Analog/ digital help

[alex hedley]

Hi guys,

i know this is a question where il probably get all sorts of answers like 'why do you want to do that?' but just want to see some view points on this. so i really like the sound of tascam recorders but i also like the sound fo digital recordings and iv'e been racking my brain over how to go about getting somewhere in the middle of the two. i was contemplating buying a tascam machine and possibly transferring some of my digitar mixes onto tape and then back into the computer again. would this give it any sort of analog sound or is that just a load of crap. im experienced in music and recording etc but analog is something iv'e never touched. im also looking to try and get something that sort of has the nebraska vibe by bruce springsteen but with a bit less hiss and sort of a bit updated sounding. was talking to my producer friend the other day as i had an idea of transporting digital to tape and then back to digital and from there actually mixing the digital audio and the tape audio together. obviously the synch would have to be tight and would still give that chorus'ey double tracked efeect... but im basically trying to make something that sounds different so going against the grain isnt a problem.... he however said that this would be a problem because tape stretched or something and it will go wildly out of synch with the digital... so any way i guess my questions... 1. can anyone clarify about the tape stretching scenario. 2. will recording digital to tape and then back to digital just sound shit and be a waste of time. 3. is there ways of minimizing the hiss from the tascam tape recorders.... or is there a tascam machine in particular that is more clean sounding?

thanks and apologies in advance if this is just real newbie crap that makes no sense ha ha

 

[wkrbee]

Depending how many tracks you want to transfer,a three head recorder would be the easiest way to go.Play back the tracks from the computer,recording into the analog deck with the recorder set to playback from the play head.Send the output of the tape recorder back into the computer,recording it to a new set of tracks.There will be a delay,so you would have to "nudge" the recorded tracks to line up with the original tracks in the computer

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I would agree that there will be sync problems but in this day of digital and expanded views, it should be possible to grab on to a transient and realign it with the digital wave again. The deck that will serve you the best depending on length of the song are those with direct drive motors.
I have always liked the Tascam 52 but a 42 will work as well. The BR20 might also be a choice but none of these were cheap machines which means they were made well. Tape does not stretch like some say but the speed of a machine over a time will drift. After all this was not a problem when they were used for recording. I have a lot of clients that do their own recordings and use this method.

 

[Caveman]

I've done something like what you're after. Tracked vocals to tape and digital at same time. Once we had keeper take we tracked tape vocal to digital lined it up with digital take. We always had lots of editing to do thruout the rest of the vocal track to make up for drift.

Didn't matter what tape machine we used or width of tape we had to cut up the taped vocal track thru the song to align sections perfectly with the digital recording. Tascam, studer, ampex, MCI and fostex were machines used from 1/2" to 2". It can be done but hindsight, wasn't worth the time and effort IMHO but you should do it just for the experience if no other reason. It might not bother you, the slight drift, the tedious task of lining up little snippets might not bother you like it did me. Won't know till you try it.

I like tracking to tape and keeping it tape even mixing down to tape but, I transfer to digital for editing massaging but like to send finished tracks back to tape or at least mix digital down to tape. Whatever you do have fun doing it!!!!

 

[wkrbee]

Striping SMPTE on the tape machine and have the DAW chase the tape machine will give you better results.