Moog Music Forum

It's interesting you use the word capture, because I think digital recording does exactly that: captures a snapshot of an instrument very well in most cases. But in my opinion, with a high quality well calibrated tape machine, it's less capturing of the signal rather than storage. Semantics, I know, but when I hear playback of, for instance, my model D on my machines, it's as if the sound is coming from the instrument itself. That is, if the tape is hit at the right level, the sound is so natural to the ear as to be indistinguishable from the instrument itself. I think it's possible if the human ear had a different structure or "bandwidth" digital might sound more natural, and maybe some ears do, but to mine and most from what I have read, the sound of tape is more lifelike. That said, I often prefer processors that allow a less natural and more "surreal" sound, and digital converters and some crazy effects can be useful to me in that regard. I cannot stress how much I am grateful for digital recording, it has allowed music to be created and circulated at an acceptable quality level by the masses, democratizing music as it were.
But mostly I think the revival of analog gear and tape is due to being fed up with the poor quality of commercial digital music and a lack of new music that is on par with older classics. Plus when you compare classic recordings from say the 70's, the newer stuff has a certain air of phoniness to it, that those of who grew up listening to analog recordings find objectionable. This is obviously a psychological thing, but music is very psychological in nature.
And with the advent of digital audio came the vast expansion of editing and processing that some may say has had a detrimental effect on music. If any of you have heard of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a small group of people were able to to amazing things (like the original DR.Who theme) constrained by the limitations that would be unthinkable today. They didn't even have synths to work with on the original Dr.Who, just tape splicing, reverse playback, tape sampling, and some crude lab oscillators, yet they made that theme song into a classic electronic piece (though it took them weeks to make one 3 minute song). And back when they only had 2 tracks or even mono to record bands, the musicians and engineers knew they had to try harder to get a good take. Kind of like the invention of the microwave, it allows quick and easy cooking of food, but does it really taste better? It can, but for the most part nothing can beat a slow cooked meal.

I have an 8 track set up. It's 8 highly trained African Grey parrots who completely mimic any sound I make w/ the Voyager. TOTALLY analog, but editing (and cleanup...) is a real pain... Seriously, I used to use a Mackie 1202 (original version) to a Fostex 8 track reel to reel (in storage since Katrina...). Now it's Moog>whatever EFX>Mackie>Sony DAT for digital conversion>G5 1.8GHz tower optical input>Live 8 Intro (or Reaper). Sometimes I run it through a bass guitar amp and mic it w/ Audio Technica dynamic or MXL condenser mics... As much as I like tape, I *love* going all digital: We recorded our album half in my living room, half FTPing files back and forth (total cost = $0.00). Dan did the editing, and we uploaded it to CDbaby for worldwide distribution via iTunes and a load of other stores (total cost = $49.00). Gotta love the 21st century (now where's my jetpack?).

Here's a bit of what I use. I use to have a Tascam 388 and loved it, I just needed more tracks. If it wasn't for redundancy, I'd buy another in a heartbeat. I am very happy to see others here using it and mentioning it. I have fond memories and a load of tapes from that machine.
I still believe in tape and still make tape loops. There is nothing like analogue.

I have really grown to love the Roland VS-2480 and 1680. Who would have thought. Editing is a breeze on these machines and since everything going into them is analogue I find I'm very pleased with the warm sound I get.

I was very influenced by studios like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Rediffusion and WDR and eventually built my own!
I've had many synths including modulars and can't get enough of this stuff. It was very interesting seeing what other people on the forum are using.

Recording

Roland VS-2480CD
Roland VS-1680
AKG K240 Headphones
Alesis MasterLink


And yes, I'm starting to feel more like an engineer at times as opposed to the musician I started out as!

Cheers

Tascam 388: Best lo-fi sound on the planet. Great mixer/machine, and a technological advancement, cramming 8 tracks onto 1/4" tape and still getting an acceptable sound was an amazing feat. Those who record exclusively to digital and are planning to invest in a new synth or something should consider it. You can even record SMPTE time code on the eighth track and sync to DAW, allowing you to mix an analog and digital version of a track, or put all your analog gear on 7 analog tracks, and use digital tracks for background stuff, or just bounce down all your tracks and go completely analog while using DAW effects. I like to switch up recorders on the same song, like using the a drum beat put through Logic, then for another section of the song use the same beat through tape, and back and forth. I don't have a 388, but using it for this purpose dramatically changes the sound, which can create a sensation of movement and keep the listener interested. I got this idea from a film I saw in which the director used a digital format camera for most of the movie, until a dream sequence where he used 16mm film. Filming the same images through a different format changed it enough to cause a surreal sort of effect.