Show Analog Some Love
Yeah, yeah, digital is everywhere. It’s great and flexible and full of amazing technology.
But Analog FEELS good. It SOUNDS good.
Isn’t that enough sometimes?
Show Analog some love by leaving some of your Analog memories in the comments or shooting us some tweets @askasoundguy or @benversluis
Just to show I’m a good sport, I’ll start:
My first recordings were all done on a four-track cassette deck that my first band bought together. We spent many many hours trying to get a decent recording in my parents garage with a couple of mics we bought at target or walmart or something along those line. We had a $150 drum set (mine) a couple of learner guitars and almost nothing resembling talent, but it was fun. That cassette deck (which I recently bought from the guitarist of that first band) was truly decked out – EQ’s, two aux sends and even dbx noise reduction (a compansion – compression then expansion – noise reduction system that gives you MASSIVE compression effects when tweaked). It also has a varispeed knob that let you speed up and slow down playback – and incredible feature which I use to make lo-fi tape flanging.
What a great machine…
Oh and the first time I recorded on a 24-track Studer at school, I almost cried. Although that might be because I was mixing-down on a SSL 9000. But yeah, I’m a digital man with a child’s analog heart.
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I couldn’t do my work (sonophile mobile stereo & surround recordings of live concerts & sessions) in this quality (and without having to rely on a car / truck) without digital technology, but I sure love my analog microphones!
That’s where it starts–well not exactly. It starts with good music being performed by gifted, hard-working & enthusiastic musicians, but I come in by placing my microphones–well not really.
In many cases I am the first audience / more or less objective pair of ears listening in, and helping the musicians get into the flow, and stay there, while getting the work done–to be captured by my analog microphones :-)
The music happens before the microphones, before any gear at all, and is captured in the analog world, transparently (digitally) preserved for lossless “processing”, to be recreated in the analog world for our ears.
I think my first analog experience was generally horrifying: stepping into a room with a Neve VR, a 24-track Studer 2″ machine, and a ton of outboard gear for the first time made me nervous.
That being said, everything after that was great. I’d consider myself a proponent of digital recording, but if I was rich, I’d have a decent all analog console and some tape machines for sure. Nothing beats the first time you record to tape.
Actually I know a guy who still records on his old Fostex 4 track cassette and you would never know it. Sounds like 1″ at least. Sounds really good believe it or not. He has been recording on this old little thing for so many years he can take the sound beyond normal limitations. This situation is really rather inspiring because it tells me that it truly isn’t how fancy the gear is but how you can use it.
That’s awesome. You can make awesome recordings on anything. Just need to know how to use the gear.
Hi Mike,
> it truly isn’t how fancy the gear is but how you can use it.
definitely, if there was something good to be recorded in the first place :-) I’d be happier to preserve a great musical moment with one mediocre microphone & a tape recorder than track some crap in surround @ 24-192.
OTOH, I always take a Metric Halo ULN-2 & two DPA 4060’s with me on vacation, so the chance is good that I’ll be prepared when some good music crops up ;-)
Yes certainly…in fact I have heard others say that they carry a recorder with them when they travel not necessarily to record a performance but rather a location or atmosphere of a place or setting to take back to the studio to use as a background for a performance such as forest or river or even a city street. Opens up all sorts of new ideas.
There’s nothing far better than performing at your peak. I love it, along with so does my girl.