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Author Topic: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?  (Read 7477 times)

breathe

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If there is a transfer service that uses iZ converters, I'm totally there.  You'd think this would be around.  I talked to Stuart Hallerman at Avast about this and he said the problem with sending tapes out to have them transferred is you have to make a digital backup at your own place first in case the analog masters get lost in the mail.

Nicholas



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Podgorny

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Find a studio that has a RADAR and a tape machine. Book time.
There are many in Nashville. Surely Austin has a couple.
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KB_S1

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How many of what kinds of tape do you want done?

How soon do you need it?

What is your budget?

What convertors are 'approved' by you for the job?
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Spindrift

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Little Red Wagon Studios in the SFBay can do it I think. Brad has an RADAR II Classic and an MCI 8trk. That might not be enough tracks for you though...
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tom eaton

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http://www.reelsound-usa.com/

In Buda, TX with multiple nyquist RADAR systems and a JH24.

Fletcher

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breathe wrote on Thu, 25 November 2010 10:58

 I talked to Stuart Hallerman at Avast about this and he said the problem with sending tapes out to have them transferred is you have to make a digital backup at your own place first in case the analog masters get lost in the mail.


All due respect to Stuart - for a couple of decades - after the invention of FedEx and after UPS figured out the model and started doing "air shipments" - master tapes were all generally "shipped" from city to city.  I've never heard of one getting "lost".  If that's your only concern - I'd put it pretty low on the list.

You might want to contact Robbie Norris of Norris Audio in NY http://www.norrisaudio.com I know he was also involved in a transfer business in addition to the hire company - last time we spoke [coupla -tree years ago] he was in the process of transferring all of John Lennon's recordings [including "roll recordings"] to the digital domain.  I'm not sure what converters he used [uses] but his commitment to quality is second to none.

Peace.
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


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If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
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Tom L

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Fletcher wrote on Sat, 27 November 2010 23:58

You might want to contact Robbie Norris of Norris Audio in NY http://www.norrisaudio.com ...


Thanks for that heads-up, Fletcher.

He's 15 minutes down the road from me and I didn't even know it!

breathe

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Thanks Tom and Fletcher for the referrals.  A lot of my analog tape library is on semi-pro Fostex formats (read 1/4 8-track and 1/2" 16-track each with Dolby C NR).  What I really want to do is buy Sonicraft an iZ Nyquist ADA so they don't have to use Mytek converters on my stuff.  Do you think they'd be up to that?  How many free tape transfers would I get for that?

Nicholas



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breathe

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The problem with the Fostex 1/4" 8-track stuff is that the build quality of those decks (in my case the R8) is really shitty and finding a working unit on e-bay is basically impossible.

Nicholas



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Tim Halligan

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Not having used them, what's the problem with Mytek converters?

Enquiring minds...

Cheers,
Tim
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breathe

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2010, 09:18:18 AM »

I can see why people buy them -  they cost the same as Apogees but are less colored so I guess for a transfer service that makes sense.  I just think they sound trashy.  I think I shit talk the Myteks more than they deserve.  I mean, you could do a _lot_ worse than use Myteks.  For music multitrack recordings I think the Apogee AD/DA-16X units are the best deal, and the iZ Nyquists are the most ideal, for 2-track mixdown there's a lot of usable options.  Even with none of its tape/tube DSP used I like the A/D on the Crane Song HEDD better than the BURL B2 Bomber ADC, though both the HEDD and Burl really need to sync to the Apogee C777 clock imo.  I totally disagree with Jim Williams about there being more jitter induced with a WC cable than the jitter in a converter.  That's a totally silly idea. Jim probably uses Hosa brand WC cables at his place.  The HEDD's DAC sucks ass though, it's totally smeary sounding.  I think Dave Hill wanted the HEDD to make an Alesis Masterlink sound like a 1/2" machine running 499 tape, but A) I think he went too far in his implementation of "color" and B) I don't think there's any place for "color" in a master DAC.  I mean, the master DAC is what you're monitoring your mixes through, you do want to know what your mixes actually sound like, right?  I like the Benchmark DAC1, glad I didn't sell that.  I don't know what I'd replace the DAC1 with for a 2-track master DAC.  I like that it has Toslink, coax, and AES/EBU so I can have pretty much everything connected to it and iTunes connected to it over Toslink sounds better than it probably has a right to.  When I started using Barbabatch and could finally make good sounding MP3's off of split stereo 24/96 Pro Tools WAV files, now when I want to show people what I'm working on, I don't even play mixes out of Pro Tools, I just play the MP3s out of iTunes through the Benchmark connected to my living room home stereo via my Coleman Audio monitor controller with speaker output #3 always on and with the attenuator disengaged going balanced Mogami down the hall into an Aphex 124A connected to my receiver with Mogami RCA cables.

