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Analog vs. digital

K

KGB1

Active Member
Very good film called "Sound City" directed by Dave Grohl...

I'll be on a mission looking for records that were recorded at Sound City after watching the film.

A lot of credit for the sound is attributed to the Neve Analog Console...


http://buy.soundcitymovie.com/
 
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From the title of this thread, I was thinking, "Oh, no, here we go again!" Glad it wasn't what the title suggested.

Neve made some great gear. :thmbsp:

Thanks for mentioning the film; should check it out.
 
Arkay said:
From the title of this thread, I was thinking, "Oh, no, here we go again!" Glad it wasn't what the title suggested.

Neve made some great gear. :thmbsp:

Thanks for mentioning the film; should check it out.
Click to expand...

Yea, I messed up...

I meant to write: "Analog vs digital recording studios"

Oh well, that probably would not have made much difference :D
 
Brothers In Arms was recorded with an analog Neve board sending signals to a Sony 24 track digital recorder.
Neves are legendary boards.

Then again, Abbey Road was the first Beatles album recorded using a transistor board. Paul McCartney preferred the old tube boards, especially since they got the sound they liked by overdriving the microphone preamps.
 
The vast majority of "real" studios these days use a hybrid setup with lots of analog and digital.

BTW, as an interesting aside, almost NONE of them are using 192kHz except for special projects like sound-design/fx creation. 44.1kHz thru 96kHz is the norm even for major-label projects.
 
To bad it's not on Netflix but I see it's on Amazon's rental list for $3.99.
I normally don't pay to watch things but this I think I will.
 
It is a great documentary, and coincidentally I have a lot of albums recorded there, albums I use for reference....
I have been an advocate for anything recorded there without even knowing it was a series 80 Neve console.....

I like what Barry Manilow said. "I dont normally get exited about sound, listening to kick drums for an hour, please, I would rather have a blood transfusion. But there was something about the sound of that console..."
Or very close to that. (I have seen the movies at least 4 times).

Neil Young's After the Gold Rush was recorded there, but it was before they had the Neve as an FYI.

Also you have to remember the Studio went broke because they refused to go digital, and ultimately it ended up with them having to sell their Neve to get out of debt....
As much as we are all passionate about analogue, you have to move with the times, and they could have easily had added Pro Tools to their inventory and retained their tape machines and analogue console....
This is what a lot of the surviving studios had to do.....if it wasnt bad enough a lot of acts were recording albums in bedrooms and garages, Studios had to compete with this.....
I think their staunch stand for analogue actually brought their demise.....dont get me wrong, I love analogue, and I frequent two studios locally which have Neve series 80 consoles, but you have to remain competitive to survive, I think Keith Olsen had this vision but ended up opening his own studio because Sound City didnt share his vision, they dont say this in the movie as such, but its obvious this is what happened....
He opened up a studio next door!!
But its good to see Dave Grohl bought the console and created the movie to keep the legend alive....

I love the movie, and I really enjoy the Sessions at the end where we get to see Stevie Nicks recording her contribution to the Sound City movie.....
 
kc6wfs said:
To bad it's not on Netflix but I see it's on Amazon's rental list for $3.99.
I normally don't pay to watch things but this I think I will.
Click to expand...

Yes, PAY dude, its totally worth it.......:thmbsp:

I went straight out and bought the Blu Ray they day it was released....
 
Very much worth seeing - though I could have done with a bit less Stevie Nicks. As far as the studio not wanting to "go digital" ; In the early days of digital there were a couple of very expensive digital recording systems that were sold for a TON of money that ended up having so many technical problems that they were scrapped and obsolete within months with no recompense to the studios.
I've heard the Neve board that came out of Electric Ladyland studios. It now resides at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota and was used for the recording of Nirvana's "In Utero". Hearing tracks coming back at you through that board was nothing short of inspiring.
 
This thread got me to go bust out my old copy of Brothers in Arms and give it a listen. What a phenomenal recording for its time.

