I have the opportunity to transfer my upcoming songs to a 2 inch Studer tape machine or another thinner kind from a different machine that I can’t remember the name of, and was curious if there’s still a lot of people doing that out there? It’s going to be interesting to hear the sonic differences and what it does to the over all sound. Even if it’s a thing where you can’t necessarily hear the change, if you can feel it, it would be worth me doing everytime I put a song together.

It won't be the same as recording to tape but hey, if you have the opportunity i'd use it 100%!
Depending on your sounds you may wow!love it, find it subtle (feel it) or even prefer the original, and this way you can find out
for yourself.
I'm an old tape freak and if you don't have to schlepp 100 miles and pay a boat i say - what a cool opportunity!

Yes it would be free. I have a friend who owns an incredible studio in his house and he’s got like three top-of-the-line tape machines. we’re gonna experiment and see which one sounds better with my music. I think the one I was thinking one is an Ampex machine. I’ve messed around with those universal audio tape machine plug-ins, and I could really never find any of them that I thought sounded very good. Was always a head scratcher to me. What all the fuss was about. I’m gonna guess having the real thing is gonna be slightly different. Haha

imo an entirely pointless endeavor...

Why???

Brilliant, the perfect scenario to find out everything you wanted to know directly for yourself while having fun with a friend!

DDY said it was a pointless endeavor though? Haha

if you are just comparing using a real tape machine to a tape plugin, then i understand.

otherwise try re-recording a song or two directly to tape... then compare.

unless your music is composed from all digital virtual instruments... then it really doesn't matter.

but if you want to experience what a real analog recording sounds like and compare it to a digital recording of the same song... record all analog (real) instruments to tape with good mics/pres and you will know the difference... it's not subtle... providing the engineer is good.

and to answer your question... nope, but i'd use tape over a daw in a heartbeat if it was still practical to do so.

He has all my stems and has a 24 track Studer tape machine so he was gonna transfer all the tracks onto that. Most of it was done analogue. Neve 1073 API Mic pre, Pultec EQ tubecore compressor Distressor and API 550 EQ. It will be transferred over from Logic Pro. Guess we’ll see if it makes a difference

O là là, with that 24 track set up and your gear suggesting music with some cojones... it might just blow yer socks off

of course it will make a difference... that you may or may not prefer.

but again, if you've never heard a true analog recording... consider doing some recording there as well.

I hope so! 🙏

I will. Maybe next time. 🤘

I tend to agree with ddy that it's a pointless endeavor, and I am a guy who works on tape a whole lot. The main thing that tape buys you is that it forces you into a specific workflow and forces you to avoid certain production practices that result in poor performances that don't integrate well. Dubbing your multitrack to tape doesn't do any of that for you, it just gives you a generation with slight loss.

Now... if you want to take your multitrack and do a final mix through a console to a 2-track recorder, THAT is worth doing, because of the process of mixing as performance is a big deal and if you're good at it, it can be of real benefit to overall production quality. (And you also have a 2-track master now, which is likely to outlive modern digital formats, unless it doesn't.)
--scott

Thank you! That’s good to know. 👌

I use tape often with a high-end analog front end.

I agree that it forces you into a "make choices early and commit" type of workflow.

Yes there is a difference between tracking to tape vs. tracking to DAW and then transferring to tape.

The latter was used by Eric Valentine (UTA Unfairchild and SmashMouth). Check out his comments here on GS. (use the search) He said he likes the sound when he tracks to DAW and transfers to tape.

I wouldn't rule it out.

--------

because the result is predictable: you will experience a deterioration in signal quality.

scott is right that 2"/24trk can have a certain appeal as a production format, i.e. for recording: the technical limitations of analog tape machines force you to make (artistic) decisions relatively early on in the process (and not just stack tracks endlessly) - some people find that appealing, others find it more of a limitation...

And then how is he mixing? Is he mixing from the tape in realtime, or is he putting it right back into the DAW?
--scott

Read here - I'm pretty sure he's done both. He goes into detail on this interview.

Interview with Eric Valentine

Nice read! Thanks for sharing. 🙏

Since this is without cost and does not involve any damage or loss to the original digital tracks, why not. A well maintained and properly adjusted Studer 24 track was an element in a large number of hits from the 70s and 80s. What harm is there in someone experimenting with that and experiencing whatever that brings on their stuff.
I do hope someone is involved who has the chops to demag and align the machine, as well as to give some advice as to optimum recording levels for various instruments.

Yeah, that’s my thought process. might as well Try it if it sounds like shit, It’s not the end of the world. I won’t use it. I always wanna try to do anything I can though to make my songs sound the best they can.

He also often runs his vocals through tape machines because he likes what it does to the high end.

We routinely mix to 1/2" (Studer A-80RC) and fly it back in to PT.

Yes love printing tracks to tape and back in.
The purists will say you’re missing the point of tape, so by that token tape plugins are all entirely useless as well - which we know is nonsense !
It has a sound (somewhat different to tape plugins funnily enough) it sometimes works a treat.
How you hit it and what else you include in the chain makes also a big difference (I like a pultec on the way back in for lifting at either end).
I keep an old revox 2 track just for this purpose.
Go forth and print. Ignore the poo poo brigade, it’s not pointless, but mileage varies

That sounds awesome! 🤘 I’m going to use a API 5500 for the same reason to add a little bottom and top end, along with a stereo Tubecore compressor. Look forward to hearing the test results.

let us know how it goes... and, if you want, post the results, before and after... i know i'd like to hear it.

just a comment from the cheap seats:

in 1986, in the presence of pierre boulez, who had realized a work on behalf of one of the richest people at the time, i was able to witness the recordings as assistant to the state radio's head engineer jürg jecklin and to participate in a comparative listening between the studio's studer tape machines (calibrated by studer's own technicians) and one the first available digital multitrack tape machine from mitsubishi: the reaction of all those involved was clear:

'the fog is gone!

although i subsequently bought six (!) more studer tape machines for my studios (for commercial reasons), i have struggled to listen to recordings on analog tape ever since...

...and i'm not alone: pretty much all classical and jazz music since then got recorded on a digital medium - ymmv...

I still track to tape.

Which is a completely different animal to "I'm gonna run my daw mix one-pass through two tracks of a maintained/aligned 24trk... (likely not even a console in the path either, right) ...and then print the one-pass back to a wav file and be dazzled by the result.

There will be no dazzling result. Doesn't work that way for one-pass (esp no-console one-pass).

However, as you say....."you" may feel dazzled afterwards simply because you had it done.

You run a daw mix through a beat-up tape recorder that fell off a truck several times over four decades and was never maintained.....yeah.....you might hear something after one-pass.

At any rate....that's my opinion on this oft-repeated sort of topic

This is true. BUT... if you also have an opportunity to mix that way, you should take it, just because it will be an eye-opening experience.
--scott