Adventures in Recording Straight to Tape

[dt344]

As a drummer that didn't start recording until 2006, I've never had to record straight to tape before, everything I've done has been in ProTools and Logic. So when a guitar player friend of mine asked me to play on his demo and then told me that he was recording it straight to tape, it was pretty intimidating to say the least. For those of you who've never done it, the issue with tracking straight to tape is that it's extremely difficult to punch drums in partway through a take, and you can't do any editing after the fact. If you're recording in ProTools and you have a snare hit that sounds a little different, you can just take it out and replace it with a different hit that sounds fine. On tape, you get one shot, and that's it. So needless to say I was pretty anxious about doing it.

The actual session went great - we had a bit of a rough start because the tape had a physical problem that we had to sort out (ended up having to cut the first minute off the reel), but after that it was pretty smooth. Most of the songs were one or two take and then finished. And naturally since we were tracking to tape, the drums sounded AMAZING.

Here are some photos from the session, as soon as the demo is done and mastered I'll post some tracks for you all.

[nucjd]

Very cool dt. The great thing about tape is it creates a type of compression that is not compression. It more creates a "density" to the track that is wonderful sounding. I have talked over the years with session drummers and those are truly musicians. They can play through a song a hundred times and have strikes that reproducible every time and with the same force on every strike making a great track. Stepping out like you did speaks volumes for your drumming skills. Is that an Ampex or Studer?

[dt344]

Is that an Ampex or Studer?

I have no idea...I took a few photos but all I can see in the pictures is that it says "MCI". Isn't that a brand of tape recorder as well?

[itchie]

you can see why a lot of places use other means of getting a fat sound these days

its not cheep to buy that tape let alone servicing a machine like that

[Yoda]

Great pics! If I ever get into recording I'd love to do things to tape, everything these days sounds so clean, and that works, but I like the warmer "live" vibe.

[Girl Punk]

I miss part of recording like that. I thought it really pushed a band to practice even harder and really refine ideas. Now with digital its just like "eh we will figure it out when we get there, copy pasta done"

My last session with tape was done in with a storm that wiped out all our material :(
It Should be a requirement that every drummer experience recording to tape because its a humbling experience.