The relentless march of technology
One of the things that's been fascinating to observe is the difference in working method due to advances in technology. Both Merrymakers and KJV were recorded onto 2-inch tape on 24-track tape machines; for KJB, since we were on a major-label budget, we could afford to use studios with two tape machines synced up in order to give us double the number of tracks. This time around, though, everything is being recorded directly to a hard drive, inside Pro Tools (a digital audio program that runs on an Apple Macintosh). The tape machine sits unused, another victim of Moore's Law and the advances in hard drive storage capacity.
The math goes like this: If we were using tape, a 2500-foot reel of tape would yield about 16.5 minutes (running at 30 in/sec), for 24 tracks. A reel of tape runs (well, used to) around $240. Assume you keep two takes of a song, with an average of 4 min./song, and you have 12 songs to record, that's two songs per reel, or 6 reels. 6 x $240 = $1400, just for tape. And remember that you're limited to 24 tracks total.
Now let's look at digital storage. Recording at 24-bit resolution requires 16.5 MB/min per track; in order to do an apples-to-apples comparison we'll calculate 24 tracks, so we're at 396 MB/minute. Therefore it takes 39,204 MB (or 39.2 GB) to store the same amount of audio as 6 reels of tape. How much does it cost? Last week I ordered a 200 Gigabyte hard drive for $111, shipped. That's the equivalent of 30 reels of tape ($7,200).
Personally, I prefer the sound of tape, but at some point even the most die-hard tapehead has to realize that the cost for marginal improvement becomes too much. Is it any wonder Quantegy declared bankruptcy earlier this year?
The math goes like this: If we were using tape, a 2500-foot reel of tape would yield about 16.5 minutes (running at 30 in/sec), for 24 tracks. A reel of tape runs (well, used to) around $240. Assume you keep two takes of a song, with an average of 4 min./song, and you have 12 songs to record, that's two songs per reel, or 6 reels. 6 x $240 = $1400, just for tape. And remember that you're limited to 24 tracks total.
Now let's look at digital storage. Recording at 24-bit resolution requires 16.5 MB/min per track; in order to do an apples-to-apples comparison we'll calculate 24 tracks, so we're at 396 MB/minute. Therefore it takes 39,204 MB (or 39.2 GB) to store the same amount of audio as 6 reels of tape. How much does it cost? Last week I ordered a 200 Gigabyte hard drive for $111, shipped. That's the equivalent of 30 reels of tape ($7,200).
Personally, I prefer the sound of tape, but at some point even the most die-hard tapehead has to realize that the cost for marginal improvement becomes too much. Is it any wonder Quantegy declared bankruptcy earlier this year?
4 Comments:
And now that tape is sitting on a shelf at the Hall of Justice, gathering dust.
http://www.aural-fixation.com/photos/hd_vault.jpg
Of course, I lost 30 gigs of photographs last year due to an internal hard drive malfunction. But with the image (and, in your case, sound) quality getting better and better, the cost-effectiveness of digital is too great to ignore. You just buy more external hard drives, and lots and lots of optical media.
Thanks for the tape time breakdown! I think with my new 250 Gig drive I should be alright unless i go for ring cycle II in 50 part harmony. As the unit of convenient backup, a DVD's 4.7 Gig seems a magic number.
I recently heard that tracking tape is no longer being manufactured, but i gotta believe it is in China or somewhere.. at least, there is some recycling to be done for the die hards.
Hey...I don't have anything witty or cool to add, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm a big fan and am way, way excited about the new cd.
So... ::clears throat:: there's...that. Thanks and goood luck.
Interesting web log diary about recording in the studio; particularly the comments about tape. The only copy I have of HD1 'Where Have all the Merrymaker's Gone' I recorded on a cassette a couple years ago from a friend's CD. I play it all the time, "Problems and Bigger Ones" is usually cued up on my Nakamichi deck when I am not playing other cassettes. I should buy the CD; I suppose cassette copies rob musicians of income the same as computer copying of music files... I promise I will buy HD3 and not copy it on cassette. I hope to hear you live this spring or summer; Live is my favorite way to listen to music......
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