Thanks Steve. Been waiting for someone to do some vids on MCI tape machine calibration. Love your easy going style and cool studio. I have a couple of JH110C 1 inch 8 track machines. Looking forward to your transport vid. Cheers pip from downunder.
Sounds so nice, punchy & warm! Thanks so much for walking us through these important steps. Love your channel and the content that you're producing. 🎶👂👍
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I ran my own studio from 1979 to 1989 and somedays I had two sessions. I would be setting up two tapes a day . You never wanted to skip the step because every reel was different and biasing and setting levels was critical if you wanted back what you were putting in. Rarely did I use 15ips since 30ips sounded so incredible. That first playback when the band came into the control room sounded like they were playing live . But yes with tones saved on tape you only got about 13 minutes of time at 30ips. At 250.00 a reel in the 1980s it was expensive but so worth it. Love your channel
You must of went through a ton of tapes recording full albums at 30 IPS. I could only imagine how many tapes they would have for an Aerosmith record, ZZ Top, Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin, etc…. I was born in 78, thanks for sharing!
@@RiotHomeRecording . Yes we went through a ton of tapes. Sometimes three or four in a day. And yes I biased each one and added tones after calibration to each reel. That way I knew I was maximizing the Ampex 456 and if the tapes went to another studio they had tones to calibrate to their machine. Best times of my life.
Once again, Thank You for doing what you do! A couple of questions though: (First let me say that this is all meant in good faith. I try to no have opinions but understandings, and these questions are to see if I understand accurately or if I’m missing something.) A) I thought you said you were calibrating the machine for +6, and then loaded a reel of 499 which I thought was +9dB. Did I hear you right, and is there a mismatch there, and if so is it intentional for some sonic/technical benefit that I don’t understand. Better yet, maybe you could Do a video on tape formulations and calibration, what effect they have, and possibly include the ATR red vs blue VS RTM 900 vs 911. To my knowledge, those are the only New Tape options, but you likely have thoughts on All of that. B) The other is probably semantics, and pedantic, but you talked about your patchbay being “normalized” rather than “normalled”. I think of normalizing as raising or lowering a signal level to a pre-defined average or peak. And normalling as pre-defining a signal path from A to Z so that in its default state without making any connections, it’s ready to go. Exactly as you demonstrated. The question is here though (fuck the language): You have your PreAmp Outs normalled to your Interface Ins. Check. Then to patch in the Tape Machine, you ran 24-TTs from those top row Outs to the MCI bottom row Ins. Perfect. Maybe you mentioned it, but are those Half-Normalled, and therefore the signal from the PreAmps is going to Both ProTools and the MCI? Do you / Can you record both? Here’s the more interesting questions, I swear. If you are regularly going back and forth, or tracking both, could you, could I, at the Back of the Patchbay, Mult the PreAmp Outs 1-24 on the top row left half 1-24, also to the top row right half 25-48. Essentially building Y-Cables for each input. 1-24A & 1-24B. And then half-normal down to the Interface INs 1-24 on the bottom left, and MCI INs 1-24 on the bottom right. So the limit of my understanding is this: from what I know of how half-normalling works inside of a patchbay, it’s literally soldering to the TRS lugs rather than the switched/breaking lugs you would use for full-normalling that Would break the connection to the bottom row. So when you insert a TT into the top row, you have a Y-Cable. Unless I’m missing something. Is soldering a Y-Cable/Mult on the back, IDENTICAL to using the Half-Normal on the front? From a signal quality standpoint. And the last question here: Half vs Full Normalling in general. If I imagine an outboard PreAmp XLR-IN from a Mic, XLR-OUT to the Interface. Cool. Beyoncé’s vocal is perfect. But then I take an XLR Y-Cable and send one side to the same Interface, and the other to the Tape Machine (or possibly through a console channel strip, and an LA2A+1176 sandwich, and the the Tape Machine). I’ve split output signals a billion times. What I don’t fully understand is what precisely is happening, and how are the different devices interacting. I’ve noticed when calibrating, that connecting a second or third device to an output, the signal drops. You set a 1K tone, calibrate input 1 to 0VU, the plugin another, and the first isn’t hitting 0 anymore. Okay, give it some gain (makeup gain?), and done. Except, what’s that doing to the Sound? Is this an impedance thing, is it thinning out, is it effecting transients, getting slightly darker, what’s actually happening? This is Beyoncé’s lead vocal we’re talking about, should we be purists and bypass the patchbay and the board altogether? Or is the difference, other than gain, unmeasurable, so don’t trip? What say you Master Analog?
I didn’t stick the landing: If there IS a noticeable quality difference between Multing or not, then Half vs Full-Normalling isn’t merely a convenience thing, it could be worsening what gets recorded. And Full-Normalling, because it breaks the previous connection, would avoid any potential forks in the road and maintain one clean signal path. I suspect that this is overthinking it, as I and everyone else have been using mults for decades. But to deepen my understanding, it’s always better to know precisely What’s really happening. Thanks again Brotha!
Another good teaching video good job home boy. Next weekend let’s jam!!! Or weekend after I’m down!!!
Allways enjoy your videos 👍🏼👌🏼😎
Thanks Steve. Been waiting for someone to do some vids on MCI tape machine calibration. Love your easy going style and cool studio.
I have a couple of JH110C 1 inch 8 track machines.
Looking forward to your transport vid.
Cheers pip from downunder.
