The Real Reason Why Analog Recording Is Better
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The Real Reason Why Analog Recording Is Better. Why is analog better than digital for recording music? In this video, I dive into the surprising reasons why I prefer analog tape recording-and it's not about the sound. Discover how the analog workflow enhances the creative process, why vintage recording technology outlasts digital gear, and how working with tape can transform your music production. With 40 years of experience as a producer and mixer, I share insights into what makes analog unique in a world dominated by digital. If you're curious about analog vs. digital recording or just want to learn more about studio techniques, this video is for you.
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There's been some requests to hear the song that I play in this video at 7:35 . I put it up on my Band Camp site and called it "Basement Jam". You can listen and download for free, however a tip or donation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone for watching, subscribing and for all the awesome comments. Here's the link: billyhume.bandcamp.com/track/basement-jam
12:07 can you please tell what song is that?
such a cool track! Get it on a seperate video... let's get you some clicks!
Bogus ... or Snake Oil ... This is how the vintage gear industry survives for white dudes to buy products, while believing their music is getting better.
@@CKS504 in previous video he speaks about copyright problems with his own music, so I don’t know if that will happen soon. But I hope all will come with a good solution
@@vwestTube The little bit of song at the end is just a jingle Billy made, featuring Tap (of the Tokyo Teens band) singing. They made it for the channel.
From an anecdote about a Japanese or Chinese brush painter: A wealthy patron (or king) commissions a painting of a bird from a famous artist. The artist asks for a year to complete the work. The year passes, and the patron demands the painting. The artist sits down and paints the bird flawlessly in a matter of minutes. The patron, amazed yet angry, asks, “If you could do it so quickly, why did I have to wait a year?” The artist silently opens a cabinet, revealing hundreds of sketches of birds he had made during the year, saying, "I spent the year practicing so I could paint it perfectly in this moment."
Wow! Love this. Thanks!
Or as Herb Alpert said: while you were sleeping, someone was practicing.
Whether it be painting, drawing, writing music, recording and engineering music, teaching, welding, or lecturing it all comes down to...How many times have your put forth the effort and failed before you got it right. How many times, as the other comment stated Herb Albert said "while you were sleeping, someone was practicing", are you the one running the scales one more time, shooting the basketball 100 times after everyone else has gone, your the guy in the gym at 5:00 a.m. and again at 10:00 pm, or the recording engineer setting up another reel to redo the last edit. No matter what it is, the extra effort and willingness to put yourself out there is what makes average people great.
@@roymcmillan2518 Right, and that's why it's so frustrating that so many people are using AI tools in all kinds of creative fields these days. They don't want to practice over and over and over again and actually learn the skill. They want to use AI as a shortcut so they don't have to do all the heavy lifting of thinking and practicing. They want fast results without much effort. But what's the point? I have respect for creative people who have put in the work and practiced their art over a period of years.
@@lateniteleroy And you are practicing when that person is sleeping. Everyone has to sleep.
The part where you said it's necessary to take breaks in between takes, enough to reset your ears, is one of the best tips and truths of recording I've ever heard. That alone can make the whole thing sound so much better.
Great observation - most clips/seminars on studio recording and production focus mostly on the gear.
However, I have always found that your ears (which are analog and biological systems) change their "frequency response"
far more over the course of a long session than most tiny differences between different gear options.
This also applies to discernment of dynamic range and the ability to hear subtleties like sound staging and other nuances
like overdriven mic pre-amps or excessive use of compression/limiting.
I didnt watch this entire video. But this may just be the most important thread, because it discusses that one essential truth that is overlooked in the video- - resting your ears & your nerves!
I'm an experienced guitarist, & an amateur at R&M, best. I've dealt with R&M equipment most of my life, though. As a pre-teen in the 80's, there was no money for a mixing console. At first I had to "chain" tracks together again & again to build a mix tape, until I eventually got my hands on an old AIWA four track machine. (For compact cassette)
Now that I'm older I find using a personal computer & mixer software is great for conceptual or creative recordings. But for creating individual tracks, mix taping them & then mastering, I find it much simpler to stick with all-analog. So, time for me to face it. I really have become a relic! 😅
💎 Thank you for contributing! I look forward to refreshing myself with these comments in the future
@@jaadams1973 The best audio engineers will still use the best. Digital for quick and dirty; analog for superior sound
Works well for all aspects of life … doing things in a hurry just doesn't get it.
Try doing that at a concert.
As an engineer I thought this would be just another video about audio preferences, but the argument here was much more compelling. This is a well thought out and insightful video.
Thanks!
digital is more like a translation of reality while analog is more of a copy IMO.
@@johnjeffreys6440 I think the point of the video though, is that even if the audio quality of analog and digital was virtually indistinguishable, which I would bet it is to most people, the analog process forces one to record and commit to editing in a particular way that requires much more careful rehearsal and planning. Digital is nearly infinitely flexible and can retain intermediate results with virtually no degradation, so that one can try again and again, so that the product is more processed and perfected. So the product is different stylistically which may be a goal in itself of the creative process.
Just to throw this out here, this talk of “audio preferences” washes out the facts. There is no preference as to what the facts are, and the fact is that a digital interface cannot record half a bit. The resolution of tape is as tiny as the grains of sand, iron oxide, running through the layers. It is also why old fashioned camera film had better resolution than digital cameras of today. In that case, the particles are silver halide, but the same principle applies. That is your resolution. There simply is no competition.
@@TheChadPad
That's right. If you graph it, the digital sound creates a jagged edge rather than the smooth curving line produced by analog recording. You can increase the resolution until the brain cannot recognize it as a jagged edge, but it is still there, and the ear can hear it.
Think about it. We've all listened to a good digital recording and then gone back and listened to a good analog of the same recording and said, "WOW! what a difference!"
Thanks. Good comment.
As an ex fashion photographer I can tell you it’s exactly this dynamic in photography. You used to have a few rolls and either it was in the can or you were in the can. Now it’s spray and pray and “we’ll fix it in post”.
Also the time it took to bake a Polaroid was exactly the brain break to meditate about how to improve the shot. Great video.
I am a landscape photographer, my work went to hell when I stopped waiting for the perfect moment and time of day.
Thanks! I've gotten sol many comments from photographers and film makers. Totally makes sense.
"We chemicals on celluloid bros didn't fix it in post" is the dumbest take there is. As if no one used filters, chose certain papers, dodged or burned, or over and under exposed in a dark room. It was an inferior process full of errors and inaccuracy. It also stank to high heaven. Move the hell on or go back to the daguerreotype, you Luddite.
Great comment
it's magical time we live in, where we can spray and pray and fix in post.
it's just SOME people (and i AM pointing fingers here), who think that their process is superior to that of other people, for the reason^ it's THEIR process, how can it not be superior? i'm a greatest genius, i know everything better than others, it's an objective truth. yeah right.
"I feel like we are building a house of cards and not just for the music industry but our whole society. I'm just not sure we're headed down the right path in so many ways." 100%
Absolutely true. Kids can hardly write with a pen let alone string a sentence together in a coherent manner. Ai is now really dumbing them all down even further.
Absolutely. It isn't just music either. It is photography, movies, cars, telephones,..... heck almost everything. Think about it, if the grid (when I say grid, in reality it is computers/the internet today) went down 75 years ago, we could still do pretty much everything we did prior. Banking, no problem. Driving your car, no problem. If the grid went down today, society would collapse in days because almost everything requires power, the internet and a computer to function.
We definitely live in interesting times.
That was my take away line, too!
By now the truth of that statement has probably degraded to 97%.
You've 100% nailed it, it's not about the sound, it's the workflow/attitude. You can still do this digitally if you impose those rules for yourself though. I've only ever recorded with bands live in studio and it really helps with this I think, everyone knows going in they have to commit and know their parts. Really focuses your attention on arrangement before going to the studio, which is EVERYTHING.
Exactly my thinking.
Imposing a rule on yourself to act as if you’re recording to tape and actually recording to tape are different things…. If you’re recording digitally deep down you know you can fix it, whether or not you do doesn’t change that.
