Any other old school recording folks using S1?

[Jemusic]

Wow, super cool. What kind of music were you doing in the early days?
Yes, a lot of that was a PITA, but there was a certain something that you could only get from working within the limitations of track counts, bounces, etc. Did a lot of that on my cassette 4-track actually. I had an early mini-DAT tape player so would bounce the tascam mix to it while adding a 5th track, then add another track coming back in in stereo to two tracks on the cassette again, to open the 2 remaining two tracks. Learned to do the, record the early tracks a little too bright anticipating the high end loss from the bounces thing.
I won’t say the recordings were amazing, but super fun for me to listen to now.
Even had a brief time recording with a tascam 688
8 track Cassette recorder my uncle lent me. That thing was a monster. Had midi capabilities but was super complicated. Never used the midi part.

Electronic music essentially. From 80 to 83 I worked with the 4 track setup. I wanted in 1980 to combine 3 different brands of monophonic synth and be able to sequence them. I worked with CV and Gate from 80 to 83 as well. Managed to get a few sequences going and in sync. I was happy when midi came along. It made things a lot easier. I was able to get lots of synths playing live eventually. Giving up track 8 to a JL Cooper PPS-1 sync box at first and then to time code was a small price to pay. I worked with the remaining 7 tracks in audio playing back along side the midi parts for 13 years. I could sample say big harmony parts created on the 7 audio tracks and then sample them in stereo into my EMU samplers which by then I had got in 16 bit stereo. They sounded great. I could use midi to trigger the harmony parts then. You could play those parts early too if you wanted. Erase the harmonies and get the 7 audio tracks back etc..

All the midi synths sounded great. I invested in all the best ones at the time. Lots of rack mounts too. It was great having a large number of rack units in a 6 foot rack. I had all the analog stuff too like Moog, Oberheim, Sequential, ARP, Roland etc.. Got that working with Midi to CV/Gate converters and getting midi retro fits for some of them too. All that original analog synth setup sounded huge and I lived it for years but I must say the software is sounding amazing right now especially.

The 1/2" tape format at 15 ips was excellent for getting high quality especially with the dolby C noise reduction system. When perfectly set up and aligned, the noise reduction on the tracks sounded transparent. It added 25 dB of S/N ratio to an existing track. Putting it way down at around -80 dB for the tape hiss. No gates needed or anything. The audio tracks always blasted in with total silence or no warning. I was looking at the Tascam 388 around that time too. It seemed like a perfect solution. Many say the sound of that unit was really great and I bet it was too. But then again the 1/2" tape format is going to be a little better too.

I started with the Roland MC500 sequencer locked to tape and then even a Yamaha QX 1 too. But the Atari locked to tape very fast in under 1/2 second. I controlled everything from the 8 track remote. It all worked seamlessly actually and I had very little trouble in a long time.

Musically from about 85 onwards the soundtracks got more documentary style and involved midi with lots of audio playing live. Other players of many interesting instruments added over the midi sequences. I played a lot of midi stuff in live too. The quantisation options changed a bit around that time too. It was great getting velocity control too from 83 on. The original Roland Octapad came in real handy too, being a drummer it was the perfect link into midi. I liked blurring the lines between the midi and the audio parts. It was possible then for sure. I bounced all that down to the Revox B77 in stereo of course. It was a PITA though to have to setup a cue I might have done 6 months earlier though. Lots of info keeping as to what sounds were on 40 to 50 synths.

 

[ianaeillo]

Electronic music essentially. From 80 to 83 I worked with the 4 track setup. I wanted in 1980 to combine 3 different brands of monophonic synth and be able to sequence them. I worked with CV and Gate from 80 to 83 as well. Managed to get a few sequences going and in sync. I was happy when midi came along. It made things a lot easier. I was able to get lots of synths playing live eventually. Giving up track 8 to a JL1 Cooper sync box at first and then to time code was a small price to pay. I worked with the remaining 7 tracks in audio playing back along side the midi parts for 13 years. I could sample say big harmony parts created on the 7 audio tracks and then sample them in stereo into my EMU samplers which by then I had got in 16 bit stereo. They sounded great. I could use midi to trigger the harmony parts then. You could play those parts early too if you wanted. Erase the harmonies and get the 7 audio tracks back etc..

All the midi synths sounded great. I invested in all the best ones at the time. Lots of rack mounts too. It was great having a large number of rack units in a 6 foot rack. I had all the analog stuff too like Moog, Oberheim, Sequential, ARP, Roland etc.. Got that working with Midi to CV/Gate converters and getting midi retro fits for some of them too. All that original analog synth setup sounded huge and I lived it for years but I must say the software is sounding amazing right now especially.

The 1/2" tape format at 15 ips was excellent for getting high quality especially with the dolby C noise reduction system. When perfectly set up and aligned, the noise reduction on the tracks sounded transparent. It added 25 dB of S/N ratio to an existing track. Putting it way down at around -80 dB for the tape hiss. No gates needed or anything. The audio tracks always blasted in with total silence or no warning. I was looking at the Tascam 388 around that time too. It seemed like a perfect solution. Many say the sound of that unit was really great and I bet it was too. But then again the 1/2" tape format is going to be a little better too.

