Hey,
Maybe a stupid question there but, is it necessary to master my digital tracks if I want them to be released on tape?
No doubt it is for a digital release.
Thank you
Hey,
Maybe a stupid question there but, is it necessary to master my digital tracks if I want them to be released on tape?
No doubt it is for a digital release.
Thank you
Are you releasing them yourself? I suspect if a label is putting them on tape theyād master it themselves or have someone do it for you, like how they do for vinyl (which has its own process).
Just a thought anyway
Itās not a dumb question but itās impossible to answer without hearing the material first. A lot of tracks that are āself-masteredā definitely sound fine without professional mastering for a tape release. But maybe yours donāt; its hard to say without hearing them. Do you have someone you can play them for and ask?
Cassette has a limited frequency response 50hz-14khz for ferric (the only tape being made nowadays) so it is worthwhile to take this into account.
Yeah there are a few things to keep in mind to keep things optimal when mastering for tape, first I would use a little more compression to tighten up your dynamic range (this depends on how your dynamic range is from the get go though) and then EQ according to the type of tape you are printing to (probably type 1). You can drive tape harder for some saturation but it is probably safe to assume if you are sending away they are just going to record it as clean as possible.
In reality it is all much easier if you have a 3 head tape recorder so you can hear the tape as it records and dial in your EQ, Saturation and Dynamic range to your liking. On Type 1 I find I tend to EQ boost the highs a bit to get them feeling good in the over all mix of it. Lots of recording places offer mastering but it is up to you if you think it is worth it.
*probably also worth noting that most people listening are going to be doing so on non ideal players, and some will just get the tapes as collectors items, so it is kind of up to you how much you care about the deeper craft of recording to tape.
Thank you all for your kind replies, it really helps me.
I was wondering if a possible customer would be upset by the quality of a tape which is not professionally mastered.
And I wanted to release this project digitally as well⦠But, itās not really professional at all.
Iāll probably try to release this project on a dedicated label then