cultivate eat fuck sleep play percussion and wooden flutes. build garbage sculptures... there is lots to do!

 

Those were all routine tasks, usually performed by second/assistant engineers on a daily basis or before every session. The whole routine took some 15-20 minutes tops. Not a big deal really.

Multitrack cassette recorders were unusable without the noise reduction. If you forgot to turn it on it means you had turned it off beforehand for whatever reason, and it was nothing but looking for trouble. You can't blame the technology for the operator errors.

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2023

Also, another thing that should be mentioned is the cost of tape. A reel of 2" tape is costing me $400 dollars. That is right, $400 dollars for a reel of tape.

And some of them unusable when played on different models. Nakamichi was known for it.

 

Cable alone in a pro analog studio could bankrupt a small third world country, and don't forget the cost of...

ELECTRICITY!

 

Fewer than you'd imagine. Prosumer level lofi gear in home studios, or as an artistic lofi/vintage effect, sure. But good analog costs good money. Lots of parts are no longer manufactured, if you're lucky a single guy on the other side of the world pops up that manufactures replica parts, or a single company makes things like new tapes for your reel to reel. You're buying old stock in unknown condition from random people on ebay hoping to get your stuff back into working order because you can't exactly afford to have a shelf full of replacements kept in stock.

Actual professional (and mind you, top-tier professional, which is even fewer, plus their number dwindles every day, given ever shrinking budgets available for all but the most blockbuster projects, and the average consumer paying $17/month for Spotify and calling it a day) studios do hold on to the equipment they have, but even then it's rarely *fully* analog - if you so require, you pay extra to cover the upkeep of the equipment, and most frankly don't bother. It's very much a disadvantage in most regards to go fully analog and even the best analog recordings end up as a MP3 on Spotify that you earn $0.002 per listener from.

 

Oh yeah don't forget all the extra HVAC you need installed just to keep the SSL from overheating too..

@The Pirate - man I forgot about that part too hah. And that's only like 30 or 15 minutes of recording time depending on your tape speed??

 

You can always reuse a reel if you need, unless that is actually heinous and I was unaware lol

 

You can, but editing with a razor is the true version of "destructive editing".

 

I'm still using analog only: cooking with gas, no even electric kettle, only old fashioned one with a whistle...
when it boils it whistles with so warm (kinda lamp) sound...

 

Yeah, and you can reuse toilet paper, too... unless you had diarrhea.

 

It goes beyond merely tape speed. Even thickness factors in. Look at these charts by Richard L. Hess, and Tom Fine:

 

Average $1.50 to $2-dollars per hour. That is why it is always a good investment to acquire an aftermarket power supply like those by
Michael Toft. In a year you save more that what you paid for the PSU. It is a no brainer.

Overheating and humidity control. In a studio you need to stay around the 40%-50% mark. When air gets too dry (low humidity) you are inviting static to fry your IC. On the other hand, if humidity is high you invite corrosion and condensation and their detrimental effects on everything from equipment to your monitors to your magnetic tapes. Did I say monitors? Yes. Condensation can corrode the coil, and some speaker cones can absolve the excessive moisture which will affect the sound.

 

That seems more like taking an entire reel of razor edited tape and then reassembling, but yes of course

 

Sure, not a big deal when you had a flunky to do it.

Lets be honest, being "all analog" in this day and age is a fetish. It has nothing to do with how your recordings sound and everything to do with how hard your dick (or wet your pussy) gets as you sit in your big chair looking at (and then touching) your stuff.
And I approve of that 100%, but lets not fool ourselves.
And it's a rich man's kink, kind of like that party in Eyes Wide Shut.

 

Last edited: Sep 8, 2023

"Ohhhhh baby, yeah... when's the last time you got your azimuth adjusted that good, huh? Yeah, only daddy does it like that. What's that? Get the demagnetizer out? Oh you like that don't you..."
"Client's here!"
"I'm BUSY!!"

 

Many times I miss a simple little cassette portastudio . . . great way to bust out rough ideas w/o an hope or temptation of improving the sound quality.

 

don't want to ruin this thread but the producers posing with analog consoles and very expensive gear on the back while saying "this eq is my go to ever" ... I HATE THEM!

 

Back in the day you'd loved to have 4 tracks on a computer

 

Gabriel Roth “Daptone Studios” in my opinion is the most legit analogue studio in the world.

 

This is a strange way to say your point, but it's true. I don't really understand people who like to advertise analog recording as being this awesome "warm" or whatever sound, it's just a workflow nowadays when there's much more reasonable recording methods.
I don't think pro analog equipment is supposed to colour the sound, yet apparently adding "analog colour" is now a professional mixing technique

..either way, it's a fun workflow no matter if you have good or bad equipment