This CD is the first CD I ever bought, back in 1985, to play in my first CD player....Technics CDP-1 (it didn't even have remote control capability).
 
Ths364 said:
Very much worth seeing - though I could have done with a bit less Stevie Nicks. As far as the studio not wanting to "go digital" ; In the early days of digital there were a couple of very expensive digital recording systems that were sold for a TON of money that ended up having so many technical problems that they were scrapped and obsolete within months with no recompense to the studios.
I've heard the Neve board that came out of Electric Ladyland studios. It now resides at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota and was used for the recording of Nirvana's "In Utero". Hearing tracks coming back at you through that board was nothing short of inspiring.
Click to expand...

Im not talking about the early days of digital, Sound City survived the early days, just.....But after they did the Nirvana album and Rage against the Machine, it would have been the right time, mid '90s, when it all started be become standardized........
They may have just made it.....

Electric Lady originally had a Datamix console, which was spec'd by Eddie Kramer as this is what he was using when he was the house engineer at the NY Record Plant Studio where Hendrix also recorded a lot of material....

Electric Lady ended up with a SSL 9080J console, and then recently they bought a Neve 8078 console which was restored and recently installed for the first time in studio A replacing the SSL.
The Neve did not come from Electric Lady, it came from Clinton Recording and has a history all of its own...

Not sure what console Neve you think may have come from Electric Lady.........I cant find anything that indicates there was one ever there until their recent refit....
Electric Lady's New Neve 8078

It says the 8068 in Pachyderm Studios came from Electric Lady, but seems like there may some discrepancy surrounding that, but who knows maybe it was, heaven only knows why they would have sold it..........

You could buy the SSL from electric lady if you are keen.......cheap at $70K http://vintageking.com/ssl-9072j-72-channel-console-used
 
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DougMac said:
Brothers In Arms was recorded with an analog Neve board sending signals to a Sony 24 track digital recorder.
Neves are legendary boards.

Then again, Abbey Road was the first Beatles album recorded using a transistor board. Paul McCartney preferred the old tube boards, especially since they got the sound they liked by overdriving the microphone preamps.
Click to expand...

Funny, BIA used to be one of my favorite sounding records. However, since I have upgraded my system to something I'd consider high end, I always find it thin sounding and lacking for bass, no matter what cartridge I run. (And my system has plenty of bass, Ice Cube on wax with sub at 8 o' clock (roughly 20% through the dial) shakes **** off the shelves in the next room over...
 
Pachyderm has been gone for many years, although as of last year, the entire property and empty buildings were for sale.
 
Nirvana recorded there, and its definitively a low fi album. But it just goes to show once again, that great music that defined generations doesn't need ultra ultra expensive whatever in the chain. And the magic is captured by more than THD, transistors and valves and other gear. Note how I didn't mention cables, err, aww fark now I did. :p

That recording room just worked great no matter what they threw at it. In synergy with that console and tape.

That entire studio was a place where magic could happen. Really worth the watch.
 
ev13wt said:
Nirvana recorded there, and its definitively a low fi album. But it just goes to show once again, that great music that defined generations doesn't need ultra ultra expensive whatever in the chain. And the magic is captured by more than THD, transistors and valves and other gear. Note how I didn't mention cables, err, aww fark now I did. :p

That recording room just worked great no matter what they threw at it. In synergy with that console and tape.

That entire studio was a place where magic could happen. Really worth the watch.
Click to expand...

They had a good room combined with the best sounding console on the planet......it was no accident Neve consoles sound like that, its a design carefully engineered.....
 
tblob said:
The vast majority of "real" studios these days use a hybrid setup with lots of analog and digital.

BTW, as an interesting aside, almost NONE of them are using 192kHz except for special projects like sound-design/fx creation. 44.1kHz thru 96kHz is the norm even for major-label projects.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear the studios are using the tools - whatever works best - regardless of silly analog v digital religious wars. :thmbsp:
 
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