Earth opens up and swallows Digidesign whole!

[Scodiddly]

And as we set the time machine for 1947 or thereabouts...

Crap! I can't believe we have to use this tape shit! Aren't people upset that the last wax cylinder factory is closing? Tape sounds like absolute crap. And all that rewinding... drives me nuts, when on the lacquer I could just pick up the needle and move the damn thing!

Plus this tape is way too fragile... put in next to a magnet and it loses the signal. How fucking stupid is that?

You can have my Edison recorder when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

Cute, but tape DID sound better than wax cylinders. Protools DOES NOT sound better than tape. Subjective, sure, but walk around a NAMM show and listen to all the dudez who've actually made a few records. They love tape. But they don't use it. WTF???? See 20+ page rant for answers...

SMH

Tape started out like all other media - shitty. You're comparing a mature technology with a new technology. Now if you were comparing state of the art 1950 tape with today's digital, it would be a whole different story.

[Wild Bill]

It's funny....
I don't dislke digital as much as the whole "protool standardization" BS.
I really don't like single source solutions...
Let me say that again.
I really don't like single source solutions...
They set you up for monopolistic abuse, and stiffle competetively driven progress and price structuring
I just replaced my reel to reels in September with an MX2424...
It's not quite a Radar, but very tolerable. and I still don't have to deal with Flakey drivers for WinDoze, etc.

I remember that previous to syncronous multitracking being widely available the only way to overdub was to bounce from one 2 track machine to another. Not only did you incur additive noise with each successive track addition but you had to live with levels and EQ set in previous track and hope your decisions were correct the first time.

Those days sucked and I would never want to go back to "then".

I only wish that the playing field for dependable Digital recording was more diverse.

[lifeintime]

Thanks Scodiddly!

This could be a lot of fun

And as we set the time machine for ____________ or thereabouts...

Crap! I can't believe we have to use this _______________! Aren't people upset that the last _____________________ factory is closing? _________________ sounds like absolute crap. And all that ________________... drives me nuts, when ______________________________________________________________!

Plus this ____________________ is way too __________________... put it _______________________ and it loses the signal. How fucking stupid is that?

You can have my ________________________________ when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

[Scodiddly]

Thanks Scodiddly!

This could be a lot of fun

And as we set the time machine for ____________ or thereabouts...

Crap! I can't believe we have to use this _______________! Aren't people upset that the last _____________________ factory is closing? _________________ sounds like absolute crap. And all that ________________... drives me nuts, when ______________________________________________________________!

Plus this ____________________ is way too __________________... put it _______________________ and it loses the signal. How fucking stupid is that?

You can have my ________________________________ when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

What's your Slashdot name?

[superpenguin79]

heheh, well like the forementioned post another would rise to take their place pretty much. Although I am set just incase tape comes back caus I have my old 4 track and a KLH 41 reel to reel with dolby in the studio.

[schnozzle]

I'll admit he had his moments, but then he was in the 82nd Airborne for more than 20 years.

And while Progress might not always please everyone, it is a necessary course for the advancement of civilization. It was after all the pursuit of Progress that brought you tape recording in the first place. And Progress that didn't stop at mono tape machines, but advanced to 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, and 24 tracks of tape, and brought you different formulations of tape. And Progress has kept marching forward giving you all these wonderful gifts along the way. And while Progress may have run her course with your particular medium of choice, she is fast at work trying to find suitable replacements that may bring a totally new dimension to your art - if you're willing. And if not, then there will likely be enough analog tape available for a few more years, perhaps even for the rest of your career, just as sure as you can still find replacement ribbons for those microphones RCA stopped building a decade before I was born.

-Jeremy

What ABSOLULTE AND TOTAL BULLSHIT. Yes, digital media is cheaper, more convenient, and can be more rapidly disseminated than analog--but nobody can prove that it represents an inarguable improvement in every possible respect over analog, which is what would make analog actually obsolete.

Does a fucking cd have as much dynamic range as an old LP on my cheap-ass turntable and amplifier? Demonstrably no. Can a Nikon digital camera produce prints with as much resolution as my $150 used Minolta TLR film camera? Not even close. Can touchscreen computer voting machines inarguably provide as accurate and verifiable a vote tally as an analog lever-op (or anything with a goddamn paper trail) machine? Read the news and tell me.

