Mtf wk 2 or semester 2: Ideas city

At last, a bit of real world application, this week’s forum was spent investigating the Mix Masters recording studio up in the hills. Upon our arrival, we were shown an array of old-school analogue technology. Nifty devices included a 2 inch multitrack tape recorder and a Radar, countless reverb and compression units, ribbon mics and an analogue desk (that is never-the-less hooked up to Protools which Mix Masters essentially use as a filing cabinet/editing tool). All semester, I have been wondering why the old sound engineers are so reluctant to let go of analogue recording devices. Now, finally, I have an explanation. Quite simply, the attraction is distortion from track to track on the 2 inch multitrack tape. The less than perfect technology allows for a little bit of contamination (or ‘fuzz’) from the neighbouring track the end result being a nice kind of distortion that binds everything together. In the pursuit of a compromise between the mind-boggling ease of digital and the ‘warmth’ of analogue, a computer with a super ADC/DAC converter has been created. This is known as Radar. I think I would like one, can I have one please? Mix Masters have one wired up and often use it to record. The fellow who showed us around suggested (with his infinite array of options) that, just because you have access to a collection of equipment, you may not need it for a good sound. He would probably tend to start with nothing and add devices as the sound quality (or lack there of) dictates. He also had a nice collection of mics including very old, top notch vocal mics and assorted ribbon mics. He had found with experience that the best quality mic may not produce the best recordings in every situation. At the end of the day, it is a good thing to avoid simply follow a formula. Good advice given included the suggestion of trying your best to record warm ups as, they often as not prove to be the best take you get. Same as live situations, setting up more mics than you need is preferable and, much to my surprise, our guy suggested building rock mixes up from the guitars/vocals, something that I am keen to try with my recording from last semester.