analog tracks to computer

culturedslob · Post by **culturedslob** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:28 am

hey eveyone!

just wanted to say thanks for dealing with my noob questions. im starting to catch on a bit better now since ive been on this forum.

ive made some conceptual progress since my last post. ive narrowed down the fact that i want to get my studio off the ground and centered around a mac laptop and an analog reel to reel tape machine. i want to use the reel to reel to record all tracks but i think that when it comes to sequencing and editing, a computer would be best for me.

so my questions today are:

1)what DAWs do most Mac users run? ive heard Ableton Live is really cool and can be used to performance, which is a big plus. The guy at bestbuy said Logic is a very mac-oriented program, but id like to get some other opinions.

2)what equipment would i need to put my analog tape recordings onto my mac for further editing and sequencing on whichever DAW i end up getting? btw, i am probably going to be getting something similar to like a Tascam 38...

krushing · Post by **krushing** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:38 pm

1) I've been on Ableton Live since version 3 (now at 7), before I moved to Mac - I do everything in it and it suits my workflow nicely. Logic is tempting even if just for the instruments, but have very little experience from it. Friends who use it like it.

2) Are you absolutely sure about the r2r thing? You'll be practically needing an engineer to keep it calibrated and a really top-notch recording chain (ie. converters in this case) to transfer stuff to and from the computer in order to get any gains from the "analog sound"; all in all, it's rarely worth it no matter how lucrative it sounds to get a chepish Studer off eBay in hopes everything will sound creamy smooth. But, as said, you'll need some great A/D/A converters. Look into Apogee or Benchmark (expensive but reasonable), Lavry & Crane Song (more expensive), Weiss (really expensive) or Prism Audio (ludicrous but probably one of the best).

culturedslob · Post by **culturedslob** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:57 pm

krushing wrote:1) I've been on Ableton Live since version 3 (now at 7), before I moved to Mac - I do everything in it and it suits my workflow nicely. Logic is tempting even if just for the instruments, but have very little experience from it. Friends who use it like it.

2) Are you absolutely sure about the r2r thing? You'll be practically needing an engineer to keep it calibrated and a really top-notch recording chain (ie. converters in this case) to transfer stuff to and from the computer in order to get any gains from the "analog sound"; all in all, it's rarely worth it no matter how lucrative it sounds to get a chepish Studer off eBay in hopes everything will sound creamy smooth. But, as said, you'll need some great A/D/A converters. Look into Apogee or Benchmark (expensive but reasonable), Lavry & Crane Song (more expensive), Weiss (really expensive) or Prism Audio (ludicrous but probably one of the best).

right, im totally dedicated to learning the analog r2r ropes however. also, theres no deadline to any of this recording hobnobbery either. id really like to get down and even if it means spending some pay to play cash in the learning process. some of my favorite sounds in music are from tape and i just dont think i could settle for less.

thanks!

xibalba · Post by **xibalba** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:18 pm

I dont know why because i love technology but i am pretty much against a heavily software orientated setup

I use logic studio (logic 8) because it was pretty cheap to upgrade from logic express 7

i use logic just because its specifically made for the mac but i pretty much overpaid for it anyways because all im using it for is a glorified multitrack recorder, i dont touch any of the softsynths and hardly use the efx. its not to say they are bad or anything its just that im not big on software use and try to avoid using it as much as possible, its def one of the big reasons i do a lot of editiing and recording and efx adding in my mpc before i send it to my DAW.

Post by **wiss** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:25 am

it would be better if you mixed down to analog.

sacredcow · Post by **sacredcow** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:05 am

1) I use Logic Express 7
I only use it for recording really, but it does that nicely
I like it more than ableton 5, but I haven't tried any later versions.

ramos · Post by **ramos** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:33 am

I really like tracktion, only had it for a little while and its really easy to use.

I hate using software as well, and I worked out how to record multiple tracks within minutes.

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion3/ give the demo a go...

clusterchord · Post by **clusterchord** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:25 pm

if u do the R2R to DAW transfer, i wouldnt go lower than at least some mid-ground converters a la RME (if u cannot get Rosetta800 for example). and indeed record/edit/mix it it with 88kHz. only in the end downsample the mix to 44/16. been there, done that, it makes a world of difference. REM works much better at 88, and so does DAW summing.(atn least on Nuendo that i used it with).

R2R thru shitty converters and at 44K, is just wasting time. crappy small sound, magic lost.

other than that , im totally in love what tape does to guitars n drums, lead vox.. actually most signals, but not all.. my experience is agressive electornica with huge 4 on the floor doesnt work well with tape.. so it depends.

analog tracks to computer

analog tracks to computer

Re: analog tracks to computer