Running your masters through tape

[mrskytown11]

Does anyone still run their mixes through tape, actual tape I’m talking about. I think I want to try it out, I unno maybe I’m not using it right but Mixbus still feels digital to me, although it should since it’s a digital program.


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[Wood]

Does anyone still run their mixes through tape, actual tape I’m talking about. I think I want to try it out, I unno maybe I’m not using it right but Mixbus still feels digital to me, although it should since it’s a digital program.

I don't - but then I couldn't afford a Studer 1/2" machine and nice Ampex tape! I use the Waves J37, and also the Izotope emulations both in mixing as well as Mastering both of which are pretty good. I think I'd be hard pushed to reliably tell the difference between one of those emulated tape against a well calibrated Studer at 30ips or even 15ips.

If you want to really go for it place a tape emulation on every channel as well. The one thing these won't do is crosstalk (although some DAWs emulate cross-talk in their console shapers). I never liked that anyway though - nothing worse than the distant sound of SMPTE coding on track 24 crowding into that overdub on 23

[mrskytown11]

Maybe I should try the plugin alternatives, but I just feel tape is better lol


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[sunrat]

You should read this article about production for Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" album - https://sonicscoop.com/2013/05/27/icons-...s-memories . They recorded everything to ProTools and several 24-track tape machines and used what sounded right. IIRC they did rerecord some of the PT tracks back to tape as well.
I don't think they ran the masters through, but tape is still used in pro studios. You would need a mighty good tape machine to avoid it sounding worse though, Studer A80 at 30ips as hinted above should work nicely.

[Dingo]

After you are lucky enough to have found a working multitrack machine, get four guys to truck it to your studio, then if you are really lucky find a (long retired) person who can calibrate it for you (if you can find a test tape that will still play), then scour the world for 'real' magnetic tape at a realistic price.
Once the shock of tape hiss has settled into your brain, other artefacts like flutter, distortion, cross talk and fringing are there to remind you why we dumped tape so many years ago.
The only people I know who are still running magnetic are the Digital migration companies who are fighting a loosing battle to migrate years of recordings off an unstable magnetic medium.
The 'good old days' where in reality the 'bad old days' of tape hiss and distortion.
Why with 8 or 12 busses of noiseless tape 'emulation' and so many good plugin emulations would you go to all that trouble ?

[mrskytown11]

I know I can get someone from FIVERR to run my audio through tape as well


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[Aparich]

Does anyone still run their mixes through tape, actual tape I’m talking about. I think I want to try it out, I unno maybe I’m not using it right but Mixbus still feels digital to me, although it should since it’s a digital program.


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Nah, I don't run it through taps anymore. I am am using Mixbus and it does a pretty good job for me.

[Bart]

I've mixed out of 32c into our Otari MX 5050 1/4' half track machine occasionally, and I have to say that with the right kind of music, the results can be shockingly good. I'd forgotten that smooth compression and silky high end that a good tape machine can give you. I've tried a bunch of plug-ins looking for it, but nothing feels quite the same. It's a combination of so many things, and yes, having a machine in good condition is part of it. Will it make a good song better? No. But it was quite the ear opener the first time I used it after many years. I love my plugins, but some things just can't be duplicated, (yet!)
Bart

[Shaneward]

When analog summing became all the rage, I ran some tests. Mix itb pro tools bounce, a version thru my soundcraft 2400 back to pt, a mix thru the console to 1/4 tape, and pro tools direct to tape. I preferred console to tape. Console by itself was not fantastic.

Moving forward now that I'm not a "professional ", I intend to print mixes to cassette. Mostly for giggles and low fi goodness. I mean I have a tape deck, might as well use it

[PBuryk]

Re-reading through this thread, I definitely get a chuckle out of its irony.
With no offence to its contributors, I think about all these DAW users who pursue "that great old-time analog sound"
while using MIDI and other plugin generated instrumentation, auto-pitched vocals, and construct tracks using loops of commercially provided sounds.

Cheers!
Patrick

P.S. - Thanks for the brief "return to reality", Dingo!