do you throw your final master onto tape?

[mihai]

i was thinking of renting a studio for a few hours when i'm done with my ep to send the audio onto tape and back to digital. i'm curious what the end result would be like and whether you've had experience with it that you'd like to share.

[Deadbeat]

It depends how hard you hit the tape (and how wide, how old, and what kind of tape it is... as well as the machine etc...) but generally you will get a smearing of the highs and grittier slightly more distorted low end. Some people feel it adds warmth, others would say it makes things sound muddy. It really depends on the material and generally speaking I'd say unless you've had previous experience, or have a chance to spend a significant amount of time evaluating how it's affecting your material skip it and don't waste your hard earned cash.

DB

[mihai]

i see. i've been thinking about it for a while and depending on how much cash i have i'll probably end up doing it out of curiosity. there's a fairly popular studio close to me that has worked with plenty of big hollywood names and their rate is $100/hr. (2nd engineer included) so it doesn't sound too bad.