Before tape, they would go in the studio and do a live cut to acetate, lacquer, or wax master discs and record the whole song or album in one take. Then they'd take those "cuts", plate them with silver, then electroplate their backs with copper to make stamping dies, then press out vinyl copies. Then George Martin was able to take several 4 track machines and bounce tracks back and forth, and would often try to cram on as many instruments into one track as possible. Having more tracks is like stacking acetates that are not perfectly clear. The more you stack, the more the noise floor adds up. The first significant use of magnetic tape for professional audio recording came in 1948, when Ampex introduced its Model 200 reel-to-reel tape recorder.
That's how I feel about analog video, especially for live broadcasting. It's about the process.
Field recording was awesome as well. We used ADAT tape. Upload to our audio server using ProTools, bla, bla, bla. Great days back then.
@@MessianicJudaism perhaps ADAT is the happy medium between a DAW and analog tape. Longevity with the ability to punch and edit without losing high end.
I have been saying Process = Outcome for 30 years now. I agree with so much of this...
I can think of one technician that worked for me detailing trucks. I hated the way he cleaned , absolutely hated it however he was the only manager who could hold down the offsite location without generating a complain everyday ! We had different processes and when we learned to use his mobile and mine in shop ! We tripled revenue .
kinda similar to "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey"
Ever asked a pro how they feel?
@@MTMXBL I can only think of the meme with Gerald from Hey Arnold
I think you improved on Marshall McLuhan.
Process = Outcome better than "the medium is the message"
For any pianists out there, I think it is also the simple reason we don't have pianists like Josef Lhevinne. Already Richter is unlistenable imo. Cellphones and hyper-connection are compounding the problem.
And you know what? AI will be the greatest musician soon enough. The intelligence of LLMs will be duplicated in intelligent music models. Absolutely no doubt. Musical intelligence is algorithmic. Very complicated but algorithmic. There are ways to tease out this intelligence and the engineers will burn a lot of carbon doing it.
The same logic can be applied when comparing writing a letter by hand to using a word processor. You can only do so many 'undos' in a hand written letter before the paper looks you split ink over the page. The hand written letter forces you to write clearer, pay better attention to your spelling, the paragraph spacing and most importantly, that you have the entire sentence ready in your head before putting pen to paper.
And finally eveyone loves to receive a hand written letter today. It's such a rare treasure
On a track called "The Precious Jewel" on the album "Will the Circle be Unbroken" back in 1972, Roy Acuff opened the recording with a precious jewel of his own by saying, "I'll tell you all a little secret of my policy in the studio. I find it true, and I believe it is true with most anyone, whenever you once decide that you're going to record a number, put everything you've got into it because-- don't say 'oh we'll take it over and do it again' because every time you go through it you lose a little something, especially a man with voice. So let's do it the first time and to hell with the rest of it."
I've always tried to live by that, and it seems like that's what you're finding to be true as well. Much love, great video.
I was just about to post this!
Another thing I recall is reading about Metallica coming in to record ...And Justice For All and the producer being gobsmacked that the prior albums had been pretty much recorded live in the studio with vocal overdubs.
Thank you. I'm going to listen to this.
One of my wife's favorite albums. Good take on advantages of analog.
I've heard people put down the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but they were good musicians and kudos to them for their involvement with all those legends for that album.
I didnt watch this entire video. But being obsessed with perfection to a fault, & losing a performer's passion & quality from repeated takes is an essential lesson
I'm an experienced guitarist, & an amateur at R&M, best. I've dealt with R&M equipment most of my life, though. As a pre-teen in the 80's, there was no money for a mixing console. At first I had to "chain" tracks together again & again to build a mix tape, until I eventually got my hands on an old AIWA four track machine. (For compact cassette)
Now that I'm older I find using a personal computer & mixer software is great for conceptual or creative recordings. But for creating individual tracks, mix taping them & then mastering, I find it much simpler to stick with all-analog. So, time for me to face it. I really have become a relic! 😅
💎 Thank you for contributing! I look forward to refreshing myself with these comments in the future
I recall hearing musicians say that about Dylan. You better get it right the first time because there’s a good chance you won’t get a second try.
Loved this video. I'm a former videotape operator and worked through the analogue to digital revolution. Later as a producer when we would shoot film the whole set would be silent and paying attention. Now you have people on the phone and if we weren't recording sound some people would be talking in the background. With shooting film every take was considered valuable, now they just keep the camera rolling!
Its a reflection of current life, thats also not valuable anymore
I worked in LIVE television, and tape was the worst thing that ever happened. We completed a half hour broadcast in 30min! now it takes MONTHS to produce the same show.
There was chatter on the EMI rooftop from banter between the Beatles to Mal and all folks within ear's reach of the microphones, the applause from the onlookers, it was all a cool part of the live filming. I remember engineering a project recording in a private Harvard Square penthouse with adjacent typical kitchen noisy silverware and chat, it worked its way in very fine - and also - was it the engineer voicing an 'OK' or 'awrite!' to Mark Farner in "I'm Your Captain" at the end of the the first verse as his permission of sorts to continue - that it was real good to that point.. 'god speed and clear sailing through the rest.' All the quirks, subtle and not so subtle finger noise on guitar strings - the human stuff. It's cool if it's not so blatantly bad to distracting. I can still appreciate a David Gates recording - always near to perfection - like Chet Baker insisted too on perfection. That is always welcome. All the tender moments have to be 'just right' and worth every effort to perfect. It's just nice in the rock'n'roll realm sometimes when you can let your hair down.
This popped up in my feed and I'm glad it did. This is one of the most clear-headed, honest, boots-on-the-ground assessments of analog vs. digital recording that I've come across. Even-handed and honest. Subscribed!
This popped up in my feed too and I'm also glad it did.
Ditto here too. To extend on this great observation, we see this happening with home audio gear, and home gear I general. Just how long will that app for your preamp or pellet smoker on you iPhone be supported? Will I have to replace an otherwise perfect refrigerator when my phone’s OS no longer supports the app needed to operate it?
That is why I shoot the film and not digital too!
Ditto. The R2R caught my eye. Did a quick check and the Teac A-3440 is the one I fell in love with in senior high in our 21 Century Sound course. 4 semesters/2 years in the band room studio with our home made polyphonic Moog built from the original drawings. Patch panels and 2 Revox's. And keys to everything so we could work on our compositions any time 24/7. Sound compositions - anything goes. We would setup the big Peavey's in the band room and turn off the lights and listen then critique everyone's composition. If Mr. Karr gave you an A you could continue to the next semester. There was no actual class. For my final 1st semester composition I setup 4 speakers and played my composition. In surround sound from that Teac 4 channel. Blew everyone away. 1980. Damaged my right eardrum at the end so that was it for my sound engineering dreams. Sample and hold - Cheers!
this popped up in my feed to and i am glad it did. perfect example of not only a pathetic clickbait title, but also a complete bait and switch, since nothing hume says has actually anything to do with analog, but with discipline and organization. you can be disciplined or not regardless of the medium or process you use for recording. i understand the assertion that the process of analog recording MAKES you do things differently, but when you analyze WHAT you are doing - you can do that with a process that gives you inherently more leeway. its not actually "analog" that makes the difference, its your behaviour. if you are too reckless with the undo button, and you think you have commitment issues, then just stop using the undo button so much. think, before you record. which is something you should do regardless of the medium. again.
Your studio is a museum. When you grew up with analog technique all around you you may use it. Nobody stops you. It's like handwriting letters vs. emails.
While true, the lack of ressilience of computer technology (mostly due to planned obsolesence in order to sell more garbage) and the tunel vision caused by hyperfocusing and not give the brain time to adapt. Results on a lesser product.
We are not machines, nor will we ever be. Products are made for humans, not for machines. Machines do not need music, or relaxation. Just electricity.
I anticipated a small nod to analog nostalgia, but instead, you delivered a scalpel-sharp critique of modern culture. Unlimited tracks, endless storage-zero stakes. The truth is, creativity thrives within constraints. When the cost of creating, publishing, or entry is reduced to nothing, so too is the value. This is how the Internet gutted journalism and how AI is eroding the arts. We've traded serendipity, skill, and deliberate craft for quantity over quality. Accidental genius is vanishing, replaced by algorithmic churn. Planning isn't the only problem; it's the loss of meaning through overproduction.
