quote:

---

If you want true stereo you just have to go to a live concert.

---

------------------
D.S. Rigsby
Wilcox SD10 3&5
http://www.touchinglittlelives.org

Spent too much time with ADATs in the '90s, but clients demanded it. Also lots of brain damage keeping the 2" analogue synced up to the ADATs for more tracks. To preserve my fond memories of them, I gutted a blackface ADAT and turned it into a cactus garden--finally a good use for one of them...

I've been working "in the box" now for a few years, and I have to say I love it and would never go back. It took a while to find the platform that gave me the sonic results I was looking for, and once I found it, I am completely happy. I track a lot into ProTools, but was never happy with the way it sounded internally. Bussed out to a console, it was fine, but I wanted to work with the recall capabilites of mixing "in the box". I ended up using Paris, a now defunct product developed by Ensoniq, and used by fellow steelers Mike Smith and Tommy Detamore (I think maybe Bill Terry also). My mastering guy in Nashville swears Paris is the closest thing to analogue you can get. The imaging and depth are astounding.

Anyway, like I said earlier, it's just a tool. I do plenty of cut and paste, but only if it helps the project. I tune a lot of vocals, but always manually, not in the auto mode, and it works great. I have a great collection of mics and preamps, which really help in the digital domain. The visual thing alone is enough to make me never go back. Done correctly, you can achieve "vintage" quality with modern gear .

I started out on a SCULLY 1" 8 track ( still have it somewhere in upstate NY.)
and Flickinger console...!
then a MUCH better Soundworkshop. And finally a small Trident.

Sub mixed to a Sony PCM- F1 and back to the Scully.
Was good enough to fool Todd Rundgren up at Bearsville,
3 times into thinking it was 24 track 2" work.
That was on Liv Tyler's mothers band.

I then did have a MM1000, tweaked for super hot tape no NR. and a wierd strobe on tape reel automation system.

I do like analogue, but also wouldn't go back either.
I do a lot of live tracking if I can, and use a lot of stereo micing,
because I have many more tracks to work with.

I did get un the studio in NYC with Don Fagen and yes it is digital,
and serious automated routing in both analogue and digital domains.
They were early adopters of digital because of the clarity.

quote:

---

I ended up using Paris, a now defunct product developed by Ensoniq, and used by fellow steelers Mike Smith and Tommy Detamore (I think maybe Bill Terry also). My mastering guy in Nashville swears Paris is the closest thing to analogue you can get.

---

Yep, I've hung around a good bit at Tommy's place and it sold me on the Ensoniq Paris system. I messed with and owned various Tascam pro and semi-pro analog multitrack recorders over the years, and I'd never go back to analog either. The Paris system seems to offer the benefits of digital recording but somehow retains the warmth and character of analog. Listen to anything from Cherry Ridge and you'll hear a Paris system in capable hands (ears?)... In fact, regarding the comment that John made about vintage quality with modern gear, take a listen to Bobby Flores' "Just for the Record" which was done in large part at Cherry Ridge on Paris. That recording has the vintage vibe in spades.

Oh yeah, the look I see on my ProTools clients when they hear their audio files played back in Paris is pretty amazing--they can hardly believe how much bigger, broader and deeper it is (and this includes HD)

[This message was edited by John Macy on 18 May 2005 at 09:23 PM.]