Analogue-only Recording Session: Creating with Limited Tracks!
Музыка
In the 1960s, studios had 4-track tape recorders, and by 1965, a handful of studios had the new-fangled 8-track recorders, which were hugely expensive.
Taking a listen to Pet Sounds or Sergeant Pepper, and you'll hear many different instruments, far more than four.
How was it done then? Well, here, I record a half-minute tune (drums, bass, two guitars and three backing vocals), using only 4 tracks of my 8-track recorder and another recorder to mix as I go. Bouncing tracks was the only way to add sounds and other instruments, and what has been partly lost is the creativity that has to go with the process.
There's no undo button! Tunes evolved as they were recorded, so no-one really knew what the end result was going to be until they got there!
In my studio is a Fostex R8 from 1988, which cost £1500 then (about £3500 now) and a ReVox A77 from 1973, which cost £270 then (about £3000 now). Using a mic to layer up tracks through a mixing desk, this is a completely analogue session, the only digitising taking place to render it for KZread!
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Пікірлер: 26
Great stuff. Sounds like a hit !!
Sounds amazing!
Super impressed by your musicianship!
Neat 🥰
Love your retro stuff and ideas, we must be about same age :)
@DanBakerMusic
2 жыл бұрын
Mid 1970s?
@yams900
2 жыл бұрын
@@DanBakerMusic Late 50’ties :)
Great video! Would love more analog recording content
Awesome vid dan! Love the old analog style and sound!
I’ve been transferring my early 1990s 4 track cassette sessions to GB iOS. It’s reminded me of how you really needed to plan out your song before you started. One problem I’ve noticed that the different tape speed has thrown the tuning out a bit. Yes we really do have a luxury now with digital. Could this lead to being lazy and less creative? Thanks for making another great demo vid Dan ✌️
A privilege Dan ..Thank you.
Those r2r look beautiful. Great demonstration Dan.
Great video Dan. I bought a 4 track cassette recorder a few months ago so I could play back the 4 track cassettes I have from over 20 years ago and transfer or sample some of my early work to use. Just watching this video brings back the nostalgia of 30 years ago when I started working in a semi professional home recording studio and we had an 8 track tape porta studio from Tascam. Really cool to see the old skool way of working with limited tracks again
Flippin' fantastic Dan. Had an R8 in the 90s; just got another recently to restore. Your demo of track bouncing's got me inspired to make the R8 rise from the ashes.
I’ve got an R8, and I mix down to cassette. I’d really like a two track reel to reel for mix downs so I could splice. Great video! I like the sort of compressed sound you get after a few bounces.
@Tazmanian_Ninja
4 жыл бұрын
Why do you specifically wanna splice? It's not particularly fun, you know? ☺️ Edit: ahh, now I think I get why. You can't splice on the cassette mixdowns. If you want to mixdown to tape, I can see why you'd like a reel-to-reel.
Very nice equipment...Cool reels to reel!! Congrats!! I love the flavor the reel im prints to sound!!!
Oy! We had the machine on the right, at a local radio station I had a weekly show on, in the 90s. Wish I had that machine today:)
Really nice video Dan. How we wanted the 8 track, but only got to the 4 track cassette. Tried to sync them, but it was impossible.
Story is that when they recorded Bohemian Rhapsody it was the most expensive recording ever made at that time and they bounced so many tracks that the tape became clear. I heard that Mutt Lang kinda did the same thing with Def Leppard on photograph. I guess he used a dolby unit to get those really airy background vocals to pop and stack. I heard one of the engineers on one of those projects talk about how there got to be resonant peaks that would build more and more as they stacked the vocals and so they'd have to dip out those frequencies and really work to get those things to settle right as they continued to bounce more and more of them. Tape fascinates the hell outta me. The sound is epic...and the different tonal qualities you get from different formulations. Old school....and has that vintage legit talent kinda sound. Fostex....You're right..."The kids" these days really don't know what they have. The capabilities now are just ridiculous. Next thing will be A.I. mixing your tracks for you based upon a reference track. We're almost already there with some of the izotope stuff. The interesting thing is now it's become LESS about the quality of recordings because even the cheap stuff sounds pretty great if you know how to mix with it. Now it's really about character....style...personality. Everyone can have the perfect sounding digital instrument now...but perfection can be boring. The real question is do they have that weird piano with the funky keys and cool resonance in the low end kinda thing. Anyway...really enjoyed this. Thanks.
@mitsanut5869
2 жыл бұрын
I liked the video. Really interesting. However, I would disagree with your assessment. The reason why pop music is not good today is that people are simply not appreciative of good quality musicianship. And it's really everywhere, if you think about it. In the past, a live band in a bar had to be really good, otherwise people wouldn't even show up. Today, people are excited to even see live performance, no matter how bad it is. Still, there is plenty of great music around. It's just more difficult to find it because the mainstream has gotten so bad. Forget about semi-prog band making it to top 100 chart. It's all garbage. In 70's, very instrumentally difficult songs found their way into top 40 on regular basis. Since then, the slow but steady decline ensued. And it's not the fault of digital recording. I have a few top notch keyboards that are both analog or digital, virtual analog and what have you. I think my ears are still pretty goid even though they're shot, and often the digital sounds just as good as analog, if not better. And in other instances it's vice versa. I don't really have preference. For while I thought I'm going to go full analog until I realized that it would make giant sucking sound in my bank account. Not that I would be cheap bastard - I am not a kind of guy who wants to make million dollar sound with $2,000 set up, but while combo of digital and analog hardware is still quite expensive (because I still think you get What you pay for), a good quality analog recording set up is even more expensive. I play just for my own pleasure, I don't aspire to show off or get famous, make money with my music, etc, but I still want to make no less than professional sound. And my budget for good analog would be probably twice the digital set up I presently have. I'm not saying that I wouldn't eventually try some fully analog equipment if opportunity presents itself and if price is right. I never say never to any possibility. But as of present, I am satisfied with what I have, and I am actually pretty happy that I can pursue my life time dream of making music in my small home studio. But I still liked the video. It brought memories of when we as young kids in our band were messing around with recording on reel to reel.
I love all your videos Dan what about you create video on how to write song
Dan can you share tips and advice on purchasing used or vintage reel to reel for recording? Thanks in advance
Man Cave😁
would it be best to listen to each recorded track before you go straight in and record another instrument? Not everything is going to be perfect and your later takes with different parts need be aware of that and possibly do some tricks to overcome those moments. Using a zoom R8 here.
@DanBakerMusic
5 жыл бұрын
frumious bandersnatch quite so! But, this video was more about the recording itself rather than the music. I wrote the chord sequence in about 25 seconds, and all parts except BV were improvised... In days gone by, I’ve had to do exactly what you mentioned where I recorded overdubs that would, to some extent, mask problems with previous instruments...