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Recording Recording Studios with Mixing Deck and Magnetic Tapes

Have you ever recorded anything in a professional recording studio?

  • Several times

    Votes: 10 62.5%
  • Once or twice

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • Never

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • Total voters
    16

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From simple curiosity, this question came into my head while contemplating the incredible progress of sound reproduction since the early 20th century.

Today, a lot of music is recorded at home (someone's home). Sometimes, it's done on a phone or tablet or a device like a Zoom. In earlier times, electronic equipment was so expensive, recording studios cost hundreds of thousand or millions to build. Today, a home "studio" capable of producing quality music can be assembled for under $1,000 with the condition that it is not intended to record an orchestra or even a quintet. For that budget, there could not be enough microphones or recording equipment with enough tracks. (Although, back in the day, stereo live recordings were made with just two mics properly placed with amazing results.

By professional studio, I mean a room and more likely a building with several rooms, equipped with a professional-grade mixing board, baffles for drums, high end microphones, direct boxes, professional tape recorders like Studer, Ampex. You get the picture. Even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, this does not include a single-room Protools setup in a cousin's basement.
 
Me: And "X X" played the solo?
Sax player: " No, it was "Y Y" that played the solo on first take. "X X" couldn't get it right and " Y Y" was in the building for some other work so they asked him to play it.

The old time studio was a demanding "environment" as well.
 
Me: And "X X" played the solo?
Sax player: " No, it was "Y Y" that played the solo on first take. "X X" couldn't get it right and " Y Y" was in the building for some other work so they asked him to play it.

The old time studio was a demanding "environment" as well.
Indeed. Though fairly complex edits were carried out years ago by literally rolling the tape out down a long corridor and cutting and splicing. Pressure on performers and engineers alike, especially “riding the faders” in Sinatra’s time.
 
There's a chap round here who still does it the old way. Big desk and fat tape. A digital free zone. He was not short of work but I don't know how he's been doing since lockdown.
 
A lot of studios in France have closed, I think, but most people who produce music, either their own or for other people, have "home studios", some of which are still in the $50-100K range with pro-level features, but in a converted garage or other space.
 
I've been running a studio since about 1990. back then of course it was tape and mixing desk but by 200 I got rid of the tape (using an HD system by Protools) and then within another 5 years ditched the mixing desk in favour of native misxing "in the box" ie in Logic. Studio was mostly for my own production but did occasionally take clients' projects. Most notably for Hal Wilner and Giog J McNeely but also a few for Island Records.
 
Additional option:
What was the first format you recorded on in a studio?
With the demographics so far, I'd say probably 2" 24-track tape?

Only 25 years ago, you had to pay a significant amount to get a rough mix on a writeable CD.
 
and that Ampex reel cost hundreds for 18 minutes (I think).

Ampex 499 2" x 2500' Reel Tape On 10.5" Precision Reel in Box One Pass-Used

$109.95 Each


Analog Tape Recording Basics | Universal Audio

A single reel of two-inch tape averages around $200. At 15 IPS, that tape holds around 30 minutes of 24-track recording time (half that at 30 IPS). Compare that to a 2TB hard disk, currently selling for less than $100, that can hold many hours of multitrack audio, and you can see why running tape for every project is not an option for most of us.
 
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Additional option:
What was the first format you recorded on in a studio?
With the demographics so far, I'd say probably 2" 24-track tape?

Only 25 years ago, you had to pay a significant amount to get a rough mix on a writeable CD.
30 years ago we paid nearly $2000aud just for the tape itself!
 
30 years ago we paid nearly $2000aud just for the tape itself!
Wait, how is that possible? I left 12 reels of it (used) on the street when we left Paris. From what I saw, they're worth at least $100 now, used. I wish I had had it digitized, but that would have cost a fortune. I think I was paying maybe $200-$300 a reel in 1993. Ahn maybe you mean a session with several reels?
 
Wait, how is that possible? I left 12 reels of it (used) on the street when we left Paris. From what I saw, they're worth at least $100 now, used. I wish I had had it digitized, but that would have cost a fortune. I think I was paying maybe $200-$300 a reel in 1993. Ahn maybe you mean a session with several reels?
I'll have to ask Graham, he says he's got the reel somewhere.
He plays guitar with us now, and has a home studio, so I'll ask him (if we ever gig again!!!), but that wasn't the case at the time, he owned a music shop and had bought recording equipment to expand the business.
I was told it was around $2000 for the reel alone, $1800 rings a bell, but perhaps there was more than one reel, now I think of it there'd at least be a slave and a master reel.
It was a long time ago, but I've been thinking all these years that we only paid for tape, not time as he was testing his equipment.
 
Does anyone here remember the transition from tape to DAT tapes. In my distant youth we recorded for a weekend- blood, sweat and tears- and, at the end of it received a big pizza box with a tape in it. The first time we went into a studio- busted a gut for several days only to receive a tiny object about the size of a credit card I was absolutely horrified. This miniscule, slightly baffling thing couldn’t possibly be the physical manifestation of what we’d just put ourselves through!
 
Does anyone here remember the transition from tape to DAT tapes. In my distant youth we recorded for a weekend- blood, sweat and tears- and, at the end of it received a big pizza box with a tape in it. The first time we went into a studio- busted a gut for several days only to receive a tiny object about the size of a credit card I was absolutely horrified. This miniscule, slightly baffling thing couldn’t possibly be the physical manifestation of what we’d just put ourselves through!
The problem with DAT was that many in the industry didn’t bother so taking it to a mix engineer or making it ready for CD pressing was difficult for the “man in the street” musician.
 
The problem with DAT was that many in the industry didn’t bother so taking it to a mix engineer or making it ready for CD pressing was difficult for the “man in the street” musician.
Yup- found that out shortly afterwards...
 

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