Well stated. Thank you!
painfully good take
I agree. But I do not share the pessimistic view on AI. Because AI is nothing more than the most common average of mass data. (AI is a statistical probability Tool, no computation or thinking in a real sense). Therefore, AI will always be cringe to a certain degree. But it can help or assist for inspiration or structuring. ... It gives real audio and sound more value. Because the untalented artist that patched up everything digitally, is substituted by AI.
Industrialization applies and creativity dies EVERYTIME
Absolutely spot-on, dude. That's one of the reasons why what Jacob Collier does is so insipid and uninspiring: hundreds of tracks to make you yawn with the final result...
The amount of time and energy and detail you put into these videos is amazing. As a 34 year old musician who self-produces and mixes, seeing your insights into how these processes have changed over the years is a revelation. Thank you so much for sharing this information.
That means a lot, thank you!
again dude - if you couldn't make records on your bedroom do you think anybody would pay you to do it? people like you need to admit you really don't have talent worth paying for
Well said 🦾🔥
@@recoswelli've always thought I'm paying for the SPIRIT and the Idea behind the project, not so much for talent.Talent and perfection could be made by CGI and AI , but the Ideea is the main thing to notice.
I'm not a musician, not even close. But it's great to see someone that is 200% into their craft! I can imagine a man 40,000 years ago, totally into and mastering the complexity of crafting stone tools. It's a big part of why we're here! Tuck on dude!
As a software developer I'm so annoyed by software - it breaks all the time for various reasons. Thank you for sharing your view!
As a professional audio engineer and recording artist who is fossilised into stone in his deep cave, I have
temporarily returned to life in ordér to say that your presentation is faultless, wide-ranging and most entertaining.
I shall now ossify once more and dream the dream of ages, in the caverns of Mohandas, the holy studios where
all good engineers go, where the drummer's girlfriend doesn't perform a Hopi Harvest dance before every take
and a sax player tell you that his music is too cool to need a microphone, (Both events actually happened)
Lolz. I had a hippie chic GF and she would do exactly the Hopie Harvest dance during rehearsals. I can confirm this is 100% accurate
@@mikehertz6507 ???
Girl performing a Hopi Harvest Dance...I know of what you speak!
😂
I dated a Bellydancer, but never had her dance when I was drumming. Drat , never thought of that! lol...
Watching my life flash before my eyes...
Haha
You are sooo right. I am older, from the 60s. We made our own 4 track machines by gluing stereo heads together and used EMI BTR 2 machines for mastering. We also made our own mixing consoles including compressors using light bulbs and LDRs. Now I'm the only one left, and when I'm gone, much of that history will be lost forever.
Digital is better. At least you can count on it.
@@oupahens9219 whaaa?
Tell do! Release that genius method 🇬🇧
You should write about it!
@@oupahens9219not really I have had hard drives go bad and lost work because there was no backup.
And I have lost hours of tape recorded on Ampex 456 and 3M 226.
I have had recordable cd’s become unreadable. I have 40 years in the business ask me how I know…
Dang man! That's incredible! You're an incredible musician, teacher, and producer! So cool.
Thanks, I appreciate that!
I am 17 years old, I live in Argentina and now I know that I want to be a music producer and musician thanks to you
Edit: thank you all very much, I really didn't think I would reach so many people with likes and comments, they are the best
Go for it! I make music since 2010 ("bedroom" Techno/DJ stuff..). If not done professional, it' sure a quality of life thing :)
that's awesome. Best of luck and dont' be afraid of experimenting
I hope for a great journey ahead. Bumpy, most likely, but great nonetheless. :)
Remember Maxi Trusso, is not impossible bro, saludos de Argentina también
it's a life-long endeavor that will do nothing but serve you and bring joy and a sense of community!
Totally agree, like you, I started recording in the 80’s. But with a Yamaha 4 track cassette, moved to a Fostec 8 track, then the computer. After a few years, and costly computer/interface upgrades I realized that the screen made it more of a visual experience as I was looking at the waveform father than listening. So I’ve now taken one step back and got a stand alone digital recorder and committed to never punching in, but rather always playing a complete track. This really works for me.
I dont care what anyone says to the contrary. I will sooner resort to compact cassette before mastering to a CD. Magnetic tape has always had a broader spectral range and better balance than CD...
And yes, 1/2" and 1" tape is laborious & expensive. But its proof of superior sound quality goes all the way back to the 40's & 50's
this is absolutely EPIC. A mini documentary on rich history and the nuances of creativity in the studio. THANK YOU for this.
Absolutely brilliant.
I was a pro sound engineer for broadcast for ~15 years, and this is the most insightful and honest appraisal I've seen or heard on the subject of analog vs. digital.
A completely unexpected take.
💯
Thanks so much!!
Software engineer / recording and mixing enthusiast here. You're spot on about longevity. Friends are shocked when I tell them that their digital lives will become obsolete sooner rather than later. The expectation is that the tech nerd will tell them that this stuff will last forever. New formats, software, cables, no backward compatibility makes this near impossible. Most people can't make regular back-ups of stuff they care about, let alone spin up a rickety virtual machine emulating a long dead environment so you can hear the song you made only ten years ago.
I tried loading projects from a prior version of a DAW to revisit (by request) sessions I did years ago. New version would NOT OPEN the old projects. I had to import the sound files one by one which took hours. And don't get me started on plugins - Eventide v2 not compatible w/ v1 presets of the SAME PLUGIN.
Interesting how so many people online feel they need to preface their opinions with their credentials, the old appeal to authority. Ideally, just the opinion itself should be persuasive enough that it stands on its own
@@pensivepenguin3000 I guess that's true? I'll do it when I want people to know I'm not talking for the sake of talking and making things up on the fly. In this case I wanted to illustrate that someone who's livelihood depends on digital can still see the valid points made in this video.
@@pensivepenguin3000Ridiculous optimism while denying reality. How precious.
@@davidcollin1436 what I said was neither optimistic nor pessimistic, and it was entirely based in reality… That is, if you consider the principles of logic and reasoning to be reality. I do
My reasons as 60 year old engineer for loving analog recording in the 80s/90s.
Rewind time to rest yours ears , talk to people and have a sip of tea.
Being in a big 48 plus channel Neve/SSL room with a tape op, producer , programmer and members of the band.
No screens except fader automation.
Real knobs/faders vs menus and mouse pushing.
Real musicians instead of samples.
Those musicians knowing they had to be ready because the room was £800 per day.
Getting paid properly.(most of the time)
Real human interaction (being in the same room) is key.
nice
I am 73 years old I was so much more creative when I did not have a computer monitor/display to look at. I was forced to use my ears because there just wasn’t any digital visual candy to distract from the sound. All the visual candy that modern musicians and engineers have is only a distraction. The final product is sound and not something one can see.
The good old analog days. I remember them well. I tried teaching this concept in my music technology class at the university where I worked, and the students just weren't interested in learning history or even the process and sound of analog. I'm 55yrs old and still appreciate the analog process where it took real musicians to make records. I made sure my keyboard parts were well rehearsed before I pushed record.
You need to teach the format in bites the way the kids will eat it. They dont care about virtue signaling but if you introduce things in an interesting exciting maybe interactive way they will be hooked
@@m3zmr Thank you for the input. I like the idea of "bites". I try not to overload them with analog because I already know I will lose them. I have a small section in my curriculum for analog then I have moments when I actually bring in to class some of my old analog gear if for nothing else but for them to see and possibly touch the gear and get a good laugh. They seem to gain a high level of respect for me as a professor, but miss the lesson of analog. Lol
This video brought back some very fond memories of why I miss analog...and I never thought I'd hear myself say that. After watching this video, I spent ten or fifteen minutes just reflecting on my time when I was either sitting in a recording session with musicians or working as a producer at the desk. While the engineer was rewinding or changing a patch or setting up an effects chain, we would discuss little changes to the charts or even just say 'that's what we're going for'...or just have a chuckle. At the start of a session, as a producer, I always allowed ten or so minutes for the musicians to say hi or catch up with each other. The family atmosphere is what I miss. We didn't have unlimited takes, so when it was time to work, there was major focus.
