1/2" tape mastering

[DocBop]

Okay I come from the old days of analog recording to tape and trying to get up to speed in the digital world. In past when mastering we usually went to a 1/4" half track deck for our stereo mix. Now I see studios besides 1/4" many have 1/2" two track machines. So are these digital or analog machines. If analog I can kinda see advantages with larger track and increase separation on the tape. But if digital tape what is the advantage of 1/2" your just laying down binary info.

 

[meev992]

Don't know...

but I'm a Young-in (19), and I still use a lot of magnetic tape.

 

[koobie]

1/2" is a high-end analog format, should give you (all things else being equal) wider dynamic range than 1/4". I doubt if you can find many digital reel to reel recorders being used anymore.

 

[Jimbob Jones]

Up until Absolution, Muse used tape exclusively, and I think they used it a bit on their latest album aswell.

 

[BassJunkie730]

My band used 2" tape on our last album.

try to get your hands on a 2" mastering device if you want to do tape mastering. $$$

The way that Digital music is going I'd say that analog mastering is becoming less and less needed in the hybrid - Tape/digital chain IMHO it's much more important during tracking and in mixing.

 

[DocBop]

Cool thanks for the replies. The new world of recording is quite interesting.

 

[Saetia]

A band I was in a few years ago used 2" tape. It pretty much rocked!

 

[adammazza]

You can pick up the 1/2" and 1/4" machines for pretty reasonable prices. I still have a 1/4" inch splice block around for editing

Adam

 

[meev992]

You can pick up the 1/2" and 1/4" machines for pretty reasonable prices. I still have a 1/4" inch splice block around for editing

Adam

ahhhh, splicing blocks are wonderful joy

 

[DocBop]

ahhhh, splicing blocks are wonderful joy

Splicing I never minded, what I hated back in the day was tight punch-in's and especially really tight punching out. A couple times had to hit stop and grab the reels of tape so tape would pass the record head. Now computer control handles all that.