DIY High End Audiophile Reel to Reel Recordings for personal use.

[Scottsmrnyc]

Okay, I think I have all of the equipment I might need to try and create my own DIY high end audiophile recordings. I have some of my own cds, of which I own the copyrights to. I have a Tascam ATR 80- two inch reel to reel machine, I have a Tascam ATR 60 reel to reel one inch machine, I have a basic mixing board and a PC Laptop running Sonar Cakewalk Producer. Would anyone like to give me some advice as to how to make a DIY high end audiophile reel to reel recorded tape of my music. Perhaps there are a couple of books I should read. I already have a subscription to Recording magazine. Any advice will be great. I will give myself one month from the start of this project to it's finish. I should begin this process this June or July. Perhaps this could be a collaborative effect with a couple of other AA members. Pizza is on me if anyone is interested.

[jdandy]

Scott.......What is your source? Will you be recording yourself? Will there be other musicians involved? Do you have an assortment of high quality microphones and decent stands? Does your mixer have good quality microphone preamps with phantom power available? Does your mixer provide a multichannel digital output (Firewire or USB) or is it analog two channel output only? Cakewalk is great digital recording software but there is a serious learning curve to be able to take full advantage of its capabilities. You will need a way to digitize your analog inputs to make use of any digital recording software.

[Scottsmrnyc]

WOW- It's been a while since I have posted my original post; I do not have all the things you have listed and I now understand how much more effort I have to put into this venture in order to get some good quality tapes. Actually, I thought I would copy for personal use some of my most favorite albums/CDs. Perhaps about fifty of them in total over the years. I do have Cakewalk Producer. What I thought I would do is record the cds onto my Cakewalk Producer program and try and inhance the quality of it. Then save it to the Cakewalk Producer program and then send it off to one of my reel to reel machines. I also control the copyrights to a number of my own musical works that I would like to make reel to reel copies of. Sorry for the long delay in my response. I now have heard those custom made expensive tapes at a number of audio shows; I find them to be only a slight improvement in sound quality; additionally it is dubious if the improvement is a matter of take or whether it is because of superior speakers, cables or amps. I picked up some old Maxell tapes that had music already recorded on it. Prior to erasing them; I decided to play them to see what was on them. A couple of the tapes had really good classical music that sounded exquisite; perhaps even substantially better than anything I have heard with those high end prerecorded tapes. So this is my goal. I thank you for your input and I will try some of your ideas soon.