I ain't saying digital has no place. I just directed a dialogue recording for a flash cartoon in a Protools studio last night--but Flash soundtracks are so incredibly compressed that tape would have been a waste, and we needed the thing done fast, so digital was perfect.

This isn't about 'progress,' this is about consumers wanting whatever is fast, cheap, and new, and manufacturers deciding where their profit lines lie.

[Scodiddly]

What ABSOLULTE AND TOTAL BULLSHIT. Yes, digital media is cheaper, more convenient, and can be more rapidly disseminated than analog--but nobody can prove that it represents an inarguable improvement in every possible respect over analog, which is what would make analog actually obsolete.

Nobody can "prove" that Steve Vai is a better guitar player than Eddie Van Halen, either. It's preference, not science.

We're in the "model T" era of computing still. Back in the days when the T suddenly made cars available to just about everybody, they were still mechanical infants - every couple thousand miles you had to take the engine apart and scrape the gunk out. The similar situation in today's world is having to provide periodic tech support to non-tech family and friends who keep catching email viruses.

Sure tape can provide some sonic benfits. So what? Is it necessary that every recording have some "tape sweetness"? Should we also insist that every recording runs the guitar through a Vox AC-30?

Digital recording, at least my little home rig with a Delta-44 soundcard, has gotten to the point where I can't hear the difference between what goes in and what comes out. For my purposes, that's ideal.

Don't keep reguritating opinions from several years ago as gospel truth. Yes there were problems with the sound quality of digital, and the same sorts of people who obsessively improved analog tape are now putting their talents into improving digital sound.

And if we're going to make comparisons to vinyl, I'll just mention that even with my Rega Planar 3 turntable the bass is squashed, the poor channel separation pushes everything into partial mono, and the high frequency response is finicky at best.[/i]

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Earth opens up and swallows Digidesign whole!

do you think it'd be possible for bush to be visiting the factory when this happens?

[schnozzle]

It's preference, not science.

...

Don't keep reguritating opinions from several years ago as gospel truth. Yes there were problems with the sound quality of digital, and the same sorts of people who obsessively improved analog tape are now putting their talents into improving digital sound.

And if we're going to make comparisons to vinyl, I'll just mention that even with my Rega Planar 3 turntable the bass is squashed, the poor channel separation pushes everything into partial mono, and the high frequency response is finicky at best.[/i]

Well sir maybe you can't hear the difference but I fucking well can. My wife--A DRUMMER no less--can. As long as digital continues to chop sound into little bitty samples then it is by definition getting less information out than went in. I don't see how that can be altered.

In fact I have heard some digital records that I like--I don't deny that. But what I suspect is that their 'sound' is going to become a kind of production cliche of these years--something we can't really hear now but becomes glaringly obvious in hindsight, like certain reverb applications and guitar effects and stuff like that.

Also I suggest that if you have problems with your turntable & amp you should try to fix them rather than throw up your hands and say that the technology is flawed.

[wayne kerr]

Earth opens up and swallows Digidesign whole!

do you think it'd be possible for bush to be visiting the factory when this happens?

as long as he's with bill gates!

[superpenguin79]

Earth opens up and swallows Digidesign whole!

do you think it'd be possible for bush to be visiting the factory when this happens?

[JohnDavisNYC]

apple should start making tape and tape machines.... 1" 8tracks with a firewire port on the back or something. that would rule. and white plastic. and make the chimey apple sound when you turn on the tape machine.

weak.

john

[Professor]

You know, I've been holding this back out of kindness but you leave me no choice...

The earth could swallow up Digidesign tomorrow, and MOTU and Steinberg and Bill Gates too...
and I'll still be able to buy new hard drives next week.

As I said before, dinosaurs be damned, the show must go on.

Remember that we no longer work in some kind of exclusive, snooty, high-art, music industry. We work in an entertainment industry that is driven by consumer demand. And 10,000,000 iPod sales should prove in a most scientific way that the consumer doesn't care if the warm fuzzy distortion of glorious tape is audible - just give them the music, make it as cheap as possible, and allow them to move them around on the internet as quickly as possible.

-Jeremy

[Professor]

And while we're at it, if Bush were swallowed up along with Digidesign do you really think Cheney would resurrect tape for you?

-J

[MoreSpaceEcho]

he's done absolutely fuck all for me or anyone else, so no.