Now I work from home, mostly alone, and bring artists and musicians in, usually one at a time. So, even though we have this great technology, let's pause to reflect on what we've lost in the trade. Thank you for reminding me.
It’s my preferred way of working. The time spent waiting between tape reel rewinds is where you talk about what just happened. Your ears get a rest. An idea pops up. And tbh if you use undo all the time, you maybe need to look at why you aren’t getting it right. I love analogue tape for its process. And then the limitation of „only“ 16 or 24 tracks is a godsend when trying to avoid a complete shitstorm when mixing
And yes, it’s long lasting.
The first time I heard playback from tape in a studio I couldn't believe how amazing it sounded, something about it.
I never thought about it, but this makes a ton of sense. Granted, I’m not part of the analog era (entirely), but when I first started recording, I was just recording because I was so excited. I didn’t think about the grid, or making the take perfect. I just recorded, and moved on. The more I learned, the more I found myself spending on a single instrument or synth trying to dial in a sound to perfection and making zero progress.
Absolutely. Sounds like we came up in a similar time. My first multitrack recording experience was with the Tascam 414 four track cassette recorder I bought in like 1999, when I was 18. Then slowly but surely started getting into the whole DAW thing, and it’s like the more I learned about guitars, amps, modelers, plug-ins, etc. etc., the more I focused on all the wrong things. There’s a certain Freedom and not really knowing what you’re doing and just operating on instinct. It’s really hard to recapture that nowadays
Probably one of the most sensible arguments in support of analog I have seen. As an older guy I'm across all the frailties of constantly moving digital media and all the frustration that comes with that, but the argument that analog gives your process time to breathe is absolutely on the money.
4:06 "...and I'm putting off making a visual decision versus a clinical decision"
He said visceral decision. Not visual. Point still applies but people should know what he actually said.
One being from the gut and instinctual and the second being from what the eye sees. To very different things
Very very good point he makes!
@@Zack-Hates-TH-cam The subtitles were wrong.
@@ThreadBomb 100% but we don't know if the OP was using subtitles or not
When he said that the repeated retakes lose the soul, that really resonated with me. Often I'll be playing something really good so I'll try to record it, but then it won't be as good or sound right the second time around, and the more I redo it the more jumbled up it seems to get. Eventually I just end up wasting an hour doing retakes, I'm not happy with any of them, and you could argue they're just getting progressively worse. That just sort of continues until I get sick of it or my fingers get tired. There is definitely something to be said about owning it in the moment, imperfections and all. Later when he mentions stepped away to reset your ears and retain perspective, that's also really solid advice that is significantly more effective than you'd think
@gregfirehawk I can relate to this "too many takes" thing, also. I have discovered that it might take me an hour to get through a 3 minute bass part, recording from left to right, getting everything just right. But then, I will do one of 2 more takes all the way through, and those become the "keepers", because all the other stuff was really just me practicing my part.
And chances are, you'll come back to those takes with rested ears, ie a cleansed palate, and you'll hear that they sound much better now that your ears have reset.
you have to recognize when you're getting tired and quit. But there's also the benefit of warming up. Usually my best takes are 8, 9, and 10. Often I'm not decided on exactly what I'm going to play when I start. So sometimes I'm writing solos as I go. I might THINK I want to do X, then when I hear it I change my mind and something else works better.
@clayton56tube it's funny you mention warming up, because there is a surprisingly tricky balance to doing so. Personally I find I take 20-30 minutes to really get good and warmed up and locked in, but then after around an hour I'm already not really all that sharp creatively and it starts to feel somewhat mechanical. So the golden window is surprisingly small
If you have a home studio, record every single time you play any instrument. You can always get rid of the recordings you don't want. But you can't recover ones you didn't make.
I remember when musicians were in a studio and layed down an entire song at once. no remixing, editing, just play & record. True, you used to do many takes to get the best one, but it was truly organic., Good musicians/Singers knew they needed to get it right very quickly.
I used to record myself in my Tandberg open reel tape recorders, playing guitars etc. I could perfectly play a song live, but when recording it became a different thing, usually having to record several times to become almost satisfied. Funny thing, less pressure doing it live than in the home studio.
too much pressure to do it right the first time, makes the guys nervous and restrained,soul less, no risk taking
@@larryenglish8900 if you were a professional, you tool your craft very seriously. Often times many takes were done to get that right sound, mixing was done in real time
I appreciate the honesty of this. Henry Ford (essentially) invented the assembly line for max product and min downtime. Therefore, max profit. Music is art, not a mechanical product. There is idiosyncrasy and vibe to heavily consider for all arts (music falls within art). Otherwise, A.I. can make your "art" better. Art is and always (and should be) an organic human endeavour. It is expression personified.
There's a big wave of analog coming back. I love my turntable, piano, guitar, and hand-operated coffee grinder, not to mention walking in the real world appreciating all things natural.
Very few analogue studios out there now. Last time I looked, and these prices might be a decade out of date 20 minutes of 2" tape cost $300 or so. Proably can't get it any more.
Just wait: there will be more and more available again slowly.
My electric coffee grinder is still 100% analog. 😅
A good way to experience all things natural is moving to the jungle of some underdeveloped country.
@@JohnDoe-jk3vv yes, a life expectancy of 40 years and diseases from birth help focus on reality. Rotten toothless mouths at age 30 aren't just a British pride in the jungle😂😂😂
Hi Billy! I am a 60 year old musician and i very much like everything you say! You are so right about this missing quality today. And: I own 40 y.o. analog equipment which is still working today while many digital devices have passed by and died quickly throughout the years.
I don't know much about audio and your job, but, as a writer, I had a similar experience and subsequent epiphany about digital (extended ASCII text files) and analogue (sheets of papers filled with handwriting). You're totally right about the creative aspect.
Computers hurt it a lot in writing. The flow of words materializing your thoughts is broken with corrections, stopping for a better word, and myriads of distractions from the computer that make the real writing slow and broken. Being also a professional programmer, it was hard to get back to pen and paper, but it is worth it. 🙂 I still use a computer to finish my writing, correction, mise en page and so on, but the meat of the creative process is now totally analogue Old School. 🙂
Totally agree with you. I began with a TEAC 3340 in the 70s. Recently I bought a Zoom Livetrak, which has no editing features. I began making music like we did back then - get into the zone, play like you’re on stage, on a tightrope with no net. I like that so much, it has become my process again. You are so right about repeated undos and retakes - it kills the vibe. I can do any subsequent editing using a DAW, but the actual recording is done ‘in the zone’. I think that many musicians are unaware of this, because they have used DAWs exclusively from the beginning.
This video is excellent man. We just recorded our entire new album all analog at Electrical Audio in Chicago - So many of the reasons you listed are why we loved the process so much more. Having the rewind time, making creative decisions/commitments, being super prepared, really listening to playbacks. It’s a tried and true methodology…and it definitely won’t be the last time record all analog! Keep up the awesome content! 🙏🏻
RIP Albini
I was literally about to write ‘Steve Albini would love this video’
What's really invaluable here, is your experience in multiple recording eras - creating a perspective that would've been impossible to appreciate even a few years ago...good advice about the mini-breaks too! Excellent video, thank you.
This is actually true for cars, books, ideas and values.Everything now is disposable while most of the things before the 90’s were meant to last.
00:19 I jumped up in my chair when the Fostex A8 appeared on screen. That was my first real recorder, purchased used in 1994 or 1995. I used it with an ART Phantom 1608 mixer and an Alesis 3630 compressor (which I still have). I have never had as much fun recording (or anything else) as I did in those early days.
I bought a Fostex A-8 back in the mid 80's! Traded it in for a Roland VS840 in 1998..I still have my 3630. I bought it back in 2004 because it's what Daft Punk said they used for their instruments! I use it on all my instruments to this day.
