How to integrate analog tape with your DAW Part 2

[MrJonathanjonathan]

Nobody answered the question a fella asked on the part 1.. he was saying the sel-repro head is not as good fidelity as the repro head. Are you guys using the sel-repro head? is there anyway to take/feed from the repro head? what's the difference between the two. btw nice work indeed anyway.

[DJNyquest]

@MrJonathanjonathan the "sel-repro?" head or the SYNC head is actually the same head than the REC head, used backwards. This means there is no distace beween these two heads (cause -> actually the same head) no distance means the tape takes no time to move from REC to reproducing head, so no time difference. Now if you use the REPRO head, this one is not in time with the REC head but does have higher quality components. The SYNC head should only be used for monitoring.

[Pipotron3000]

First : you need an host supporting delay compensation report from Voxengo Latency Delay

Second : you use the plug ONLY when recording, not reproducing.

Your dry tracks are recording exactly on time, but latency delay reported tracks will record the sound played back by the latency reported (DAW buffering)

This is like you make a take, and after you move it back a little to compensate manually.

But here, DAW is doing it for you automatically every time ;)

[Pipotron3000]

First : you need an host supporting delay compensation report from Voxengo Latency Delay

Second : you use the plug ONLY when recording, not reproducing.

Your dry tracks are recording exactly on time, but latency delay reported tracks will record the sound played back by the latency reported.

This act like you make a take, and after you move it back a little to compensate manually.

But here, DAW is doing it for you automatically every time ;)

[DJNyquest]

@Pipotron3000 I really dont get the point of doing it this way. You waste time of your musicians and you make it stressful for yourself. Okay you are doing 3 tracks this way, but imagine a full band recording using a 24 channel tape machine. If you are multing the output, why not record it to DAW and record the mult on tape, afterwards you can bounce the tape back to DAW.

[rmh1320]

this is pretty interesting, but isn't it kind of a waste of tape? or do you just reuse the same spools over and over?

[redwagonstudio]

@rmh1320

You just keep reusing the same reel over and over. When you get to the end of the tape, hit rewind and start again.

[gouchodon1]

poor man's clasp

awesome

[wilxl2]

I got only two things to say to you guys. You Rock!!! Thanks for sharing the knowledge!!

[necrotisingfacilitis]

hi mister i have a AKAI GX-4000D REEL TO REEL TAPE PLAYER/RECORDER

i would like to use it for recording my mix or something like that in my reel to reel before mastering can you figure me out the best to do. im from this digital world and i would really like to incorporate some tape sound to my songs thank you

[necrotisingfacilitis]

i know 1/4 tape are not the best choice but i would just like to try to incorporate some drum drum programing into the reel to reel and reimport into the daw just to see for fun :P

[redwagonstudio]

@necrotisingfacilitis

Any size tape would be worth trying. As long as you can monitor the playback head of your deck then you should be good to go.

[8btz]

so you only have to calibrate the latency plug for a particular tape deck once? assuming it is a deck with consistent speed of course. btw my foray into pro tape recording will be using the TaDA method! this is totally rad thank you! if it weren't for finding this on gs i'd still be trying to buy some sort of smpte device and recording a click track and recording whole tracks and later dumping them and, and, ....just, thanks.

[fretsys]

Very cool. Hey, why not use a tape loop - never worry about rewinding!?!

[mpcnyc1]

Isn't there a problem if you try to punch? Won't the punch always be late??

[redwagonstudio]

There are no problems during punch-in's or overdubs because keep in mind that you are doing the overdub in the computer and the tape deck has no idea if you are tracking basics or doing a punch in. It's only there to serve as a real-time processor on the way to the DAW. The Voxengo plugin on the DAW input channel takes care of all record-repro head delay.

[simplekidstuff]

you think this is possible with an 8 track cassette portastudio (tascam 488)?? not sure how to get the signal off the repro head while recording at the same time. anyone?

[redwagonstudio]

This won't work with any cassette multitrack because there is no way to every monitor the playback head while recording.

[pedalboy7]

Wonderful. I'm just finishing setting up our new studio, tracking through our old Teac 8-track and into the computer and had just assumed they weren't 'linkable'. Really good idea.

[Salinthezone]

Great stuff! Brilliant.

[tongueboy500]

wats with the wrist support? i spent a year wearing one of them from RSI : /

[genevaslab]

Where the hell can I buy a tape machine from?

[redwagonstudio]

They work just fine. They are a little small, but they do the job.

[tamosfan]

How do you like the rotary encoders on your mcu? I've read that they're on the crappy side.

[checkabreak]

i like old favio

[outterspacevideoman]

Hey I have a Tascam TSR 8 tape recorder. It has two heads, no "repro" mode that I see. Is it possible to do this on a machine like that?

[redwagonstudio]

You basically want to capture the playback from the tape as you are recording it. Refer to your manual.

[redwagonstudio]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "track separation"?

[billygimp]

I think what the original poster who wants to clarify 'track separation' is wanting to know if it's possible to monitor individual channels being recorded onto the same tape machine at the same time. that way you could have 8 channels of the same tape going to 8 different tracks on your DAW at the same time... I think this is what he means.

[Bilderburger]

Very nice! Theoretically you would only need one reel of tape! Brilliant! thanks for sharing. Now if you can figure out how to get track separation from the tape machine on the daw... the dream would be realized!!!

[vincedog3]

nothing like that fat great sound of analog to put soul back into that digital cold actuality. I love my Tascam 52 and miss my Otari MX-5050 b2. Cool Video.

[redwagonstudio]

No problem. Tracking to tape and processing through tape after you have tracks in the DAW are two different things. Now we have ways to do both. ;)

[ozorg]

great tip!!

i now insert tape as an external efx in c4.

and the latency is calculated automaticly!!!

i never thought about that.

thx for posting!

cheers!!