Sounds so nice, punchy & warm! Thanks so much for walking us through these important steps. Love your channel and the content that you're producing. 🎶👂👍
Thank you Chris I really appreciate it!
Great sound amazing
Thank you, it’s easy with tape.
Amazing part one!
Thank you!!! Part 2 will be following soon enough.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I ran my own studio from 1979 to 1989 and somedays I had two sessions. I would be setting up two tapes a day . You never wanted to skip the step because every reel was different and biasing and setting levels was critical if you wanted back what you were putting in. Rarely did I use 15ips since 30ips sounded so incredible. That first playback when the band came into the control room sounded like they were playing live . But yes with tones saved on tape you only got about 13 minutes of time at 30ips. At 250.00 a reel in the 1980s it was expensive but so worth it. Love your channel
You must of went through a ton of tapes recording full albums at 30 IPS.
I could only imagine how many tapes they would have for an Aerosmith record, ZZ Top, Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin, etc….
I was born in 78, thanks for sharing!
@@RiotHomeRecording . Yes we went through a ton of tapes. Sometimes three or four in a day. And yes I biased each one and added tones after calibration to each reel. That way I knew I was maximizing the Ampex 456 and if the tapes went to another studio they had tones to calibrate to their machine. Best times of my life.
awesome info thanks!!!
Drums off tape @ 16:35
MCI TEAC TASCAM CALIBRATION JH 24 VU METER STUDIO CASIO
Once again, Thank You for doing what you do!
A couple of questions though:
(First let me say that this is all meant in good faith. I try to no have opinions but understandings, and these questions are to see if I understand accurately or if I’m missing something.)
A) I thought you said you were calibrating the machine for +6, and then loaded a reel of 499 which I thought was +9dB. Did I hear you right, and is there a mismatch there, and if so is it intentional for some sonic/technical benefit that I don’t understand.
Better yet, maybe you could Do a video on tape formulations and calibration, what effect they have, and possibly include the ATR red vs blue VS RTM 900 vs 911. To my knowledge, those are the only New Tape options, but you likely have thoughts on All of that.
B) The other is probably semantics, and pedantic, but you talked about your patchbay being “normalized” rather than “normalled”. I think of normalizing as raising or lowering a signal level to a pre-defined average or peak. And normalling as pre-defining a signal path from A to Z so that in its default state without making any connections, it’s ready to go. Exactly as you demonstrated.
The question is here though (fuck the language):
You have your PreAmp Outs normalled to your Interface Ins. Check.
Then to patch in the Tape Machine, you ran 24-TTs from those top row Outs to the MCI bottom row Ins. Perfect.
Maybe you mentioned it, but are those Half-Normalled, and therefore the signal from the PreAmps is going to Both ProTools and the MCI?
Do you / Can you record both?
Here’s the more interesting questions, I swear.
If you are regularly going back and forth, or tracking both, could you, could I, at the Back of the Patchbay, Mult the PreAmp Outs 1-24 on the top row left half 1-24, also to the top row right half 25-48. Essentially building Y-Cables for each input. 1-24A & 1-24B.
And then half-normal down to the Interface INs 1-24 on the bottom left, and MCI INs 1-24 on the bottom right.
So the limit of my understanding is this: from what I know of how half-normalling works inside of a patchbay, it’s literally soldering to the TRS lugs rather than the switched/breaking lugs you would use for full-normalling that Would break the connection to the bottom row. So when you insert a TT into the top row, you have a Y-Cable. Unless I’m missing something.
Is soldering a Y-Cable/Mult on the back, IDENTICAL to using the Half-Normal on the front?
From a signal quality standpoint.
And the last question here: Half vs Full Normalling in general.
If I imagine an outboard PreAmp XLR-IN from a Mic, XLR-OUT to the Interface. Cool. Beyoncé’s vocal is perfect.
But then I take an XLR Y-Cable and send one side to the same Interface, and the other to the Tape Machine (or possibly through a console channel strip, and an LA2A+1176 sandwich, and the the Tape Machine).
I’ve split output signals a billion times. What I don’t fully understand is what precisely is happening, and how are the different devices interacting. I’ve noticed when calibrating, that connecting a second or third device to an output, the signal drops. You set a 1K tone, calibrate input 1 to 0VU, the plugin another, and the first isn’t hitting 0 anymore. Okay, give it some gain (makeup gain?), and done.
Except, what’s that doing to the Sound?
Is this an impedance thing, is it thinning out, is it effecting transients, getting slightly darker, what’s actually happening?
This is Beyoncé’s lead vocal we’re talking about, should we be purists and bypass the patchbay and the board altogether?
Or is the difference, other than gain, unmeasurable, so don’t trip?
What say you Master Analog?
I didn’t stick the landing:
If there IS a noticeable quality difference between Multing or not, then Half vs Full-Normalling isn’t merely a convenience thing, it could be worsening what gets recorded. And Full-Normalling, because it breaks the previous connection, would avoid any potential forks in the road and maintain one clean signal path.
I suspect that this is overthinking it, as I and everyone else have been using mults for decades.
But to deepen my understanding, it’s always better to know precisely What’s really happening.
Thanks again Brotha!
Amazing video! How many times can you record on tape and still have a good sound? thanks!!!
I assume that you can't calibrate the tape deck using test tones from the DAW, it has to be from an MRL tape, yes?
Yes, on the record side you can use tones from the DAW.
The repro side you need the test tone tape.
Can you do one on tracking electric guitars?
Yes I can, that will be in part 2.
Thank you.