"news.verizon.net" wrote in message ...
I was wondering what is the main reason why quite a few studios are giving
up on their 1" or 2" reel machine and going over to digital?

Could the main reason be as follows:

They are not making any money anymore, and those tapes & machines-heads are
too expensive to buy and maintain respectively???

Yet I have seen a number of studios that only have dummy-computers on thier
desk; just to say that they have computers, but they are NOT using them.
Perhaps the only thing install on them is windows 95 & Mac 9.0. lol

One big reason is the fact that tape is expensive, 1" costs about $65
a reel, two inch $150ish. At 30 IPS that means $50 per song just for
two inch tape costs, no actual studio time. On a large project for
many hours, this might not be significant to the artist (e.g. Steely
Dan reputedly burned through 400 reels for AJA) but for the band
trying to do their $500 demo it is.

I think people used to charge for hard disc space, but I doubt they do
anymore, it's gotten so cheap it would be like charging for a stick of
gum.

Editing is another thing, these days a lot of bands want to play
****ty and then fix it in the computer....there's even a song about
it, "Rockin the Suburbs" by Ben Folds.

"I cash the checks and face the facts, that producers with computers
fix all my ****ty tracks".

There are a lot of other really good reasons to record with computers,
the main reasons for still using analog a

1. You've got the gear and know it well, might as well use it

2. You are after that sound, and are pretty specific about it (many
analog holdouts are digging Radar these days I hear)

3. It's a workflow thing, working with analog tape for some people
(e.g. that would be me) is just way easier, no trying to remember what
that key command for doing something is, or scrolling through a bunch
of tracks to track enable them.

I think people that were raised with computers don't have this problem
as much, whereas people that weren't have to translate from "brain
command" to finger command to computer command. Punching in a tape
deck is a lot more like playing an instrument, you don't even have to
think about it.

One last thing is visual vs. audiotory.....when you use a computer you
tend to LOOK at the screen and what's going on too much, and use your
ears less. IMHO working with analog makes you listen more, no
distractions from looking at waveforms.

Keep in mind that a large number of Rock, Country and other formats
still mix to analog...especially at the highly professional level.

Analogeezer