the deal -
I have a cranesong spider, I've been recording my drummer two ways - letting all 8 channels go to digital separately, and at the same time submixing them to two tracks to the ATR-102 (staying in the analog domain, never converted- yes the spider sums in the analog domain). I then bounce the two tape tracks to digital - through the cranesong spider converters.
The two track tape bounced to digital sounds better than the 8 individual digital tracks (though with some eq, I must admit I got the digi tracks to sound pretty good, had used a little David Hill tape on the kick, snare, great river eq as well).
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Then - I listened back to the tape machine straight through to the monitors, no conversion. Shit! It IS LEAGUES beyond what it sounds like when it's transferred to digital.
I went back and listened to an acoustic guitar part I did the same thing with - tracked to tape, bounced to digital. NOT EVEN CLOSE - it sounded so beautiful directly from the tape...
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BUT it kills me that eventually it will be on a cd or mp3, so what the fuck is the point and should I just record everything digitally (through the spider, which does truly does sound great - well at least when not comparing to tape), then mix down to the atr 102? I do realize a certain characteristic and magic of the tape does transfer through to the digital realm, however it's just not the same. I tried it at 96k as well, still not even close...
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after listening to tracks directly from tape, i want to buy a 2"...but...the pains, the hassles, being a one man studio...aaagh!!
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the only solution - track to 2", mix to my atr102, press to vinyl? (let's see how many customers I get, and who will have a serious stereo system where they will enjoy it!)
p.s. the killer - I actually still get into certain songs I did 10 years ago on an adat more than now, in fact my old tascam 4 track has some great stuff from 13 years ago... so it's only the song that counts right