I started with the Roland MC500 sequencer locked to tape and then even a Yamaha QX 1 too. But the Atari locked to tape very fast in under 1/2 second. I controlled everything from the 8 track remote. It all worked seamlessly actually and I had very little trouble in a long time.

Musically from about 85 onwards the soundtracks got more documentary style and involved midi with lots of audio playing live. Other players of many interesting instruments added over the midi sequences. I played a lot of midi stuff in live too. The quantisation options changed a bit around that time too. It was great getting velocity control too from 83 on. The original Roland Octapad came in real handy too, being a drummer it was the perfect link into midi. I liked blurring the lines between the midi and the audio parts. It was possible then for sure. I bounced all that down to the Revox B77 in stereo of course. It was a PITA though to have to setup a cue I might have done 6 months earlier though. Lots of info keeping as to what sounds were on 40 to 50 synths.

This thread is absolute gold and posts like this are the reason why. Keep em coming.

 

[Jemusic]

Thanks I was worried it might be too boring! Fun time for sure. I interfaced the midi system to the punch in and out connections on the 8 track too meaning I could set very precise punch in and out points using midi notes. This was great doing takes over and over. The noise reduction silenced any punch in and out sounds. I also got the Tascam M2524 mixer for a while which was a 48 channel mixer. It had midi in and out and midi notes could mute the signal in most parts of the signal flow. That was great for making some older quiescent noise synths silent. And shutting up the Roland Space echo!

I still have the Yamaha 01V as my final summing mixer and it still sounds great and is very smart too. I am thinking of trying the new Tascam Model 2400 maybe or the Model 16 as my final main mixer. Go back to analog in the final summing phase. I still have my old Tascam model 2A mixer now. I figured it must have contributed to my sound in the 80s. It is a 70's design mixer. I used it then on the way to the 4 track and on mixdown. It has a very definite sound and when you send anything slightly toppy or harsh (quite a few software synths benefit) through its signal chain it comes back warm and slightly 70's sounding.

 

[Cristofe]

Same as many of the other old farts here. Started with a Tascam cassette 4-Trk in the early 80's.
Eventually built and operated a commercial all analog studio...mixer, 16-Trk reel to reel & outboard
gear. Some studio owners immediately embraced digital and moved to all digital ADAT and later
standalone recorders like the Mackie HDR24/96, Prism Sound SaDIE or iZ Radar and digital outboard
gear as soon as it was available. I was not one of them. I did not like the sound of the earliest digital
gear. But, slowly, as it improved, I began to add digital gear. For several years my studio was a hybrid.
It started with processors, then a DAT machine for mastering and finally a pc. But even after I added
the pc, I would record drums & bass to tape, (I still like the sound of drums & bass recorded to tape),
transfer those tracks to the PC and overdub guitars, vocals, etc ITB into Cubase. I'd them mix in Cubase,
pre-master in Wavelab and do final mastering with a TC Electronic Powercore PCI card.

Eventually.....I was dragged kicking and screaming fully into the digital realm. The big analog mixer
was replaced by a rack full of Firestudio 26x26's, most, (but not all), of the outboard gear was replaced
by plugins and the multitrack tape machine gave way fully to a pc & Cubase...then, of course, Studio One.
But I still have plenty of analog stompboxes, tube amps, guitars, mics and such.

I do occasionally miss some aspects of the old all anlog days. What I DEFINITELY do NOT miss...is editing
tape with a razor blade.....LOL!!

 

[Jemusic]

The transition from analog to digital is interesting. I moved to ADAT's. The first black faced model. I have produced quite a few CD's for artists using them and they sound fantastic to me. I worked with three often. There were lots of analog processing though going on elsewhere. Enough to give it a big fat analog sound in the end. But the ADATs recorded the drum transients better than I had ever them so I was excited.

I mastered to a Revox B77 for a long time and then moved to DAT. I liked the sound of DAT and to me it sounded better than the B77. More accurate (no eq changes due to tape), better transients and noiseless. (I still have the B77 today. I got it completely serviced back to its brand new spec and then stopped using it, moved to DAT. Today its still in its new condition. And yes it still sounds huge and fat as well for sure. Anything sent to it comes back sounding massive!!) As a composer I have still many masters on 2 track and have to covert over to wave files. I also have DAT masters. I still have a DAT machine in my rack and those masters always sound great to me. I have to transfer all them. They are still working but many of the analog tapes I will have to bake. Modern day mastering tools on those analog and DAT masters will do wonders. I can hardly wait.

From ADATs I moved into Logic on a Windows computer with Unitor 8 midi interfaces and the Audiowerk 8 audio interface. Which I believe were made in Germany somewhere around the time Emagic produced hardware. And Creamware were up and running developing quite a rep for its sound. I eventually had 3 Audiowerk interfaces all working at one time with 24 outs going into the Tascam M2524 mixer tape return inputs. I still have computers and the hardware today from all that period in storage. The Audiowerk interfaces sounded really nice and had a very warm analog sound to them. It was very nice transition from tape into the digital world.

