Reel to Reel Question?

Dirty Mosquito

Can I get a decent recording mastering from 1/4 inch reel to reel straight to CDR, or is it better to master to DAT or another format first, prior to CDR?

ianvomsaal

It's always better to get it mastered.
Most studios send out to get mastered because they've worked on it so long they kind of loose their objectivity and want a second pair of ears to work on it.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Dirty Mosquito

ianvomsaal wrote:

It's always better to get it mastered.
Most studios send out to get mastered because they've worked on it so long they kind of loose their objectivity and want a second pair of ears to work on it.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Hey thanks, that's a good point, I didn't really think of that. Assuming I couldn't afford this, and wanted to do it myself, would you recommend straight to CDR from Reel to Reel or go through another format first?

IDgotI

ianvomsaal wrote:

It's always better to get it mastered.
Most studios send out to get mastered because they've worked on it so long they kind of loose their objectivity and want a second pair of ears to work on it.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

+1

Of course you can go straight to CD-R and then send the CD out for mastering. There are an increasing number of absolutely phenomenal software based mastering tools.

Dirty Mosquito

IDgotI wrote:

+1

Of course you can go straight to CD-R and then send the CD out for mastering. There are an increasing number of absolutely phenomenal software based mastering tools.

Cool, thanks for the info.

ianvomsaal

Dirty Mosquito wrote:

Hey thanks, that's a good point, I didn't really think of that. Assuming I couldn't afford this, and wanted to do it myself, would you recommend straight to CDR from Reel to Reel or go through another format first?

Depends - sometimes an A/D converter works well, most of the time not (however, if you can convert it to Pro-Tools do it - industry standard)..
Best thing to do with tape is mix it with an analog mixer & effects board (lots of splicing and a lot of work), then compressor.
Then you can send it to a CDR.
It's one of the only ways to get a decent modern(ish) sound from tape (though it'll still sound kind of low fi compared to an all digital recording).
It's basically how they did it back when they used tape, and it's how I did my 1st recording (16trk Taskam Reel to Reel).
When I started in the studio's, tape was just getting phased out (some still used it, many didn't).
Most all studios now-a-days use digital (Pro-Tools), unless you're looking to go tape, and then some still have the machines (but it's more costly to go that route).
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

All Those Yesterdays

We go from our 24 track reel to reel, thru a finalizer onto Hard disk. And even after you send that away to get printed those print shows still do something to our master. If you A/B them there are always suttle differences.

Dirty Mosquito

Cool, thanks everyone for your input. I definitely know what I plan on doing now.