this is ass backwards thinking for someone that's itching to record. I think your obsession with analog might be the manifestation of resistance to creating art in your particular life. We all have 'em. Mine are as bad as anyone I know. Read "the War of Art" for some ideas on just getting back to making music if that's what you really want to do. Or open an analog repair shop. I don't know what your true calling is.

[themagicmanmdt]

study basic electronics. you'll need it for the analog world, which needs a little upkeep... but it's servicable...

analog - smooth, unchopped-up reality. vibey, hissy, real. do it as much as you can. don't let it get too in the way of just recording great music that you and the world needs.

yet, try not to buy stuff that's just going to fry out anyways because it's on a motherboard.




repair that tascam. keep playing. keep analog happening. there's more to the analog sound than tone... there's holography!

[Marc Alan Goodman]

analog - smooth, unchopped-up reality. .

I think this board needs a sticky with a quantum mechanics primer to dissuade this kind of insidious dismissive thinking. But other than that little misstep that's all totally good advice.

I like recording to tape, but if the option is a shitty dell soundcard that's right there and set up vs working for months getting a tape machine up and maintaining it, I'll just track with the soundcard, and maybe work on the machine late nights when I can't sleep. In fact that's exactly what I've done... 24 track is finally running as of this week! Still haven't found anybody who wants to buy tape yet though :)

[dfuruta]

reality is likely quantized: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime# ... _spacetime

and, anyway, digital is smooth, unchopped-up reality once you spit it back out through the speakers.