Steve Albini used to harp on that constantly whenever he did a talk at a sound/recording college. The lingevity and universality of tape. It was the number one reason he always went to tape. He wanted the band to have something that would last. Personally I hear an appreciable sonic difference in tape, some of which might also be the transformers in the desk as well.
A friend of mine told me about this video, so I checked it out...fantastic! You had me immediately with the shot of the TEAC 3340S, which was my first machine. I currently have my next generation machine, which is a TEAC A-3440. When one of my two lifelong musical partners suddenly and unexpectedly died back in 2021, I rolled out the cabinet with that machine in it, got a belt replaced that had broken, and then a tape on, and rolled it, my tech buddies that were with me at this moment were astounded at the quality of the sound. Since that day to now, when I can get few hours free, II have gone thru the 60-odd tapes that have been stored since the early 80's and searching the music my musical partners and I created. Just maybe 8 to 10 left, I have determined to finish this in 2025. I realy enjoyed your own walk down memory lane of all your recording formats, really made my day. Thank you!
I totally agree and I'm truly amazed by what you’ve shared. The way you present your perspective without falling into dichotomies is incredible. For example, when you mentioned that undo is very helpful and you don't hate it, yet you still provide an accurate perspective on the energy lost with every retake-just like Prince told his engineer in an interview. Your explanation of the relationship between analog and digital is so well-balanced; you don’t become 'old-fashioned' by rejecting digital entirely. I feel this explanation has reached a paradoxical point where you can articulate both the exact and the transcendental aspects. The final message in your video also has an impact on the whole society. Keep making music, and I hope to have a conversation with you someday. Thank you!
I was a broadcast engineer in the 1990s. I was a tape operator and tape editor. I mainly worked in BataSP, One Inch C and Sony D2. By 2010, tape was mostly gone for "playback to air" and most productions. Even so non-linear editing and server based broadcasting are more efficient but a lot of jobs in the TV industry where eliminated when tape disappeared. I think it is funny that I have to explain to young TV techs the difference between "insert editing", "Assemble editing" and "A/B role" and why we had to use a "time base corrector" lol
I have been a tape operator since video tape was invented. I worked on every 2" quad video tape machine AMPEX made. I still remember my smith splicer. this is how we physically cut the tape and spliced it to make edits. Then came electronic editing, then time code using the EECO editor, then the CMX systems, including the non linear CMX-600, which really was just a computer to create EDLs to be placed into a PDP computer for online linear editing. I hated the 1" machines with their complex tape path. I still own a BVH-2000 machine. Now you can do way more on just a laptop, including special effects, which are not possible on Tape. All you can do on tape is Cuts. At 19 I was nominated for an Emmy for tape editing, because I was very fast & accurate. People doing video in the 90's and beyond have no idea what we used to go thru. We had to take into consideration segment generations too!
@ I can remember talking to my older colleagues then. And I used to enjoy their stories about how things were done in the early days of tape and the tricks they used to do with 2 inch to keep the network on the air. by the time I got to the network, even the Apex VPR 2s tape setups where automated and dummy proof
@@carlfeola4574 I worked at a station in NY and didnt have network feeds. Everything originated from the building
9:50 ive had a note in my phone titled “what happens to our mind when we rewind?” For ages after working with a 424! You articulated it so well. It’s that pause that lets you think of new ideas and other possibilities. Awesome video!
would love to see that breakdown!
I’m a 414 guy! I always feel a certain solidarity with others who have used those models of Portastudio. :) I actually busted mine out over the weekend and found that I could record tracks just fine, but when I play them back through the machine, there are periodic crackles and pops. I tried several different types of cassettes But no luck, and the issue actually seems to get worse the more I play it back. There are scattered threads about this online but nothing definitive. I’m sure it could use a tape head cleaning, but it doesn’t seem like crackles and pops are a typical symptom of dirty heads. Audio just passing through the unit sounds fine, and if I press play without a cassette, no crackles or pops, so it’s something involving the tape path. As another guy who knows his way around these machines, any ideas?
I still use my 424, from time to time. Great little machine/Rock on my brother in music!
I often say that I record my vocals "to tape", meaning that I try to record a good performance where there is no need for pitch-correction. I'd love to try and record my vocals to tape for real. I have my grandfather's 2 track reel to reel, so I may try and figure out a way to use it on my new album. Great video! Glad to have found this channel.
Thanks! I still say to tape and will often say "Rolling!" when I hit record.
Auto-tune should be taxed per usage towards the national debt or something useful.
@FreakingOutWithBillyHume Billy did you vacation in Puerto Rico ?
I can see a small PR flag in your studio or do you have relatives in your family ??
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume So do I LOL works well 🤛
I love this video. Listening to a song you haven´t heard for 30 years is like time travel. I need to get my old 4-track-recorder out of the basement
I can't explain it but listening to an artist like Sam Cooke from an Analog source and tube amps stirs my soul and listing to the same track on Spotify doesn't have the same hit. I still have my Dad's Pioneer RT707.
The argument is just as valid for analog photography (film) v. digital. Commitment, thought, experience v. convenience.
Or... musical notation, manuscript paper and fountain pen vs. software. Or... typewriter vs. MS Word... or... you name it. Yes, sometimes fast, easy and convenient is good. But other times, especially when it comes to creative efforts or learning something, I like to say "since when has easy and convenient = good quality?". But for many people and/or many tasks, convenience is like gravity... For almost everything, there's a modern solution that makes it oh so easy and convenient and we need to really fight against that force if we wish to rise above mediocrity.
Yep, for film all you need is a light and you can view it frame by frame. Add a lens and you can project it.
And if the sound track is optical then you can play it back with rudimentary equipment.
@@markuslarjomaa3122 and I would add to that, When/where to do keep that wonder written memory from loved ones that "they posted on social media" VERSUS the hand written note from mom, grandma, etc. written with ink on a physical card they mailed! Which when keeping the envelope gives you a date stamp and even where it mailed out of for history and context. When I die, no one is going to be flipping through my old digital photo albums in the Apple Photos app like they would printed pictures in a real album. The lists go on and on. Soon we are going to start seeing the results of a society where we don't 'own' anything (think subscriptions) and everything is digital (and who knows the login when you're gone?).
That's true, working out if you want to shoot a 35mm (for example) frame and then how, versus taking 10 digital ones and then picking one and editing it afterwards. Old analog photography saying: "Zoom with your feet."
Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. When I bought a film camera again a few years ago I was quickly reminded of differences in the process. Unless I was doing complete auto point-and-shoot, I had to take time to consider aperture, shutter speed, focal length, film speed, etc. The attention the process required changed my approach to the pictures I take.
Dude... this channel is gold! I hope it blows up man.
Thanks! Me too.
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume Nice video but to say it's not at all about the difference in sound is just wrong. Of course that is also a factor. Tape compression really is a nice thing.
wow hadn't realized! figured this was a 300k channel w/the production value / background etc
It is and will!
@@EbonyPope Tape compression is a nice thing, but you can emulate it better than the original thing
Wonderful. I am from Tamil Nadu, India and a famous composer of Tamil film music M S Viswanathan in the 60s and 70s used to say when the computer digital recordings was used. His famous oneliner was ‘Vasathi vandha asathi Varum’ in Tamil meaning ‘when facilities comes, so too comes slackness’
I worked as a recording engineer in 8 & 16 track studios with 1" & 2" MCI, Otari, Studer decks and did live sound when I was a young man, and I still have my Teac TC 788 - 4 analog 4 track. 😊 an analog it's the harmonics of the audio that sounds so appealing. Digital is okay only. I have a Delta Labs Effectron sitting in my living room right now. Thanks for posting
this is like a life lesson. who knew analog was so powerful. Analog is maybe closer to nature, it lives and breathes.
I just found an Allied reel to reel recorder behind a dumpster and it still works. I'm gonna put it on display in my home studio as decor. Pretty good find. Great video!
I sometimes listen to my father's old 78rpm discs, some of which go back to the time of Caruso. When I listen to the older recordings I always get the shivers because there's so little processing between the recording and the impression. It feels like a century disappears and I'm listening directly to the performer.
