And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Why? Tape gets old, stretched, and brittle. Digital is just fine unless you care to hear static, wow/flutter, warped reels, etc. I don't enjoy hearing extraneous noise, but...your milage may vary.
Back in the 70s, I worked in a recording studio and used a Teac A-3340S to make location recordings of live events. In 1998 I bought some Digidesign ADCs and started doing digital multitrack recordings. I found a dozen or so of the old 4-channel tapes and wanted to convert them to digital. I picked up a used Teac 40-4 locally off EBay and set to work. As I played them, the tape oxide started to come off the tape and coat the heads and capstan rollers. I was able to make a couple of passes on each tape and it wasn’t too degraded. I am glad I did it when I did. I can’t imagine trying it after another few years. I’ve been using only digital since then and it is so much more robust, but sound quality is very dependent on the quality of the ADCs, the DACs, the other analog gear and microphones used, and definitely the software signal processing done. It’s pretty easy to create reasonably good digital recordings, but there’s still a great deal of knowledge and skill required to make recordings that use the full extent of the medium with superior results.
Thank you for that summary. I was in the retail hi-fi business at the end of the analog era and it was a delight. I nearly starved to death, but the equipment and people I engaged with were valuable parts of my journey.
I take a couple of high-end audio magazines just to keep up with the technology. My gear is mostly 70's and 80's. There are ads all over the place for new R-R equipment. It seems to be coming back among those with the money.
I keep hoping someone will update and bring the medium back.
ReplyDeleteAt an affordable price.
DeleteWhy? Tape gets old, stretched, and brittle. Digital is just fine unless you care to hear static, wow/flutter, warped reels, etc. I don't enjoy hearing extraneous noise, but...your milage may vary.
DeleteThe gear is retro-cool.
DeleteThe medium is awful.
that is so flippin cool!
ReplyDeleteBack in the 70s, I worked in a recording studio and used a Teac A-3340S to make location recordings of live events. In 1998 I bought some Digidesign ADCs and started doing digital multitrack recordings. I found a dozen or so of the old 4-channel tapes and wanted to convert them to digital. I picked up a used Teac 40-4 locally off EBay and set to work. As I played them, the tape oxide started to come off the tape and coat the heads and capstan rollers. I was able to make a couple of passes on each tape and it wasn’t too degraded. I am glad I did it when I did. I can’t imagine trying it after another few years. I’ve been using only digital since then and it is so much more robust, but sound quality is very dependent on the quality of the ADCs, the DACs, the other analog gear and microphones used, and definitely the software signal processing done. It’s pretty easy to create reasonably good digital recordings, but there’s still a great deal of knowledge and skill required to make recordings that use the full extent of the medium with superior results.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that summary.
DeleteI was in the retail hi-fi business at the end of the analog era and it was a delight. I nearly starved to death, but the equipment and people I engaged with were valuable parts of my journey.
I take a couple of high-end audio magazines just to keep up with the technology. My gear is mostly 70's and 80's. There are ads all over the place for new R-R equipment. It seems to be coming back among those with the money.
ReplyDelete