Wayne Parham Messages: 18752 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Reel-to-reel isn't used by pros anymore but for the uber-high-end, there's no better distribution media for the recordings that were originally mastered on tape.
Adveser Messages: 434 Registered: July 2009 Location: USA
Illuminati (1st Degree)
I prefer bounce down and back to digital for drums, keyboards and Bass Guitar. Those are the ones that benefit from the saturation since they get really low, it would tame down the highs to darken things a bit. I would double the analog tracks with a digital recording as well. There is no substitute if you want a recording that easily captures anything the mic will throw at it. I would move the timing around on the drums to maximize each one's attack time and decay. I don't even think about gates anymore now that it's so easy just to delete the audio you don't want. You could delete a drums tracks selectively if something doesn't sound good doubled or one way or another.
Tape is a great tool that is very difficult to replicate. There's no substitute for the real thing this time.
Adveser Messages: 434 Registered: July 2009 Location: USA
Illuminati (1st Degree)
How are they making the tape? They couldn't be making dozens of copies of copies of copies could they? Why not use a laser and make a set of instructions that enables a recorder to duplicate it exactly every time?
Wayne Parham Messages: 18752 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
They go into detail about how they make the tap at the link above. They're not the only ones doing it either, just the most visible. I know a man who buys his tapes from an industry insider that copies them directly from the studio master tape.