Great video. I’m a photographer, musician before (hope to get back at it at some point) but I totally agree with your points. I started to shoot film a few years ago and even though it’s a hype now, it has definitely changed my approach to photography. For music (or any other art form) it’s the same principle. Having these technological limitations makes you slow down, think clearly, plan ahead and most importantly get better at your craft. That is why there’s so much great music, movies, photos and all different art forms from the past.
One thing I love about older records is the fact that recording artists were just better at being musicians because it was imperative at that time. Writing songs took longer, rehearsals were as important as recording and performing because they knew that they had to nail it at the sessions. It also allowed for music to flow organically specially when songs were recorded with all musicians altogether instead by separate tracks/instrument sessions.
Thanks for bringing this topic up.
I came here to make the same comment about photography.
@@danielc6106I spent over 5 years just mastering large format view cameras. I assisted known masters who told me they wished they had my skills, in interacting with clients. They knew that art creation has much to do with sharing ideas with clients, publishers, and other professionals. Ansel Adams never used Photoshop but his visualization skills and methodical time consuming process were 100X superior to a novice art director with a Mac.
Exactly: analog is "better" because it doesn't give you a bunch of features that, most of the time, you'd be better off not using. And because, digital was new and therefore rapidly evolving and sometimes running into dead ends.
I have traveled a very similar journey, but as a photographer (professional and hobbyist) editing, printing and storing my own work. I have experienced the same wonder and woes of the analog to digital and back to analog over the decades. I have seen the same progression of storage medium and dealt with the same problems of lossy vs lossless editing and the feelings generated by analog vs digital.
I also made a similar journey as a consumer of music. Vinyl to Cassette to CD to Streaming and now back to Vinyl.
I believe it's about the experience, the risk and reward, the appreciation that this took time, energy and skill. Digital makes everything easier, more accessible and with that comes some loss of the magic.
The video production especially in the middle of this video is just fun to watch awesome work!
In 1970 my group and I were signed by Paramount Records and recorded 3 tunes at RCA studios off Columbus Circle in NYC.
Dave Blume was our producer. We did the basic tracks, vocals, overdubs, and mixing in one day. No pitch correction, no tempo
correction. We did it and did it well. You could feel the emotion and immediacy in the studio and on the tracks. And then played it all live at the weekend gigs.
WOW-I knew Dave as a teenager growing up in NYC because Dave and my mom, Sheila Davis, wrote a couple of songs together. One of them was called "Calico Sky," which got recorded on one of the records by (his wife) Carolyn Hester, which of course Dave produced. Great guy, great memories. I grew up with my Sony 252 4 track reel to reel, and even though I used Pro Tools every day in LA for two decades plus, I'll always love analog tape the most.
@@apro109 Dave really was a great guy. Carolyn still performs and comes out to NYC with her daughters to perform.
Well said, sir! One of the things I absolutely love about working with tape-something you touched on perfectly-is the necessity of making decisions. Repeatedly redoing a take nine zillionnnnnnn times can become incredibly monotonous - your illustration was perfect. It often reaches the point where everyone keeps adding layers to the song, even if those additions don’t truly contribute anything meaningful. There’s something so refreshing and liberating about having just 24 tracks to work with-enough to capture everything essential for the song to have movement and soul, without overloading it. It forces creativity and intentionality.
practise makes perfect, get in the studio when the track has been rehearsed and found its way with the goal of getting it all in one take, only when something goes dramatically wrong over again. Play with the band, the vocals in the same session. I think there is magic in musicians who are listening to eachother, modulate and time in the moment. But thats just my humble opinion.
Great video! We really should get back to try to record songs in one take again, instead of patching them together from pieces like "Frankenstein". There is something special to listen to a live-performance with all its imperfections: It reminds us of life itself.
I was thinking about this whilst listening to a Pentangle album. It had such warmth and depth, and I wondered why. Possibly, when you play live in a studio and record the performance, various microphones will pick up sound from around it, so you will get the instruments in the vocal track and a bit of vocals in the drum track or guitar etc, so this may give the music a more rounded and whole sound. Recording separate tracks, and from different parts of the world and then mixing them together, makes the process quicker, cheaper and more convenient, but you must lose that mesh of sound from the mics and this may be a reason why modern music can sound dead or clinical as there is no interaction between the instruments which has bled through into the different tracks. You can mix them together, but it will still be separate performances all fighting for your attention. This must be why I found some recent live recordings a bit lacking as there has been too much tidying up? I'm not an expert, nor do I claim to have the answer, but this surely must have something to do with the sound? Nick Harper released an album in 2024, Earth Day Blue, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studio 2 in one day with John Lecke doing the mix. Nick explained the process when we saw him at a gig to promote the album. They wrote the tracks and then recorded them pretty much there and then, sometimes seeing where the music went. If it sounded good, that was a take! I'm going to have a good listen again to that today to see if it sounds more "whole".
@@andrewhaines3259 Great answer. There is of course place for both. But in my opinion music also lives from the interaction of the performers within in a Band, where everybody reacts and interacts with each other. Its like a play in theater where the actors play together instead of next to each other. Same thing in music. And there is also the aspect of uniqueness: It's a single performance, not repeatable again within the timespace of the universe. That's the nature of art.
@@andrewhaines3259 I have a collection of HDCDs. HDCD is a process which captures all the nuances of an analogue tape recording. You need an HDCD enabled DAC to recover all the information. One of the recordings I keep going back to is Eric Bibb: "Good Stuff". You will feel that you are in the same room with him.
Tape brings out a different level of playing.
You gotta think more!
You gotta raise your game!
I LOVED tape/analoge sessions...
I just think it is warmer too...
When I had the chance to use a 24-track Studer recorder, I frequently relied on punch-in and punch-out to fix mistakes in specific parts. It required a combination of flexibility and precision to execute the edits at just the right moment, especially since I was doing it manually.
Indeed. There was also something about having 2 artists on wheeled chairs rolling back and forth doing mix down. It was an artistic performance in every way. Then you went home and listened to it for a day and found everything you wanted to change. It took time and patience. The second mixing boards became digital I knew what was lost.
No need for wheels if you have a Neve desk.
Even at Wally Heiders and the Record Plant at some sessions we had three peoples fingers on the board doing pre automation fades and edits😂
The rewind time between takes afforded the musicians to refine and revise, sometimes to meditate and gather extra focus!
Total true about the 'recall' part. I can flawlessly put in at tape from +40 years ago in my tape machine and the music is still there. With computer recordings this is a total mess. Some songs went lost with hard disk swaps, there is the hassle with older midi songs not being compatible with more modern DAW's (yes, I'm looking at you Logic) and then when you can recall the older songs then there is the hassle with plug-ins being lost, not updated and companies that have disappeared. So in a DAW situation it is ALWAYS advisable to make a digital 'print' of your final tracks in case you want to recall them a few years later.
Was an engineer
I backed up.stuff on paper. The folks who assumed that their power points were always going to be available in drive were sadly mistaken when the company switched to teams. The folders were empty. I do fret a bit about music and photos I have. Be better to put everything on stone tablets.
In the sea of absolute dog shit musician/production/mix music videos on TH-cam, I finally found a legit human who was actually in the music business (the music side). It’s refreshing to see. The stories, the based takes on gear, I wish we would have crossed paths when I was in music. I hope your paths are blessed with love and abundance. This guy is the real deal. Thank you!
I feel this. I used to be an amateur musician doing home production on a DAW. I have all of my music saved on a back up drive, that was made by a company that went out of business. I didn't realize that it had gone out of business until I plugged in the drive a few years back and there were no drivers. All of my music is lost on a drive, that I just can't find drivers for to access my files.
You should not call that a "backup". What kind of drive was it?
I hate to be that guy but if you back up to some proprietary solution instead of bog standard SATA/NVMe/USB storage, that's partially on you. Even reading decades-old IDE drives is no problem with modern computers.
what make/model is your undriveable drive?
@@deegee8645 It is an Iomega usb drive. IDK the model number off hand.
Being ready to put my feet into a career change in '25, you made me understand WHY the overall production (new) process was a thorn to my thinking until now so thank you! ps. also, I admire your level of effort among the years!!
