Anybody wanna go analog?

[Pappy725]

Hey guys, there's a studio here in my hometown that's selling his Studer A80 MKIII 24 Track. Here's a link in case anyone's interested, (Brad, you gear ho)
http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/1032842609.html

Check it out.
Pappy

[Phil O]

What's the story on magnetic tape? I heard some time ago that the last manufacturer went out of business. If that's so, are we just purchasing what's stockpiled?

Phil

[cuttime]

The reports of the death of magnetic tape have been greatly exaggerated:

http://www.quantegy-online.com/index.html

[monkey man]

One more year of this digital-shenanigan-cum-upgrade nonsense and I'll be seriously considering a basic, MIDI-synced (for live hardware mixing) analog tape and desk option. If the Mac misbehaves I'll relegate it to Unicorn duties and switch to Cubase on the ATARI. LOL

IMHO, the warmth and punchiness of this approach cannot be denied. Somehow, I suspect more work inevitably gets done too, not least because of the greatly-reduced troubleshooting time required and miscellaneous computer-related distractions. This Studer A80 MKIII 24 Track was nothing but a ridiculously-unrealistic dream of the '90s for me...

[Pappy725]

This Studer A80 MKIII 24 Track was nothing but a ridiculously-unrealistic dream of the '90s for me...

And for a whole lot of us hobbyist/semipro/wanna bees. (myself included)
Oh yeah, now the guy's running a Sonar workstation.
Pappy

[BradLyons]

LOL, no----analog and I were never friends.

[monkey man]

This Studer A80 MKIII 24 Track was nothing but a ridiculously-unrealistic dream of the '90s for me...

And for a whole lot of us hobbyist/semipro/wanna bees. (myself included)

Can't say I blame you, Pappster.

Oh yeah, now the guy's running a Sonar workstation.
Pappy

[sdemott]

As tempting as it is - I remember the maintenance required for a Studer (or any deck). I just don't have that in me anymore. They are fantastic sounding decks...but it's hard enough for me to remember to make backups of daily digital sessions. I can't imagine having to bias & align a deck regularly and then run off safety copies. Man...just thinking about it makes me jittery.

[stephentayler]

Here is a very interesting new concept to make use of that wonderful old analog multitrack.....

http://www.endlessanalog.com/

took me a while to realise what is going on, but it is quite amazing

kind regards

Stephen

[artright]

Man , don't you remember the days of the 2" tape MCI recorder and the big AKG box timbre echo unit and the patch bays, the MCI 72/48/8/2 Mixer direct from England. The stuff that Brian Ferry did some of those great tunes on. Made a guitar sound like it was coming inside your head. Now I'M stuck on stuff like trying to work with the manufacturer directly for a home system.

Remember the days

[James Steele]

Here is a very interesting new concept to make use of that wonderful old analog multitrack.....

http://www.endlessanalog.com/

took me a while to realise what is going on, but it is quite amazing

kind regards

Stephen

Man... seriously, that is inspiring. I'd think it would give a shot in the arm to used tape deck sales. I can't afford it, but it started me searching eBay for used machines just out of curiosity. I don't know however what quality machine you'd need to have to derive some appreciable benefit. For example, hooking this thing up to something like a Tascam 38 1/2" machine might not really produce any great effect to justify the price of the CLASP system, which I cannot find pricing for on their site. Still, seems like if you had the bucks to have a 2" 30ips system, it would be damned cool. They also specifically mention Digital Performer as supported.

[kgdrum]

this looks pretty cool to me:

Anamod ATS-1

http://www.anamodaudio.com/

The ATS-1 features:

• Two channels of analog tape simulation

• Up to four tape machine models

• Up to four tape formulation models

• 7.5, 15 and 30 ips speed selection

• Bias, LF and HF EQ, and Hiss

• User-installable upgrade cards

The ATS-Analog Tape Simulator is the first product that uses the AnaMod process for modeling complex analog circuitry entirely in the analog domain. Specially developed analog building blocks are 'coded' to emulate the behavior of a complex analog system. Unlike digital plug-ins or processor-based outboard gear, there is no latency, and no A/D or D/A conversions to compromise the sound. The result is a faithful recreation of the original response, without using the original analog hardware.

All of the important features of a two-track analog tape machine are found in the ATS-1, including speed selection, bias, LF record and HF Repro EQ, and the option of adding tape hiss, if desired. The reference 'record' level, as indicated on the illuminated VU meters, can be adjusted from 0 to +12 dBu in 3 dB increments.

The ATS-1 accurately models the behavior of specific tape machines and tape formulations, and allows the user to select from up to four machine and tape types. Optional machine and tape types are available on easy-to-install SIMM cards. Standard tape formulation cards shipped with the ATS-1 are the GP9 and 456. Standard machine cards are the A800 and M79.

By popular demand, wow and flutter is not included.