Tape is a pleasant recording medium to listen to as proven by it’s longevity. Tape’s unique sound and tone coloring make it still useful today
The inputs are HighZ , so you’ll want an adapter to convert an xlr mic High Z signal into Lo Z. The Z Stands for impedance.
The outputs are often RCA jacks So you’ll want RCA-1/4 adapters for feeding into your interface. Technically, you’d get a slightly better result using a Di box to match the recorders output to line level input.
The advantages of tape are analogue saturation and compression, and vintage linear workflow – if that’s really an advantage.
You can work like the Beatles did, using a a pair of 2 track recorders, then recording mono tracks then bouncing down and adding more. With this method the tape saturation effect is in full effect as the mix is built.
Tape heads need to be cleaned and demagnetized with use. Tapes themselves are expensive these days, especially for high quality Type II, and Cr02 Metal formulations which give slightly better high end and dynamic range,.
Tape itself is limited in it’s frequency range from 80Hz up to 15.5KHz. That range is extended a bit more with Reel to Reel and studio 1” and 2” tape machines.
Tape can be recorded a bit hotter than in the digital realm. Getting close to 0, going in the red is allowed, and sometimes encouraged for pushing tape to distortion for effect. Holding back levels to the -18db digital recording standard will produce the highest fidelity tape recordings.
Tape recorders often incorporate Dolby noise reduction, which is turned on when recorded too and kept on for play back. It’s a two part circuit which applies pre-emphasis to the high end, and then cuts the emphasis on play back.
Some tape decks have syncing ability, where they are meant to have a audio code recoded onto a single track and then software that can interpret that code can match tempos on play back. These systems are pretty difficult to set-up and use effectively.
For home recording a cue sound like a sharp click can be used to manually align tracks after DAW import.
In practice multi track recorders are used, as mentioned previously like the Beatles, bouncing tracks and adding more tracks, working with the tape deck alone.
Some models can recored all 4 track at once. However it can record, they can be used away from a computer to record audio. Then that audio can be transferred to your DAW via an audio interface.
Tape can be used for it’s analogue sound by playing back your DAW output through your interface into your tape recorders inputs, recording your mix to tape, and then playing back the tape mix back into the DAW through the interface for additional editing. There are also audio plug-ins that can simulate this effect. Professional studios often will print to large format tape for this reason as part of a final mix process.
Tape is a pleasant recording medium to listen to as proven by it’s longevity. Tape’s unique sound and tone coloring make it still useful today. Recording to tape in it’s linear way can be a useful approach for breaking out of a “beats and loop” rut.
The inputs are HighZ , so you’ll want an adapter to convert an xlr mic High Z signal into Lo Z. The Z Stands for impedance.
The outputs are often RCA jacks So you’ll want RCA-1/4 adapters for feeding into your interface. Technically, you’d get a slightly better result using a Di box to match the recorders output to line level input.
The advantages of tape are analogue saturation and compression, and vintage linear workflow – if that’s really an advantage.
You can work like the Beatles did, using a a pair of 2 track recorders, then recording mono tracks then bouncing down and adding more. With this method the tape saturation effect is in full effect as the mix is built.
Tape heads need to be cleaned and demagnetized with use. Tapes themselves are expensive these days, especially for high quality Type II, and Cr02 Metal formulations which give slightly better high end and dynamic range,.
Tape itself is limited in it’s frequency range from 80Hz up to 15.5KHz. That range is extended a bit more with Reel to Reel and studio 1” and 2” tape machines.
Tape can be recorded a bit hotter than in the digital realm. Getting close to 0, going in the red is allowed, and sometimes encouraged for pushing tape to distortion for effect. Holding back levels to the -18db digital recording standard will produce the highest fidelity tape recordings.
Tape recorders often incorporate Dolby noise reduction, which is turned on when recorded too and kept on for play back. It’s a two part circuit which applies pre-emphasis to the high end, and then cuts the emphasis on play back.
Some tape decks have syncing ability, where they are meant to have a audio code recoded onto a single track and then software that can interpret that code can match tempos on play back. These systems are pretty difficult to set-up and use effectively.
For home recording a cue sound like a sharp click can be used to manually align tracks after DAW import.
In practice multi track recorders are used, as mentioned previously like the Beatles, bouncing tracks and adding more tracks, working with the tape deck alone.
Some models can recored all 4 track at once. However it can record, they can be used away from a computer to record audio. Then that audio can be transferred to your DAW via an audio interface.
Tape can be used for it’s analogue sound by playing back your DAW output through your interface into your tape recorders inputs, recording your mix to tape, and then playing back the tape mix back into the DAW through the interface for additional editing. There are also audio plug-ins that can simulate this effect. Professional studios often will print to large format tape for this reason as part of a final mix process.
Recording to tape in it’s linear way can be a useful approach for breaking out of a “beats and loop” rut.