*IM AN AUTHOR* I just bought a mechanical typewriter - and Olympia SG-1 - the next book will be written on this, lets see how it goes.
this is an excellent idea
@@MadeOnTape I don't want to sound like a motivational poster, but in some ways, I find the harder you make something for yourself, the more perfection you strive for in the end result. I have typed quite a lot on it, just random thoughts, and my brain does WORK differently using it, the big difference is after an hour of using it I am MORE relaxed than when I started. On a computer I mare anxious after an hour.
Two spaces after a period?
Good move ...more you distance yourself from the dumb masses and more you acquire value and originality
@@ldf4064 Actually, I always used to use two spaces after a period/full stop. It took me such a long time to stop doing it, Ill have to get back into the habit now.
Movie special effects have suffered the same fate. I watched some old 1980s films over Christmas; the live effects are always superb, and often scary too. Puppetry, miniatures, lighting and matt painting, you just can't beat it. Today there is just as much talent and creativity out there, but we mustn't let the tech be our master. Perhaps we need to introduce a national 'trash your computer' day!
i watched a few "films" too. they have CGI treatment EVERYTHING.
removed all the grain. saturated beyond. etc. etc. why scan a print when you can ruin it?
I can't stand CGI, its ruined everything.
It's the same problem. Companies don't pay out for studio time like they used to. I worked at Olympic back in the 70s, and some artists didn't even turn up for a whole day that was paid for by their record companies.
"Trash Your Computer Day" is a good idea. I don't have a mobile phone, but only yesterday I had to walk around a person who looked about 8 years old standing in the middle of a busy shopping mall, staring at her phone. 🤪
My late long time friend producer and engineer Richard Podolor and Bill Cooper recorded Steppenwolfs Born to be Wild and tons of others hits on a Scully 8 track and mixed down on an Ampex 350s 1/4 inch tape decks which help keep things fat.. Talk about fat and big sound they got off those decks with lots of tricks sounds fantastic still.
one of the reason I still love my old cassette tapes and what you said about computers and digital there way to many factors involed constant up grades and software issues .
100%! It's done the same to photography. As a commercial photographer for 45 years, digital change true talent and skill to become "fix it in Photoshop". Shooting film meant getting right, knowing the technical craft of photography and the film you used. Now everyone is a photographer and everyone "fixes it in Photoshop. It has really made the industry almost like car salesman and race to the cheapest.
as somebody raised in a darkroom and also digital, it really depends on the attitude of the photographer. Treating digital with respect can yield improved results if some restraint is exercised. The stress of lost time and money and gambling with developing times that are irreversible seems silly when digital can remove so many variables.
@@thedavesofourlives1 agree. Just like the music industry, digital vers darkroom is far more powerful. I couldn’t live without Lightroom for catalog clients. But, it has lower the bar on talent. It use to be ya really had to know your stuff as a professional photographer, now everyone with an iPhone thinks they are and many companies are literally shooting their catalogs on phones. But it’s like the buggy whip too.
Who shoots in film? And through the 70s and 80s I never had to now jack to shoot on Olympus SLRs, auto/maunal focus and same same aperture, nice to be romantic but keep it real, the days of HAVING to know sh*t ended in the FIFTIES. Besides your "film" would be digitized and then retouched today because you didn't match the requirements of the digital media it's going to end up on anyway. That why DSLRs heck even iPhones exist, the post processing can be done in the cam before you take the shot. Photoshop doesn't FIX anything, it's always garbage in garbage out, Photoshop EDITS and CHANGES much easier than the old fashion way, In the 80s Sci Tek scanners and film compositors would charge $1000 an hour to do what Photoshop does for FREE about 8 years later , we're talking professional photography and FX in print in the analog days. There was nothing better about it. Plus film/tape dies on the shelf, digital numbers live forever.
@@thedavesofourlives1 Correct
Many photographers are perfectly capable of doing fantastic work using digital cameras. Some people need limitations to improve their artistic output and some don't 🤷
I'm a little younger, I got my first recording machine in about 1997, a tascam portastudio. It wasn't long before I learned how to record on my computer and I haven't looked back. I'm just a hobbyist.
As a hobbyist too myself, I don't see myself mounting and maintaining massive racks of analogue gear and tape recorders in the future. Seems way too much hassle for hobbyists. Buying and maintaining equipment like this is a separate hobby in itself, and an expensive one.
@@filippolippi02 I've spent a lot of money of music software lately but it was worth it to record so much in the past year. I had all but given it up until late 2023.
The breaks in the workflow are essential. I appreciate this take and the awesome production of this lesson, Billy. Thank you for what you’re doing.
Beautiful video! Exactly the reason I love recording with real synthesizers instead of making everything in the box
When I was an audio engineer at wedding services and parties in the 2000s, I had a HiFi VHS running along the fancy computer recording stuff just in case the computer would crash, hiccup, or simply decided it would stop recording just before the vows without prior notice. Saved me more than once. With its 8-hour recording per tape I would simply set it up first, hit record, and record the entire day: rehearsal, arrival, performance etc. That way whenever something funny happened unexpectedly I had it. And seriously, I'd still do that today. Or maybe use a big R2R for it because they look cool 😁
Hi Billy, Rudolf here, an ex sound engineer in audio-for-video postproduction. Thank you so much for this video. I also made the ‘shift’ in the past from analogue multi-track to ProTools. Did a lot of voice artist recordings for dutch spoken cartoons. With 16 tracks minus timecode minus M+E it was sometimes a challenge to get all the voices on one tape in different sessions. And made me the punch in-out master of the day 😂… With the lack of ‘undo’ I always ran a ‘session’-tape (DAT) of two hours for a back-up… again, thank you for posting and all the best from Holland!
The old school dubbing mixers who were using an all digital system in the 1990s were STILL using a 2 hour DAT safety tape. The data from the sessions was being saved to Jazz Drives back then. Plenty of opportunity to lose your data.
*WHEN I WAS ABOUT 14* a friend of the family lent me a 120mm Hasselblad camera - I think each real of black and white film had 14 exposures. That week I took possibly the best photographs of my life. For the next 40 years I thought it was the great camera that made the difference.
Actually - it was only having 14 exposures - each one was SO valuable that I made sure every shot was as perfect as I possibly could. I THOUGHT about every shot.
Yup. That's the constraint that makes the difference -- considering a take/shot to be "expensive", and so doing what one can to maximize what one gets out of that. Granted, there's a flip side: it can be "easier" to experiment in some ways with digital, because you have the freedom to not worry about that expense. But, that's for experiments. For art, the constraint is useful.
@@DavidLindes - I literally had 2 rolls of film. We were a poor family so there was no buying more. I only shot still objects to be sure of getting the shot.
I have two part-time self-employed jobs now, one is as an author. I just bought a mechanical typewriter - and Olympia SG-1 - the next book will be written on this, lets see how it goes.
I don't want to sound like a motivational poster, but in some ways, I find the harder you make something for yourself, the more perfection you strive for in the end result.
@@piccalillipit9211 may the Olympus serve you well! 🥳
@@DavidLindes THANK YOU
@@piccalillipit9211 Gladly. 😊
Duuude has a perspective that only someone who’s walked the roads of innovation for 50 years can have. I love you, man ✊🏻 absolute legend
Thank you so much!!
11:15 I'm not advocating this, but it's one of the reasons I find it hard to quit smoking. It forces me to break regularly lol woops
@pyclassie but I don't. I'll work 8 straight and not move at times haha
Great video. Human ears are not naturally drawn to perfection-they prefer coherence, which is something entirely different. The subtle 'imperfections' in old hardware, as well as in live performances, are what make music feel truly human.
Agree 100%
Art is made inside of limitations.
Infinite tracks, infinite takes, and infinite VSTs are a great way to make sure you never end up making any art at all.
Very much the truth here!
Fully agree. But working mostly in the digital world I decided to leave my rig alone at the specs it had in 2010 - about 20 tracks max, very few plugins, limited hard drive space..... and I still work that way in 2025. Just my way of keeping some of the limitations in the new digital world. I've done 100+ songs on that rig. Constantly finding new ways to get digital sound out of it, but still understand that putting analog sound into it at the highest quality is the best method. BTW i have a 4-track tascam available too, but for me that is only used for recording well-rehearsed solo acts.
