DAT vs TAPE vs SOFT

What is your thoughts on MASTER recording? I was on logic, now im on DAT, but going to buy good studio Tape recorder.

I love tape bought a pioneer RT707. I used to record drums to tape and then play them back into my digital recorder. I saw that Squarepusher did that too afterwards.
The only problem is that tape is brittle but the sound is great and it is fun to work with...splicing and all that.
If you can get the wider tape even better.
For me tape and digital go together well. DAT is alright but you don't get great sound out of DAT (not grester than cd or other digital I should say). I record 24bit 44.1 and I make dance music (house, DnB and Dub reggae. This combination and tape is excellent.
Cheers,
Ian

I've been through most of the available tape mediums already. At this point, I prefer my finals to go digital of course. But on the way, I have a choice of going cassette, adat, or dat.

But with the available plugs these days, you can virtually achieve or mimic analog tape with the push of a button. It may not be exactly the same, but with some added adjustments here and there, you can come very close.

And like what Ian stated, I prefer 24/44.1 too for my finals.

As a matter of fact, I still have a dbx ddp hardware compressor that has an excellent rendition of tape saturation with what they call type IV conversion system to get more headroom during this process.

So with the right tools, some experimenting, and a good ear, you can get that smooth warm sound that's mostly associated with taped based systems.

Got a reel 2 reel recently.... never going back to digital for recording mixdowns..
BUT.. if you want to splash out on something similiar, be prepared for maintenance, (re)calibration.

I just replaced the motor caps on my revox... but had to buy a bunch of other parts that also need replacing after 30 yrs of use.. If you're not handy and don't live near someone who can do this kind of stuff as well as the calibration, then I'd forget it.

For something cheaper/easier to replace, you could consider a VCR ... or one of these (supposed to sound great):


@canefire
Wider tape doesn't mean, higher resolution/quality.
All depends on track width, tape speed, tape machine, calibration, and other factors...
And as some people prefer lofi audio here... lower res=more better

Anyway, Technically half track with 1/4" tape @ 15ips is higher res than a 24 track with 2" tape @ 30ips
...Also higher speed usually means less bass... That's one reason why I prefer to record @ 7.5ips than 15.

that's funny...I didn't realize I said wider had a "higher resolution/quality."

I thought I was perfectly clear in my statements. Just to be clear when I mentioned wider "even better" it is because I covet a different machine than the one I have and there are advantages to having wider tape (1/2 inch in my case).
cheers,
Ian

PS" I notice that people seem to take things the wrong way quite a bit in this forum. Reading comprehension seems to be an issue from time to time. Just take it light...this isn't that deep....well not for me"

i used a DAT till recently. i thought it gave a good punchy sound to things.
now using a tascam dr40 -- two track digital recorder

shit that video was 99% pointless

maybe i do somethin' weird but my final mix goes thru tube buffor and intro my well driven alesis preamps. Preamps sometimes make wonders(punch!!) especially if source material was only digital (mp3, cds), but if was driven before sounds shitty. Tubes always make wonders(space).

I like DAT the most espcially if i can lower the sampling/bit rate and make use of some a/d convertes. but that's purely opinion based there is no superior option. If you want to give some tape pushing a try without diving into the whole reel2reel thing start dubbing some samples or tracks to VHS. I've really liked the effect it gives for audio and video after you record the VHS tape and then dupe it back to the tape again and possibly again think mid 80s PBS/psa's especially with kicks and snares cause VHS obliterates anything above 10khz at best after a few iterations. Can you say FAT AS HELL!

Granted its not the same as actual reel to reel tape, but it's a great cheap method for tape saturation/distortion and with the possibly to keep redubbing you can really go nuts on it. Also the tracking feature on old VHS players is fantastic for loops and longer samples because it tottally shifts the sample completely out of tune when it's trying to find the right tracking speed. It's extremely destructive so I wouldn't do more than one dupe for a master track but I love doing this to synth samples.