tlaskows wrote:
...The tapes I did use were just regular casette tapes and they sounded horrible! ...
... but why tape sound? I already have enough hiss when I record.-Tom
In digital world, you cannot go over 0dBfs. When you do it sounds harsh.
With quality tape you go into the red and it saturates, compresses and sounds great, has more punch.
The tape hiss doesn´t matter when recording hot ...
You get much more hiss from a miced guitar or bass amp, especially when stomp boxes and/or tape echo machines are in the instrumentalit´s signal chain too.
When recording drums and vocals, most mics hiss too more or less and preamps/mixers do too,- all sums up.
That´s why there are expander/gates, noise filters/single-ended NR like Rocktron Hush and similar technology available.
Most hardware keyboards and synths also hiss more than the tape itsself.
You´ll also get hiss on a harddrive when recording electromagnetic/electronic instruments and vocals and don´t do everything w/ virtual instruments.
Any professional tape recorder isn´t comparable to a compact cassette recorder/player and professional tape itself is also not comparable to that material compact casettes are made from.
Pro tape MTRs use professional Dolby or DBX noise reduction.
IIRC, some switched it off and ran double speed which is expensive because it eats more tape per song.
Think about, 60s, 70s and 80s,- the 90s also but it went down already,- were the golden times of music.
Most stuff recorded, mixed and mastered at that time is analog production and it sounded always good enough for millionsellers.
When Protools came up, it was all about the editing which was easier than cutting tape.
Later, producers discovered the moneysaver harddrive. Buying no tape anymore was more money in their pockets.
Digital seemed to be the holy grail for everyone and everything ...
I remember when affordable digital samplers appeared in the market, they thought you will need no instruments anymore.
The same happened when drummachines and sequencers made ´em believe they don´t have to hire musicians anymore.
And so on,- it was all about saving money and not quality of audio or music itself.
Digital recordings on harddrives are NOT better than recordings on tape when done right,- period.
Same rules for masters.
Tape plugins are a joke, really.
In the beginning when analog was out and digital was hip, nobody wanted tape hiss, wow and flutter, distortion and such.
Then the manufacturers recognized,- musicians, producers and engineers complained lack of warmth of analog gear in digital products.
Now they came up w/ analog emulations and tried to simulate analog tape.
When I became aware of this I won´t believe because the intention of digital was getting rid of all the unperfection in analog audio,- and then when it worked, they came and scratched their head how to get all the dirt back into the recordings,- and they REALLY thought a
digital plugin is the solution,- LOLest !
Bud