 

[Craig Anderton]

The transition from analog to digital is interesting. I moved to ADAT's.

Many people reported ADAT problems, but if you had an uninterruptible power supply, the problems went away. My understanding was that the original power supplies didn't leave much margin for error, so you if there were glitches in the power supply, they would upset the ADAT.

 

[Jemusic]

Many people reported ADAT problems, but if you had an uninterruptible power supply, the problems went away. My understanding was that the original power supplies didn't leave much margin for error, so you if there were glitches in the power supply, they would upset the ADAT.

That is interesting and I never experienced any issues not once. Most of my ADAT work was done in Canberra (Capital of Australia) and it is right next to the Snowy Mountains hydro electricity scheme. So the voltage is aways a perfect 240V AC and ultra stable 50 Hz frequency as well. I also used them in Melbourne and Ballarat where I am now and the power has been ultra stable there too. I had a black face, and now I still have the LX20. The main issue is the idler wheel wears out but you can still get them though. They are getting harder to get by the day so if you have an ADAT that needs a new idler, I suggest you get onto it now. And of course they are two slightly different sizes as well between these two models.

 

[John Vere]

I mastered to Dat for around 4 years. I had 2 Sony decks so I could make copies to send off for mastering and replication. I fell in love with the sound of 48khz.

But I remember because they were consumer models that I couldn’t use the SPDIF because Sony also was huge into copy protection. So for the copy deck I used 44.1 and the RCA connectors. The replication required 44.1 anyway.
So all my masters that I kept from that era were 48khz.

I later bought a Sony Mini disk deck and it allowed the digital transfer. Mini disk used a type of data compression called ATRAC which is closest to using FLAC.

I copied all my masters to mini disk as a backup. I still have a lot of those but I later recycled many that were of little importance.
At some point I sold the Dat decks and got a good price for them.

I soon had a PC and I bought the Creative Audigy II PCI card which had a SPDIF connection.

So sitting in my office cupboard you will find a couple of 7” 15 ips 2 track reels that can’t play. A dozen DAT’s that I can’t play and dozens of Mini discs that I can play but they are all in my computer so why bother.
I have a neighbour who says he has a 2 track. Im waiting for him to have a garage sale!

 

[ianaeillo]

It's interesting. I am finding more and more people who want to record without screens. I have a session coming up in late May where we are using two blackface ADATs I grabbed from shop goodwill and one I had in storage. Younger artists who have never recorded without screens are floored by how freeing it is. I think we are pretty lucky that we lived in what I consider the golden age of recording. Fantastic sound but no referencing screens and maybe a Dorrough meter or two for levels.

 

[Gtrshop]

Just signed up the the fourms... 1st scribble. Worked with tape long before I had my own studio (editing interviews for radio, on-air). Even when I was thinking about that, I was focused on trying to figure out how to acquire an MCI 24 with autolocator. Back then that was the only way to do that. Never happened, but the world was about to change, and I managed to get in with Cakewalk, back when it was still Twelve Tone Systems. Would have stayed with that if it had kept the look and feel of the last version I had (Sonar Producer 8).

Within the last year I've taken up recording again after a long hiatus, and while looking for a DAW many people recommended S1. So here I am. My setup is hybrid... some outboard gear and a Mackie console as the focal point.

 

[gabo]

I'm a little late to this party.. But yes, I started in the 70s and have done pretty everything that others have said in this post.

The one different spin.. I started as a musician (still am), with a promising band (still together), and my early encounters with professional recordings were in relatively big studios where we recorded demos for shopping our songs to record companies. Oddly, we were sort of a new wave, pop punk style of band, but were based in the Southeast US. Our first endeavors were in places like Muscle Shoals, FL panhandle, Tampa, Orlando, etc. in big studios that had made their living on R&B or 70s Rock & Roll. Which we also loved, but that wasn't our style. Most of the studios we went to were trying to move into the newer style of music, but really had no experience recording, mixing, and producing that type of music. For that reason, even though they had great equipment, rooms, and basic recording techniques, we never go the proper sound for our genre. Or at least we thought that way.

That led to me building my own home studio and starting to do our own recordings. I was an "audio" guy from childhood, in addition to being a drummer, had been to electronics trade school first and then EE school. So I was well familiar with all the tools. But we had little budget to work with at first.

At any rate, all that led to a long process of building out studios, doing production, learning, etc. that has lasted a lifetime.

Since I was also a drummer and spent a lot of time on the "other side of the glass," I sort of specialized in recording drums and still do. Using a lifetime of miking techniques, playing styles, and production.

We eventually got offers from major labels using our own recorded demos. But, due to the typical poor contract terms, we decided to forgo that path, do our own recordings as well as recordings and productions for other bands and efforts. It's been a long and interesting ride.

Long story to just say that like others, we still mostly use Microphones, real instruments, and real talent to make music. But the tools and cost of the tools has improved many times over. Now we have a full multi-million dollar studio right at our fingertips for minimal costs.