Nicholas




Tim Halligan wrote on Sun, 28 November 2010 22:58

Not having used them, what's the problem with Mytek converters?

Enquiring minds...

Cheers,
Tim

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rollmottle

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2010, 12:43:15 PM »

Tim Halligan wrote on Sun, 28 November 2010 22:58

Not having used them, what's the problem with Mytek converters?

Enquiring minds...

Cheers,
Tim


Absolutely nothing. Transparent top to bottom. Exactly what I want so I can 1) hear everything I'm doing and 2) capture it exactly as it was heard.

We're splitting some pretty minute hairs here. If you could reliably discern the difference between a Mytek conversion or RADAR conversion, I guess you win at that? Little to nothing is getting left on the table at this level. I don't see how it's going to impact the music on tape in a way that makes any appreciable difference.
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cgc

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2010, 12:50:11 AM »

Myteks aren't good enough to capture your 1/4 inch Fostex 8 track tapes?  
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breathe

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #13 on: December 05, 2010, 01:36:12 AM »

Yes, and the reason is the problems that can afflict digital converters are totally different than the problems inherent to an analog multitrack like the Fostex R8.  I am currently digitizing my best friend's cassette 4-track recordings from 10+ years ago here in my studio and I am taking the process really fucking seriously.  When you confuse one medium's fidelity problems for another medium's, you make a GRAVE ERROR.  You might as well use a crappy film scanner to digitize Jacques Henri Lartigue's photographs from when he was a little boy in turn of the century 1900's Paris.

Nicholas



cgc wrote on Sat, 04 December 2010 21:50

Myteks aren't good enough to capture your 1/4 inch Fostex 8 track tapes?  

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NelsonL

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #14 on: December 05, 2010, 02:54:33 PM »

breathe wrote on Sat, 04 December 2010 22:36

Yes, and the reason is the problems that can afflict digital converters are totally different than the problems inherent to an analog multitrack like the Fostex R8.  I am currently digitizing my best friend's cassette 4-track recordings from 10+ years ago here in my studio and I am taking the process really fucking seriously.  When you confuse one medium's fidelity problems for another medium's, you make a GRAVE ERROR.  You might as well use a crappy film scanner to digitize Jacques Henri Lartigue's photographs from when he was a little boy in turn of the century 1900's Paris.

Nicholas



cgc wrote on Sat, 04 December 2010 21:50

Myteks aren't good enough to capture your 1/4 inch Fostex 8 track tapes?  





The crappy film scanner analogy is BS Nick.

I would offer that it is more like re-shooting a Lartigue print with Nikon D3 when your preference is a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, assuming equal lighting and lense quality.

Re-shooting a print isn't ideal, but it used to be the only way to make slides, and it can look quite good when done well.

If you really care so much about this project, why don't you hire Chris Walla to mix the tracks analog. That'd be the best possible thing right?

Leave Mytek alone though, it just makes you sound unstable ranting about a company with an otherwise stellar rep. That's GS style hyperbole, which you claim to hate.
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breathe

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Re: Is there an analog tape transfer service that doesn't use Mytek converters?
« Reply #15 on: December 05, 2010, 07:24:30 PM »

HEAR YE HEAR YE:  FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, I WILL NO LONGER SPEAK ILL OF MYTEK CONVERTERS ON THIS FORUM.  FOLLOW YOUR BLISS.

Nicholas





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