VST's are like a money sucking vacuum. The way they are promoted, you feel like you have to get the newest versions all the time. And your recordings just won't hold up without the latest and greatest compressor, eq, limiter, etc. The companies cleaning up on these things play on FOMO, (Fear Of Missing Out). You can end up with hundreds or thousands that you'll never use, looking at you, Native Instruments.
depends on how you work and what kind of fidelity you are going for.
if you are someone that likes doing big moves at once with EQ and compression and you want the sound to be "generally there" or "close enough" to what you hear in your head, then sure, limiting yourself to x amount of tracks or y amount of plugins makes sense.
But if you want to actually compete in the industry and have productions and mixes that sound exactly like your hear them in your head with over the top sounddesign and ear candy, you will need to do what the pros are doing which is probably like 80 tracks minimum, parallel busses, sidechains, wet FX busses, wide layers etc. etc.
Depends on what you want to do.
I am finding the the last Dua Lipa cd unlistenable. A few tracks are quite catchy but the overall sound just isn't satisfying in any way....like there is a digital mask over everything. And that has become "her sound*.
I love the sound of tape! I have been transferring my music tape collection onto Mini Disc recorder format so I can enjoy the sound of tape without worrying about my tapes becoming worn and tangled after repeat playing.
A house of cards is a good analogy for putting computers at the heart of everything. Making everything digitized makes everything more brittle.
yeah, no professional woulod use a computer... lol
What's even sadder is that it doesn't have to be like that. As someone in IT, I know there are ways to make digital things better. More resilient. Easily interoperable. Transparent, with human-controllable fallbacks when things break. But sadly we've normalized the idea that digital = shit and that software = bugs just because an army of assholes in management everywhere don't want to listen to engineers telling them that artificial deadlines and sales numbers aren't as important as making a good product that lasts.
I'm on a similar journey! I started playing electric guitar as a teenager with a cheap 15W amp. Back then, I couldn’t figure out why I always sounded better during lessons. It turned out my teacher had me plugged into a 75W amp, blasting straight at me-it was such an amazing feeling! But for a long time, amps and analog gear were way too expensive to justify, especially to my parents.
I’m 35 as I’m writing this, and looking back, I can see how analog music gear has always been tough to justify for anyone outside the music industry. To most non-initiated people, the price tag seems absurd. But having worked in cleaning and maintenance (waxing floors for businesses), I’ve seen other industries with equally, if not more, expensive gear. The difference is that in those industries, the gear often reflects a direct source of income. With music, unless you’re established or making money, the entry price feels overwhelming.
A lot of people don’t realize just how much gear is needed to properly get started. This is where VSTs and digital tools have been a game-changer. They offer a much lower entry point: they’re cheaper, less risky, and most people already have a computer in some form, making it accessible for a wider audience.
Even the purists, who point out how some of the most iconic songs were recorded on cheap tape cassettes in motels between gigs, often forget an important detail: it still required specialized tools to take those cassette recordings and turn them into something distributable. Back then, you couldn’t just convert a tape recording and upload it to Spotify. Those raw recordings still had to go through extensive processing using expensive gear to prepare them for distribution.
For me, my journey with digital tools began when I visited a friend who was a working musician. He was building his home studio and introduced me to Logic Pro and VST plugins. At the time, he had industry contacts and shared some software licenses with me. Many were education licenses, which technically cost more but could be activated an infinite number of times. If I’d bought all the software myself, it would’ve cost over $50k!
Since I’d already built my own gaming PC, all I needed was an audio interface to get started. Once I had that, I plugged in my electric guitar and played through my computer for years. Eventually, I saved up and bought my own licenses (no more shared or pirated software-clean slate, haha).
For a long time, I stuck with digital modelers like VST plugins for my electric guitar. But life took a turn-I quit music for about seven years due to health issues and sold all my gear. In 2020, I decided to get back into it with a Gretsch guitar, still playing through my PC. Analog gear always felt out of reach: too big, too expensive, too loud, and too much maintenance.
When the Neural DSP Quad Cortex was announced, I jumped on board. It felt like a dream come true-all the analog gear I’d ever wanted, replicated in a single, compact unit. Plus, I didn’t have to rely on my PC anymore, which was a big relief (since PC issues meant I couldn’t play guitar).
The Quad Cortex was magical. I spent hours recreating my favorite artists’ rigs and sounds. But over time, I realized that when I played my own music-the stuff I truly enjoyed-I kept coming back to the same setup: a Marshall-style amp with some delay and a few pedals. Interestingly, I found I preferred the real pedals over their modeled versions.
I even did a gig with the Quad Cortex but ran into some limitations I couldn’t ignore. That led me to sell it and get a Marshall DSL40CR and a Fender Vibro Champ. Now, I’m recording with mics, which is a totally different process than using impulse responses (IRs). But it’s a fun one!
I’ve also learned that the tones that work best in a mix aren’t always what you’d expect from a guitarist’s perspective-it’s all part of the discovery process.
Looking back, I can see how digital tools and analog gear have each played a role in my journey. While digital tools like VSTs provide an accessible entry point for many, the community aspect of analog gear is something I’ve come to value deeply. In the music industry, it’s common for people to trade or borrow gear within their network, making it easier to access what you need for a project. But for those without that network, the barriers can feel almost insurmountable. Unless you win the lottery or devote most of your income to it, getting started can be a real challenge.
For me, having worked in computer repair and troubleshooting, I’ve seen firsthand the frustrations that come with digital tools-constant updates, compatibility issues, and broken workflows. But I’ve also faced and overcome these challenges, which has helped me assist others in similar situations.
In the end, both worlds have their strengths and challenges. And for me, finding that balance between digital convenience and analog authenticity has been the most rewarding part of the journey.
🎉🎉
One thing that has held me back from getting a 16 track tape rig is due to the eventuality of needing to replace the heads. Getting good tubes is hard enough, but heads for vintage tape rigs must be a nightmare.
I have an early 1970s AMPEX on its original heads that's still going strong.
not to mention power supplies, motors, gears, belts and all the other consumables that would have to be cloned with 3d printing if they ever fail.
@@thedavesofourlives1 and replacing all the ancient caps etc 🤣
You can send your headstack out to get relapped. JRF Magnetics stocks a lot of NOS heads and also does a great job aligning/re-lapping heads these days.
@@thedavesofourlives1 Interesting point though - the development of 3d printing will actually make maintaining these old machines much easier and less expensive! This is where AI could come in handy as well: HAL, please create a new set of belts for my Tascam 388…
The upgradability of computer hardware has never been something I considered being only 24 years old! Now all the "upgrades" seem to be just through specs which retain backwards compatibility like pcie slots, usb iterations, hdmi and display port updates, and more changes way less noticable to consumers. Awesome video with an awesome perspective!
I can so relate to this video. Have had a studio since 1988 and still have my Tascam ATR24. You speak the truth.
Amen to all of this. We need a "hybrid" of these workflows that harnesses the strengths of both. Preparation is huge and it mostly doesnt happen!
Happy New Year Billy!!!
Fantastic f**king video for January 1st, 2025.
Felt like a two for one trip down my and I'm sure Many of our memory lanes.
Mostly happy to see you found a new Spark in all of this TH-cam stuff!
Keep em' comin".
Thanks so much! I appreciate it more than you know.
@FreakingOutWithBillyHume As someone with a Soundcraft Ghost, a Teac 80-8, and a Tascam BR-20T waiting for me to stop watching TH-cam videos and get to soldering....
I appreciate You more than You could possibly know.
Great video. I’ve come to the same conclusion, even while recording in the digital medium. I’ve gotten tired of recording endless takes, often to make up for the inability to perform consistently on my my vocals or instrument. Bottom line, I’ve focused more time on practicing my craft as a musician, and building skills and consistency. And now I rely less on “getting lucky” with recording a take, since I actually have a higher level of foundational musicianship. It also allows one to focus on the emotion and dynamics when recording.