Return of Analog Recording?
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 5:53 pm
Now that analog synths have made a comeback with a vengeance, I wonder if analog recording also is planning a big comeback.
I have been contemplating the idea of getting a reel to reel multitrack recorder simply for the sake of having a pure analog signal path, only aside from getting such a recorder there's a small but very significant aspect to consider: the cost of the tapes.
Browsing the internet I also came across forgotten gems, such as the 8-track cassette portastudios.
Tascam and Yamaha used to have these, and although purported to be of a lesser quality I found that this 'lesser quality' is absolutely nowhere as bad as I had imagined it to be, quite the contrary.
Besides that, cassette tapes cost a LOT less than tape reels.
Aside from the conventional media which are used for analog recordings, such as reel, cassette, and vinyl, there are unexplored avenues of analog recording in the past, such as George Mann's invention of the full-spectrum optical analog laserdisc.
And I also wonder the role the memristor might be able to play in the possibility of full analog recordings, since the memristor is able to 'remember' values between '1' and '0'.
It would be great if we had the flexibility which digital computers now have (thanks to advanced software), only in an analog environment.
But I guess this is still somewhere in the future.
The surge in popularity of analog synths made me wonder about the possibility of a return of the analog format in recording, not just in the form we are all familiar with (tape, vinyl), but also in the form of exploring ideas which remained lying on the shelves of history due to the rise of digital technology.
I have been contemplating the idea of getting a reel to reel multitrack recorder simply for the sake of having a pure analog signal path, only aside from getting such a recorder there's a small but very significant aspect to consider: the cost of the tapes.
Browsing the internet I also came across forgotten gems, such as the 8-track cassette portastudios.
Tascam and Yamaha used to have these, and although purported to be of a lesser quality I found that this 'lesser quality' is absolutely nowhere as bad as I had imagined it to be, quite the contrary.
Besides that, cassette tapes cost a LOT less than tape reels.
Aside from the conventional media which are used for analog recordings, such as reel, cassette, and vinyl, there are unexplored avenues of analog recording in the past, such as George Mann's invention of the full-spectrum optical analog laserdisc.
And I also wonder the role the memristor might be able to play in the possibility of full analog recordings, since the memristor is able to 'remember' values between '1' and '0'.
It would be great if we had the flexibility which digital computers now have (thanks to advanced software), only in an analog environment.
But I guess this is still somewhere in the future.
The surge in popularity of analog synths made me wonder about the possibility of a return of the analog format in recording, not just in the form we are all familiar with (tape, vinyl), but also in the form of exploring ideas which remained lying on the shelves of history due to the rise of digital technology.