2 " Tape to 001?

[sugarfuzz]

I was curious to know, if I wanted to record to 2" tape, then fly it into protools,how would I go about doing so?
I would have to first get a 2" tape recorder, which in all the reading i do, I have not seen them advertised. Is it because they are too expensive?
I know this may be a silly question, but someone please satisfy my curiosity.

Also, if I were able to get a tape machine, what would be the best way to transfer that to protools?

Thanks for any response, please be nice [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Mr T]

Since I'm french, I wonder...do I get this right?...you want to buy a 2 inches tapes recorder?...
If that's the case, yes they are expensive !
I use to have an 8 tracks 1/2 inches; when I bought it (somewhere around1990...), I paid it about 2200$ and that was a good price ! So I guess, even if digital has grown since 1990 (...), a 2 inches tape recorder must still be very expensive; specially with 16 or 24 tracks models !
Maybe you could try to find a second hand specimen, but I think it would still be pretty expensive...
How many tracks do you need?...
You could check here: http://www.studer.ch/products13.htm (but they don't give any price=>not a good sign in general...).
Don't bother going to Tascam or Fostex 's website (they both were the one who were selling afordable Analogue recorders in the past), they don't even do this anymore !...Man, I feel old...

[seandaly]

2" tape arrived with 16 tracks (=track width 1/8") in the early 70s. This format, at 30 ips, was absolutely fabulous - I tracked in this format on an MCI machine with tube preamps and the s/n ratio was great, the bass register was unbelievably punchy, the sound was WARM. Since 16 tracks wasn't enough for us, 32-track 2" came out. But this was short-lived, it turned out that halving the track width took too much of that great sound away. So a compromise was offered: 24 track 2" plus Dolby A noise reduction. The industry rallied around this format for years, with some producers (myself included) choosing to leave the NR switched out to keep transients and high end transparent (if hissy).

So these machines ARE expensive to buy and maintain. Aligning these machines was a drag. If you had tube preamps, a tube would always blow in the middle of a take. 2" reels weighed a ton, and at 30 ips you only had 17 minutes or so of program available on a standard 12" dia reel (a bit more on a 14"). You could get twice as much on a reel at 15 ips, but quality took a hit at the slower speed. All this meant that you broke your back lugging an album from studio to studio.

Basically, if what you are looking for is that fat analog sound, any analog machine with 1/8" or better tracks at 30 ips will give it to you, just be ready to slave your time away aligning. IMHO, similar effects can be obtained w/o the trouble by using tube mics or tube preamps or tube compressors or even some of the more recent digital simulators.

This past summer I digitized 5 reels of old unfinished 16/24 track 2" stuff into Pro Tools at Sorcerer Sound in NYC and I am now mixing using PT LE on a G4 and enjoying myself immensely. I hadn't counted on having to get the reels baked first though...

cheers

[sugarfuzz]

Thanks for the tip where!

[sugarfuzz]

Hey guys thanks for the information!
Mr T , you did a great job, thanks for the link.
Seandaly, So do you think, that good preamps, and mics, which you need anyway, will do good enough to save the hassel of foolong with the tape machine?

A good tight low end for kick drum, low toms, and bass guitar is what I feel I am lacking.
My low end is just really loose, and muddy, so I have to leave a good bit of it out to have a decent mix, and it is begining to really irritate me. I may be expecting a little to much from my set up, but I don think its a bad thing to try and max the capabilities of your gear.
thanks again

chad

[where02190]

Used 2" machine start at around $6000.00USD for an old poorly maintained one, and go well over the $20,000.00USD mark.

In order to transfer 24 tracks into an 001, you would need to have a reference tone or click to align with, as you cannot record 24 tracks at once since the 001 has only 8 analog inputs. You could purchase an A-D converter and interface into the additional 8 lightpipe inputs and 2 spdif inputs, but that is still only 18 total, so you need something to line up the tracks with.

I don't know where you are, but I would suggest finding a studio that has both 2" and a Mix24 or equivalent system, and bring your 2" reels there to transfer into Protools. the sessions can be bured to CD-R or DVD, and you can then open them in our 001 set-up. Extremely large files sizes can be backed up to an external firewire drive, or to an ATA drive installed into the studios computer.
This is a far less expensive option to buying a 2" machine. So many studios have both the analog and digital format, it shouldn't be too hard to find a studio nearby to do the transfer.