Re: Digital vs analog

[tdbajus <nyfac2@nyfac.com>]

Once, I was young boy, and had a dream:  To sound just like Robin
Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins.

So I got myself a 4track, and life was good.

I entertained myself for hours, recording tracks too hot, distorting the
hell out my tape, running my HR-16 snare sample through a Rat 2 pedal
(still do), collapsing tracks, recording with the dbx on and mixing with
it off.  Lots of noise, but in comparason to my single coils run through
lots o' distortion, no big deal.

I would like to say that the sound of a Yamaha MT-120 preamp being
beaten into submission is one of the coolest sounds ever.

Then I started listening to Tones on Tail and Eno.  Tape loops seemed to
be in order.  So I, ah, obtained keys and passcodes to the studios in
the school I was attending at the time, and snuck in at night to use the
1/4" machines, wrapping tape around stools, and generally making a mess
of things.

This was also good.  If somewhat messy.

Then I was hired to edit music, some of which was classical.  That was
when I learned that a cello sounds almost exactly like a bass at .25
ips.

Life was bad.  I was sad.

So I bought a Session8, and was doing jobs in a half hour that once took
me four.  Life was good.  Plus, I learned the joys and freedoms of
recording non-linearly.  Not sure what your solo should sound like? 
Record twenty of them, edit the cool parts together.

Soon, I moved from Philly, city of cheap, lovely, and expansive
apartments,  to NYC, city of expensive, foul smelling, poorly
maintained, closets with bathrooms.  My rack+computer were taking up
about a quarter of my living space.  I also became overly employed, and
was actively playing in two bands.  The Session8 sat, lonely and
forlorn, gathering dust and weeping over the love affair that had gone
so well untill we had moved into the big city.

I had lost that magic feeling-  no longer did I want to boot up the
machine, fire up the d/a, the external drives, clear off my desk, clean
the pots on my tube preamps, compact my disks, re-patch the mackie, etc,
etc, etc.

A friend of mine left his four track over one day.  We had recorded some
stuff in our rehersal space.  Figured I would but another track of
guitar on with the vocal.  I turned the pig on, plugged into an eq and
my trusty Rat.

Sold my rack, computer, hard drive, preamps.  Gonna buy a 4-track again.

Funny how these things turn out.