A lot of projects are not even made in HD. Most people use 44.1 or 48k / 24 bit.
Analogue tape is nowhere near as popular today as it used to be, due in part to high tape costs, the prohibitive costs of maintaining the equipment in good condition, and also the fact that it takes longer to make a record using tape.
Just the time it takes to rewind the tape after each time you play it, makes studio time costs soar compared to zero rewind time using a DAW, and certainly there aren't many people who have 24 track machines at home. The rewind issue alone is something I would never have thought would be worth considering, but it really is substantial. Minutes here and there add up to hours by the end of a day, and over the course of a project that's quite a bit of money spent just twiddling your thumbs, waiting.
Tape costs were always high, or so it seemed to me, but these days they are twice as high as they were before tape manufacturers shut their doors. A reel of 2" tape (24 track) that lasts 15 minutes, costs between $250 - $300. For an album, you would need at least 3, maybe 4, and that doesn't include the luxury of recording multiple takes of a song and choosing the best parts. On a DAW a 1 TB high-speed HD cost $200 max - enough to hold 4 huge projects (the Nile albums run about 250GB and they are huge - well over 100 tracks at times) or maybe 10 average- sized projects.
Add to that the fact that 24 tracks is hardly anything, and the extremely limited editing possibilities on tape compared to digital, and the fomat is not going to be winning many battles these days.
âAnytime that craftsmanship begins to slide out of the picture, so does the fun, because being good at something â being a craftsman â thatâs the fun of life. Thatâs the vinegar."
"People with edges break bones when they fall. Round ones can roll anywhere."
"Audere est Facere"
Analogue tape is nowhere near as popular today as it used to be, due in part to high tape costs, the prohibitive costs of maintaining the equipment in good condition, and also the fact that it takes longer to make a record using tape.
Just the time it takes to rewind the tape after each time you play it, makes studio time costs soar compared to zero rewind time using a DAW, and certainly there aren't many people who have 24 track machines at home. The rewind issue alone is something I would never have thought would be worth considering, but it really is substantial. Minutes here and there add up to hours by the end of a day, and over the course of a project that's quite a bit of money spent just twiddling your thumbs, waiting.
Tape costs were always high, or so it seemed to me, but these days they are twice as high as they were before tape manufacturers shut their doors. A reel of 2" tape (24 track) that lasts 15 minutes, costs between $250 - $300. For an album, you would need at least 3, maybe 4, and that doesn't include the luxury of recording multiple takes of a song and choosing the best parts. On a DAW a 1 TB high-speed HD cost $200 max - enough to hold 4 huge projects (the Nile albums run about 250GB and they are huge - well over 100 tracks at times) or maybe 10 average- sized projects.
Add to that the fact that 24 tracks is hardly anything, and the extremely limited editing possibilities on tape compared to digital, and the fomat is not going to be winning many battles these days.
âAnytime that craftsmanship begins to slide out of the picture, so does the fun, because being good at something â being a craftsman â thatâs the fun of life. Thatâs the vinegar."
"People with edges break bones when they fall. Round ones can roll anywhere."
"Audere est Facere"