Owning a recording studio for 40 years has it’s advantages. Not everyone has access to a great sounding tape machine to do a comparison test with DSD256 …. so wev’e done it for you.
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Recently, there was a lot of discussion around the use of DSD to preserve the sound of tape - especially for cutting vinyl. Last month I had recorded an album to 2” tape and this week we were mixing to 1/2” tape. Knowing what I know about tape, I thought it would be best to also record to DSD256 and record the playback of the 1/2” tape to DSD256.
Why? Sadly, as good as tape can sound, it degrades over time. I never thought I would be mixing to 1/2” tape again, but the sound was spectacular. It did not sound the same on playback… it sounded better to my ears. I’m so happy we recorded the tape playback to DSD256. Yes, the DSD256 played back the two versions differently.
I plan to experiment by recording the tape to the same DSD256 in a few weeks to check the degradation. If you’d like to read more about the session, click below
If, as you suspect, the tape sound degrades, could you do a spectral analysis on each from the DED versions and then subtract one from the other to extract the "enhancement" profile for later use to develop some kind of filter or equalizer to recreate the original sound from this manufacturer's tapes? If nothing else a frequency and amplitude profile of the differences would be interesting and more objective. - David Bishop
Thank you, David. Part of an engineer's job is to "listen". When compensating for the frequency changes over time, we often refer back to original mixes. We'll test multiple eq settings, different eq devices, compensation in alignment and can do a reasonable job when remixing. At least we can achieve "good enough" for re-releasing. But I think anyone who has worked with tape long enough knows there is something missing that can't be restored. It's hard to describe. It's not enough to boost the highend or low end or particular frequencies. For me, it's similar to what digital recording in PCM can't capture.... sadly, the last 25 years has shown that the digital generation of listeners and artists don't really care much about what got lost in the sound And that's something we have to live with as audio engineers.
If, as you suspect, the tape sound degrades, could you do a spectral analysis on each from the DED versions and then subtract one from the other to extract the "enhancement" profile for later use to develop some kind of filter or equalizer to recreate the original sound from this manufacturer's tapes? If nothing else a frequency and amplitude profile of the differences would be interesting and more objective. - David Bishop
Thank you, David. Part of an engineer's job is to "listen". When compensating for the frequency changes over time, we often refer back to original mixes. We'll test multiple eq settings, different eq devices, compensation in alignment and can do a reasonable job when remixing. At least we can achieve "good enough" for re-releasing. But I think anyone who has worked with tape long enough knows there is something missing that can't be restored. It's hard to describe. It's not enough to boost the highend or low end or particular frequencies. For me, it's similar to what digital recording in PCM can't capture.... sadly, the last 25 years has shown that the digital generation of listeners and artists don't really care much about what got lost in the sound And that's something we have to live with as audio engineers.
Cookie Marenco