IT’S SO GREAT HAVING YOU BACK! You are a masterclass in staying calm and just being an incredibly cool dude. You deserve every bit of your success and I’m incredibly excited for you and your “dream studio”. Ultimately we will all be better for it (can’t wait to hear what comes out of there). I sure hope our paths cross at some point. Welcome back, sir! You’ve been missed.
For me, this is the best educational audio related content you can find on youtube. Thank you so much Eric! Unbelievably happy to have you back. And so good to know that things are finally coming out great after the hassle!
Man, that was a huge job. Playing with tape machines sure has it's own magic but damn I'm grateful we're living in a digital world now. I'll stick with a virtual tape machine for now, thank you
AHHHHH I used to own a studer and sold, in part because I didn't know how to calibrate it. Theres not a tonne of info online. This is a dream come true watching you show & explain what you're doing. Thankyou E.V. you are the GOAT!
oh man, i used to do sessions here with Louie and Tim...Magical place :) Grateful to have gotten to spend some time there! long live BF! Good luck with the new build and thx for sharing!
Yay!!!!! This is awesome. I'm incredibly excited. Welcome back Mr. Valentine. Hands down on of the top producers creating the best RU-vid content for audio geeks. A huge THANK YOU for sharing wisdom!
WOW! I don't know how I happened to stumble across this channel, but this was just amazing to watch...I came from tape way back in the day so this resonated with me from the title alone! You are a trouper man....sticking with it and getting it done over just a few weeks...wow...I know that I have to take the plunge and transfer all of my archived ProTools sessions from DVD to newer media someday soon before they're unreadable, so this was pretty inspiring to say the least...just subscribed, so you know I'm gonna be following through the entire journey!
Great to have you back Eric. Cool hearing about the old tape machines and the tape transfer process. Magic. Look forward to more. Love your relaxed approach to your channel. Nice one 🎶🎨
Hi Eric, so nice to have you back on the channel, really love your stuff! So awesome to see the process of you wrapping up Barefoot. Thanks for doing this!
I adore Eric and so glad to have him back. Wow I’m glad I never opened that rabbit hole into tape, despite temptation. This episode really illustrates how tape in 2023 only suits certain people with particular skill sets, experience, location with availability of parts, working preferences and patience. My real tape delay stresses me out enough. I’m happy with my Anamod ATS 1. Prob gets me me halfway between digital and Eric Valentine’s J37.
What an absolute mammoth task! Happy that you managed to get it all done and you don't have to worry about it anymore. It's good to see your videos again, Eric!
You are one of my favorite producers. Thank you for sharing your story, and even better, mix/production deconstructions. Yours is my favorite music production channel. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Glad to see you back at it!
Wow! From baking to re-smpte striping the things you've recorded, this was amazing! I bet the bands you produced appreciated that. Good on you! Looking forward to the next episode! Because I have to reconstruct a room in my house to record crumbs in, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you approached construction at your studio.
Glad that you're giving the artists a chance to get their tapes back, rather than the usual old way of just binning them when they take up too much space.
What a monumental task transferring all the old masters, hats off to you Sir! I’m surprised that you’re not using Timeline Lynx synchronisers though. I used to sell them in the UK when I worked at Stirling Audio and in a short period many studios flipped to the Lynx, they just worked every time. Every tape machine in a pull-up menu, TC reshaping, jam sync etc, all the shiz you need man! Btw, love all your amazing vids and I’m a proud owner of 2 x UnderTone MPDI-4, adding the UnfairChild comp at some stage soon. Keep up the amazing work!
As a Construction Superintendent for Mech/ Elec/Plbg sub contractors - I can only HOPE that in your area, there is a better quality of subs. I hope your construction/ renovation setbacks were not mostly due to the rocky road of MEP scope - yikes!! THANK YOU for sharing!! 😍🙂
Excellent video, it brought back memories and the confusion in those days! You have to be on the ball, great stuff! Your friends Adam Smith Synchronizer and the Lavry saved you! Worth the money
Glad to see you back, Eric. I'd love to see a tour/breakdown of your sound treatment in that small room with the couch? Curious the dimensions and how you feel about the results (assuming you mix in there?) I imagine that'd be some relevant content for many of us playing along at home.
Man your kicks always sound amazing even through an iPhone mic. So unique that I feel others have strived for moving forward (copied!). Like a big slab of moist chocolate cake.
I'm watching this video like the Zapruder film in order to spot unreleased T-Ride song names on those tapes. So far I was only able to make out one reel that had Fire It Up, I Hunger and You and Your Friend! Did you usually fit three or four songs on one tape?
I hope you had the Zeta 3 locked to a blackburst generator or you might find that there is wow and flutter between the two 24tk reels when you put them up together. Welcome Back!
I found you in produce like a pro academy with warren. I would like to thanks him.I'm kind of new to production and love to know what is the process with analogue era.thank you very much for the video.please do more. liked.subcribed...
How exactly do you decide if you have to bake them? I know the tapes get sticky, but, how sticky? when is it enough of an issue for you to decide you gotta bake them?
Good question! If you put a tape on the machine and start to play it, you will get this sticky brown sludge on the heads within seconds of playing the tape. I always try to play a section of tape from the collection of reels that is not crucial first (an out take reel or record pad or something) before playing a section of one of the masters. When you see the brown sludge on the heads that is potentially degrading the sound in the section that was played. If one section of one of the reels is sticky, then you probably have to bake all of it and once you see that tapes from that time frame are sticky then probably everything from that time needs to get baked. I pretty much baked everything that was older than 10 years. for this archiving.
thanks Eric, great to see stuff about tape in the analogue world. Good fix to get those big tape machines synched up. How you kept your studio going. Many would have given up.
23:39 would love to hear the “no vox” lostprophets! also any chance of a “no vox” lostprophets production deconstruction in the future? we really appreciate all the work you do Eric 😊 much love!
It is specifically a "Dehydrator". I got it on Amazon... www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZV5RY8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 The rule of thumb is to set the temperature to around 130 deg F and it is generally 10 -12 hours of baking for a 2" reel. It really works great. It also seems that once baked you only get a few god plays out of the tape so it really is best to transfer it to digital right after you bake it.
He truly is! His name is Alex Proctor (instagram.com/alexproctor_esq/) and he is a wonderfully talented guy. He mixes front of house for Grace (among many other things.)
I'm curious the purpose of chasing the timecode in Pro Tools when it's just audio? I guess if you need to sync the other reel to Pro Tools after? Maybe I missed that. Also, can you record the SMTPE as audio?
Good question! and you answered it yourself :) The SMPTE code is only necessary because there is more than one multitrack that all needs to play together or the analog master needs to be in sync with stuff in pro tools. You can definitely record SMPTE as audio. i have done that at times to have a backup of the SMPTE track in pro tools.
Did you make the tube trap style absorbers yourself? I'd be interested in learning about how well they work and were constructed if that's something you can share. Great to see you here again and best of luck with the build out! We're hip deep in our own so we know the roller coaster ride very well! Thanks so much. -chaz
Good question! Thankfully it does not affect the sound. As long as the oxide is still on the tape it sounds the same. The dehydration only removes moisture that gets absorbed into the adhesive over time. Once you remove the moisture, the oxide is the same as it was and it is no longer sticky!
