R/E/P Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: 1 2 3 [4]   Go Down

Author Topic: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?  (Read 12958 times)

Apemandan

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #45 on: March 26, 2006, 07:18:54 PM »

Yo damn right John!!  Thanks..

Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy
Logged

Johnny B

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1134
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #46 on: March 26, 2006, 10:34:37 PM »

Emmm, looks like Teddy does mostly Voice Over Work. Sometimes the people who do VO work are funny, often, they are not.

But doing VO work may tend to shade one's opinion because, perhaps, the critical listening skills developed by tape operators, engineers with real talent, and seasoned musicians may not be present.

Under the circumstances, one may not want to get excited in any way by these kinds of people's purely personal opinions.

OK, so he does not like tape, who cares?

Those who love the sound of analogue and prefer it to the cold, lifeless, dead-sounding, and sterile "zeros and ones" that digital mangles with truncation, "anomalies" and which subjects the entire digital process to numerous math errors, and for the time-being, simply does not measure up to world class analogue sound, need not waste their time explaining why the sound of analogue is so clearly superior to someone who has been brainwashed by digital marketing hype.  
Logged
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality,
they are not certain; as far as they are certain,
they do not refer to reality."
---Albert Einstein---

I'm also uncertain about everything.

Jean Taxis

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 72
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #47 on: March 27, 2006, 04:20:16 AM »

Apemandan wrote on Sun, 26 March 2006 15:29


..
and tape is still being manufactured, Quantegy are very much in business and making some great tape..GP9 being my fave.  There is rumour that Emtec 900 is about to go into production again which is GREAT sounding tape.

Have a look at some of the machines we have collected in the past 4 years or so, for not as much money as you may think..

http://www.apestudios.com/html/machine_room.html

most have come from online auction, but there are plenty of dealers out there..

cheers, Dan  



What a nice place !
By the way, about Emtec 900 vs GP9, which one did you prefer ?

Jean

Apemandan

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #48 on: March 27, 2006, 08:42:51 AM »

Jean Taxis wrote on Mon, 27 March 2006 10:20

Apemandan wrote on Sun, 26 March 2006 15:29


..
and tape is still being manufactured, Quantegy are very much in business and making some great tape..GP9 being my fave.  There is rumour that Emtec 900 is about to go into production again which is GREAT sounding tape.

Have a look at some of the machines we have collected in the past 4 years or so, for not as much money as you may think..

http://www.apestudios.com/html/machine_room.html

most have come from online auction, but there are plenty of dealers out there..

cheers, Dan  



What a nice place !
By the way, about Emtec 900 vs GP9, which one did you prefer ?

Jean



To be honest, i've only ever used emtec once or twice.  I am only 30, and the studios where i served my time used ampex/quantegy.  I remember it sounding great though and can't wait for it to be re-issued.  Has anybody else used Emtec in years past??

Dan.   Razz
Logged

fadeout

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 33
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #49 on: March 27, 2006, 10:13:27 AM »

Apemandan wrote on Mon, 27 March 2006 08:42

To be honest, i've only ever used emtec once or twice.  I am only 30, and the studios where i served my time used ampex/quantegy.  I remember it sounding great though and can't wait for it to be re-issued.  Has anybody else used Emtec in years past??

Dan.   Razz


I have a reel of 900 2" threaded up for today's session right now. And I'm down to my last half a dozen reels of 900 for mixdown, which will be used up in the near future.

In terms of 900 vs GP9, I guess it's personal preference, but I liked the Emtec/BASF stuff because I thought it sounded better (duh!) than the GP9, handled better, and was more consistent and reliable. Trying to describe differences in sound is tough, but I find 900 to have, sonically, some of the attributes that I like about 456, but it's quieter/ higher output, and I have not personally experienced shedding or slitting problems. GP9 is a heavier tape, and although it IS good, there's just something I can't quite put my finger on about the sound that I'm not crazy about. But, that could be because I have not spent enough time playing with different alignments/biasing. It's certainly not bad. Just different.

I've been using some brand new Quantegy 456 recently and have had no quality problems thus far, and I like the sound of that too, but I do find it a bit noisier in practice.

