| Analog 1/4 ich tape is a great sounding medium, when it is
properly used. What's missing in the modern digital master released on CD is this
analog sound. Many of today's mastering houses have all sorts of digital processors
to try to simulate this analog sound that the recording engineer of the 60's had as his
only choice. The modern processors really help make the professionally mastered CD
sound better and much better than the home recordist but they don't sound as good as this
"old" technology. |
| In the introduction to this series of articles, I stated that what is
missing from the modern digital master is the "old-technology" analog sound.
This article is how about to attain that "analog sound" or effectively
simulate it for your recording to make a product with more "impact." |
| There are two general places that "analog sound" comes into
play in the studio procedures. One place is in the final master tape and the other place
is in the original multitrack recording. We will be discussing both places. |
|
| Analog tape tends to "round" the transient peaks of music.
This is part of the "tape compression" characteristic of tape.
Spikes that can rise 20 dB higher than the "average" level get squashed quite a
bit but in a manner where they don't really "sound" chopped. Since digital
media, like CD's, are sensitive to peak level, an analog master will have a significantly
higher average level. For the body of the music, a mild compression is added that,
again, makes the average level of the master higher. For a properly recorded analog
master, the average level (how loud it sounds) is two to three times louder than an
all-digital master. |
| Analog tape adds distortion. On a properly recorded master, this
comes off as an "edge" to the music. The edge of analog tape is rather
pleasing to most ears, and not the harsh sound of overloading electronics. |
|
THE
ANALOG SOUND |
RECORDING
THE MULTITRACK |
|
|
| Having mixed several projects where there were some tunes cut on analog
24 track machines and other tunes were cut with digital multitracks, I can tell you that
the analog multitracks also have a higher average level than the digital multitrack.
When mixing with a properly-recorded analog master, the mix has more impact, with
less work by the mixing engineer. This is especially true for things like drums.
Thus having each track have that analog "compression" and "edge"
really helps the final project. |
| The results, however, are only obtained by a really good engineer, used
to professional analog recording and with an expensive studio console and a
fully-professional recorder. The results are good only when the session is really
well-recorded. |
| The artists and producers with large budgets will seek out a studio with
an SSL console and a two-inch 24 track recorder. This can be expensive ($90 to $200
per hour). The producer will often transfer the analog multitrack to a digital
multitrack system, where final overdubs (such as the lead vocal) are done before mixing
begins. |
|
THE
ANALOG SOUND |
RE-RECORDING
THE MULTITRACK |
|
|
| Another alternative to recording with analog multitrack, is to transfer
your multitrack to analog and then back to digital. |
| Let's say that you recorded a tune in your basement on your ADAT system.
You got the micing down well because you have been reading REQ articles every week.
You were careful when you recorded the tape and didn't distort it or record a sea
of noise. |
| Now you take your ADAT recordings to a large studio with experienced
engineers, an SSL console and good analog multitrack recorders. The engineer feeds the
audio signals into the SSL from ADAT's. The engineer treats the signals like they
were analog signals from microphones, and records them to 2 inch analog 24 track.
The engineer then transfers them back to the ADAT format. |
| The engineer makes sure that each track of the multitrack is
recorded at the correct level for "best" sound on that instrument and adds
processing (such as equalization & compression) as would normally be done for 24 track
analog recording. When transferring the signal back to digital, the engineer makes
sure the peak levels are correct for the digital recording. |
|
THE
ANALOG SOUND |
THE
CONCLUSION |
|
Getting the "multitrack analog sound" benefits can be expensive.
Most of the readers are not going to pay the kind of money that the big producers
can to get a recording done at a large studio. Re-recording your ADAT tape, on the
other hand, could take an hour of studio time, where doing an actual session could take
several hours. Processing the stereo master tape by re-recording at a pro
studio or using a mixing processor are both viable methods in this stage. The bottom
line conclusion is that obtaining the impact and positive results of super-professional
recording may not be that expensive. You can move your faders on your home console
all you want, but you won't get the kind of results we are talking about, unless you have
an awfully well equipped home studio. |
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