Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorders

[RichardB]

Apparently we've got a pair of these somewhere in the loft, working, an I also found a bunch of brand new 1/4" reels. I'm planning on making a movie on Super 8 with a friend that has a vintage feel to it, so I'd like some way of getting that through the soundtrack as well. Will one of these do the job? This is the kind of sound we're after:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS-AWBhG ... re=related

Fortunately we don't have to worry about sync sound since we're not recording the sound on location (the movie just features narrative and maybe sound effects), and I've got an MZ-RH1, BM-70 and a bunch of audio equipment I use for my home studio (recording guitar/vocals) such as preamps, condenser mic and SM57.

Also, even if it does the job, what would work better - recording straight onto it, then digitising, or running a digital recording through it and back onto the PC?

[reflex]

To make it easier on yourself, I suggest recording to digital and then patching it through your reel-to-reel. You can streamline the process by re-digitizing the tape monitor output from the playback head while you're recording - no need to rewind and re-record in a second pass.

It's not quite as cool as using real reel-to-reel, but there are a few tape saturation plug-ins that sound fairly authentic. Here's my favorite: http://www.voxengo.com/product/analogflux/

[downix]

I'd skip digital entirely since you have all of this analog equipment, and use what you have already. It's your movie, make it your way.

You have a good setup it sounds like. Endulge it. Audiophiles would kill to work with it, make them envyous.

[Clapton Pond]

It depends on the quality of the reel-to-reel machines whether they're worth using, and the quality of the tapes. Unless they're top quality, you'll just be adding hiss. If they are high end, then you can use the characteristics of tape saturation in a way that digital can only replicate through plug-ins.

You may alternatively be able to put the tape decks into record / pause mode, plug your mic into them and record the output direct to computer without rolling the tape, thus using the tape machines' amps.

I think John Carpenter's sound is probably down to all the old analogue synths he must have used, and that inimitable one-finger style he used, rather than his recording medium...