audio2design
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Nowadays just use online storage. I use two systems for redundancy. Not worried.
Pretty much. A recording engineer [or an amateur recordist] could get a digital recorder in the 1980s, Like the Sony 501 that I used with a Betamax recorder. The advantages for recording classical music would still be there for people bouncing to analog tape: lower tape costs, lighter, more portable recording gear, greater dynamic range, better noise floor. A few things were bounced to analog for editing. I think Jack Vad had the first CD issued that was edited in the digital domain, mid-1980s [Ensemble Alcatraz, Visions and Miracles]. Early 1990's DAT recorders were everywhere, really great for recording classical music [usually from a microphone mix into two channels], not so good for rock/pop. So more classical recordings were issued from digital masters than pop/rock in the 1980's/ early 1990's.Sure. But in the classical music industry analog tape was effectively abandoned already in the beginning of the 1980s.
Nowadays just use online storage. I use two systems for redundancy. Not worried.
I've re-designed entire PCBs because the original files from 2003 couldn't be opened / edited because the software doesn't exist anymore.
Digital recording, from a technical standpoint, should be safer than analog tape, which is known to deteriorate over time, but "progress" has ensured that this is very often not the case.
Did you have any problems with "pumping" or other artifacts with VHS HiFi? It seems like I had a player at some point back in the day that offered VHS HiFi. Didn't VHS HiFi employ some sort of noise reduction system? I think the old DBX noise reduction system would cause some sort of "pumping" or fluttering.When I was recording the amateur orchestra in which I played back in the 80’s, I started with my Teac 4010, a good consumer open-reel deck, but 20 years old even then. (The same one I’m trying to bring back now.)
Then, I had access to a Tascam 22-2 half-track mastering deck, and we recorded at 15 ips. That wasn’t as much of an improvement as one would think.
The biggest improvement resulted from switching to a consumer VCR that recorded on VHS tape using VHS-HiFi. This system recorded the audio in the rastered video tracks (using the spinning head) using depth multiplexing. The tape speed was much higher and the noise floor much lower. That’s the closest I came to a truly live sound from tape, even compared to the pro-level 22-2, and digital wasn't appreciably better. But finding a good, working VHS HiFi deck seems harder that finding a good old Teac.
By the mid-90’s, I was seeing digital field recordings from well-heeled amateurs, using DAT, but at a much higher cost. But that cost plummeted faster than a brick dropped from an airplane.
Then came portable Sony mini-disc recordings, lossy though they were, mostly driven by bootleggers. That lasted about 12 minutes before people started recording directly onto laptops or even onto CDs. But I was out of that by then.
I still have all the old tapes, including those VHS tapes. I’ve spent a lot more trying to sustain my digital archive.
Rick “biased” Denney
Did you have any problems with "pumping" or other artifacts with VHS HiFi? It seems like I had a player at some point back in the day that offered VHS HiFi. Didn't VHS HiFi employ some sort of noise reduction system? I think the old DBX noise reduction system would cause some sort of "pumping" or fluttering.
My DAT tapes from 20 years ago? Forgetaboutit.
Did you have any problems with "pumping" or other artifacts with VHS HiFi? It seems like I had a player at some point back in the day that offered VHS HiFi. Didn't VHS HiFi employ some sort of noise reduction system? I think the old DBX noise reduction system would cause some sort of "pumping" or fluttering.
Did you have any problems with "pumping" or other artifacts with VHS HiFi? It seems like I had a player at some point back in the day that offered VHS HiFi. Didn't VHS HiFi employ some sort of noise reduction system? I think the old DBX noise reduction system would cause some sort of "pumping" or fluttering.
As it seems there are a number of posters in this thread who have some interest in R2R tape decks, I'll share this article from Tuesday on the United Home Audio SuperDeck. I just read the whole article, which is very long. The author goes through much of the history of the R2R deck and then explains and reviews this UHA SuperDeck. I don't know how accurate the article is, but it was, at least to me, a very interesting read.Is tape the king of "analog only"? Are there tapes available that haven't been digitized at some point in the chain that can be A/B'd against digital?
Show your systems and how much trouble they are to put together, feed, and maintain.
The article is somewhat accurate, but that tape machine is pure 'audiophile' overkill, and not very good overkill at that since it is so limited in its capabilities, i.e. only one speed, only one EQ option, locked into only one track format, and way over complicated for what it does.As it seems there are a number of posters in this thread who have some interest in R2R tape decks, I'll share this article from Tuesday on the United Home Audio SuperDeck. I just read the whole article, which is very long. The author goes through much of the history of the R2R deck and then explains and reviews this UHA SuperDeck. I don't know how accurate the article is, but it was, at least to me, a very interesting read.
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/united-home-audio-superdeck
but RtR looks like a huge off-putting hassle to me.
Pretty much. A recording engineer [or an amateur recordist] could get a digital recorder in the 1980s, Like the Sony 501 that I used with a Betamax recorder. The advantages for recording classical music would still be there for people bouncing to analog tape: lower tape costs, lighter, more portable recording gear, greater dynamic range, better noise floor. A few things were bounced to analog for editing. I think Jack Vad had the first CD issued that was edited in the digital domain, mid-1980s [Ensemble Alcatraz, Visions and Miracles]. Early 1990's DAT recorders were everywhere, really great for recording classical music [usually from a microphone mix into two channels], not so good for rock/pop. So more classical recordings were issued from digital masters than pop/rock in the 1980's/ early 1990's.
I bought some DDD CD's and found GRP releases (record label) to not be thin sounding and bright. Then there is the Ahmad Jamal Digital Works DDD release. Very thin and bright sounding.You would definitely see more "DDD"s on the back of CDs in the 80s. I haven't listened to any of them in decades, but I remember some of them sounding "thin", possibly because of how Sony DASH could sound without the Apogee mods that many studios used:
https://repforums.prosoundweb.com/i...HPSESSID=kagtre2gukr8n0tsmhddus5td1#msg214920