Some good news is that I just heard from the US sales director of RMGI who told me that the first shipment of SM911 1/4" is on the way to the US. This will be followed by 468 and then 900, and it sounds like their target for 2" shipment is early June. It sounds like they have gone to a lot of trouble to meet or exceed the quality of the old Emtec products. So a bit more of a wait, but it seems hopeful.

And ATR Magnetics are working on a new line of tape also, which I expect will be worth the wait.

Basically you just have to experiment and listen and make your own decisions.
Logged
Chris Putnam

Jean Taxis

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 72
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #50 on: March 27, 2006, 10:28:03 AM »

[quote
To be honest, i've only ever used emtec once or twice.  I am only 30, and the studios where i served my time used ampex/quantegy.  I remember it sounding great though and can't wait for it to be re-issued.  Has anybody else used Emtec in years past??

Dan.   Razz [/quote]

I used Maxima 900 a lot, from 1997 to 2003, (15 ips/Dolby SR)
I really loved it, clear & musical, IMO sounding close to 3M 996.
Since then, I have been often using GP9 on stereo 1/2", and found need to reach eq adjustment's compromise a bit different to be happy.
But I unfortunately use analog. multitracks very rarely (cost for clients!)? so I miss comparisons on multitracks... Razz

Apemandan

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #51 on: March 27, 2006, 03:37:26 PM »

 [/quote]


Some good news is that I just heard from the US sales director of RMGI who told me that the first shipment of SM911 1/4" is on the way to the US. This will be followed by 468 and then 900, and it sounds like their target for 2" shipment is early June. It sounds like they have gone to a lot of trouble to meet or exceed the quality of the old Emtec products. So a bit more of a wait, but it seems hopeful.


[/quote]


Can't wait to try the RMGI 900, i've just emailed their main office in the Netherlands to try and find out when it is available in the UK.  It would be great to try on my next project.

Shocked
Logged

Apemandan

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #52 on: March 27, 2006, 03:44:10 PM »

Jean,
Its such a shame!  Obviously some clients just can't afford tape and would rather go digital, but if you run at 15ips (which sounds so much better) than it is not that costly, even if recording an album.
Logged

Jean Taxis

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 72
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #53 on: March 28, 2006, 07:22:16 AM »

Apemandan wrote on Mon, 27 March 2006 22:44

Jean,
Its such a shame!  Obviously some clients just can't afford tape and would rather go digital, but if you run at 15ips (which sounds so much better) than it is not that costly, even if recording an album.



Dan, I 100 % agree !..  running @15ips/SR sounds great!  and the cost is not so high, specially for

Timeline

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 215
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #54 on: March 29, 2006, 02:30:09 PM »

Wow!

Been reading all of this and I have to say after 38 years of recording, the last 5 of them doing digital on every conceivable system,, that doing Analog 16 track on specific machines like MM1000,1100 and some tweaked 1200's blows the pants off most digital IOs in the business with the exception of a boat load of UA 2192's.

If any of you ever get a chance to put a 24 channel a/b switch in play with your favorite IOs please, by all means do it during a playback. Un F___ing believable loss of clarity on most. That includes ProTools.

After doing the test myself, I bought a 24 track and a 16 track MM1200 and two sets of 16 track heads. Unfortunatly they are still sitting damn it and I have plenty of 456 and 499 2" tape too. oh and an oven.. Smile

The Digital IO manufacturers owe us more than cheap 50 cent differential chips on the front end and that's about all I have to say on the matter.
Logged
Gary Brandt
Timeline

John Noll

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 253
Re: recording on tape, transfer to digital useless?
« Reply #55 on: April 17, 2006, 12:03:03 AM »

I think the BASF/EMTEC 900 was the best sounding "modern" high output tape formulation. It also seemed to have very precise tolerances and passed through the transport very smoothly. Looking forward to having it available again.

We use a lot of 2" 499 and 900 house tape then transfer it over to Radar. And the Radar sounds pretty damn good for digital.
Pages: 1 2 3 [4]   Go Up
 

Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.039 seconds with 20 queries.