Monitoring ?

[Audio Al]

Silly question time

Why do you need a tape monitor facility as the sound going in surely is the same as the sound being recorded or am I missing something :scratch:

[Jac Hawk]

It is mate, so much so i don't understand the question, have you been smokin those funny mushrooms again:eyebrows::eyebrows:

But if you're asking why you need a tape monitor on your amp simply speaking think of your amp as the hub that everything goes in and out of, if you want to record from CD then you simply press the button and it's done, without a tape monitor output you would need to disconnect the CD player and plug it directly into the tape input, there are probably loads of technical reasons why you do it that way but to my mind it's simply for convenience.

[Audio Al]

i'm refering to a reel to reel machine not a amp

[struth]

lets you monitor the sound levels that are going directly onto the tape, as the playback head is directly after the record head(3head machine). Allows gain etc to be selected .. has other uses too..

[Pharos]

Tape monitoring is usually t allow what is being recorded to be monitored off tape, that is, to check that your recording is happening and to assess its quality and level. Monitoring what is going into the recorder, its I/P, is different from monitoring what is on the tape, the tape recorder's O/P.

[Audio Al]

:hmm:

[Barry]

Tape monitoring, as Dennis and Grant have said, is used to check the quality of the recording. The quality of the recording depends on the recording electronics, the recording head and the tape used. To hear what has been recorded, the tape is monitored by the replay head (along with the replay electronics) as the recording is being made.

[Audio Al]

Tape monitoring, as Dennis and Grant have said, is used to check the quality of the recording. The quality of the recording depends on the recording electronics, the recording head and the tape used. To hear what has been recorded, the tape is monitored by the replay head (along with the replay electronics) as the recording is being made.

:hmm:

[Barry]

What is it you don't understand Al?

[Audio Al]

It just seems pointless to me , You have 2 heads seconds apart , I have seen videos of the monitor switch being used " This is the sound coming in " flick the switch and " This is the sound being recorded " what can you do about it in those nanoseconds

Err Nothing :scratch:

[topoxforddoc]

The record head in a studio machine will have the ability to replay as well - this is called the sync output. A simple explanation is attached in the link

http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/how-it-works-multitrack/3484

[Macca]

Say you flicked the switch and heard nothing. or heard horrible distortion? Then you could stop the recording, fix the problem and start again. Without monitoring you would not know there was an issue until you had finished the recording and decided to play it back. Time wasted.

[Barry]

You can check the tape is not saturating and distorting, the heads are not magnetised and the tape is running smoothly.

Yes you're right - if you are recording a live performance and there are problems there is nothing you can do about it, apart from correcting the fault and re-recording, which being live is not possible. But for making back-up copies of say LPs, CDs or other tapes, you can re-record if the first attempt throws up problems.

[Audio Al]

The record head in a studio machine will have the ability to replay as well - this is called the sync output. A simple explanation is attached in the link

http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/how-it-works-multitrack/3484

OK thanks will have a read of that tonight

[topoxforddoc]

OK thanks will have a read of that tonight

Al, did that help?

[Audio Al]

Al, did that help?

Err sadly not , My brain hurts , I was never gifted in the brain box department , but life goes on :D

[Audio Al]

Let me elaborate
Yes I understand 2 track / 4 track / 8 track recording etc

And I understand that you can hear whats about to be recorded in the monitor position but a nano second later its on the record head

You can't listen to a band play a track all the way through then say " Yes OK men that was good , Can we record it now as I was listening while monitoring " If they then did that track again and did a straight recording a bum note or bad vocal could occur
rendering that take useless
Or have I missed something :scratch:

[Barry]

Let me elaborate
Yes I understand 2 track / 4 track / 8 track recording etc

And I understand that you can hear whats about to be recorded in the monitor position but a nano second later its on the record head

You can't listen to a band play a track all the way through then say " Yes OK men that was good , Can we record it now as I was listening while monitoring " If they then did that track again and did a straight recording a bum note or bad vocal could occur
rendering that take useless
Or have I missed something :scratch:

In the monitor mode you hear what has been recorded - what is actually on the tape, not what's about to be recorded.

There will be small delay, given by the distance between the record head and the replay head, divided by the tape speed.

[Audio Al]

In the monitor mode you hear what has been recorded - what is actually on the tape, not what's about to be recorded.

There will be small delay, given by the distance between the record head and the replay head, divided by the tape speed.

OK so I did miss something ,

The fault is recorded and then you hear it :doh:

[Barry]

The faults you hear when monitoring will be in the recording, not necessarily in what is being recorded. So any faults in the performance by the players, such as bum notes, instruments out of tune etc. would still be recorded, even if the recording process was perfect.

Monitoring is there just to assess the quality of the recording process.

[bob4333]

You can check the tape is not saturating and distorting, the heads are not magnetised and the tape is running smoothly.



Nicely sums it up. :thumbsup: This is the main benefit for me, tweaking on the fly enabling a degree of fine tuning by ear so you're not just reliant on the VU meters.

[The Black Adder]

VU meters are pretty useless in most situations. The plasma type meters are better, you get a more instant reading. But they don't always show you problems. You need monitoring to check levels mostly.

Distortion/Saturation is normally done by ear so have to be confident about the machine you are using and do plenty of test recordings especially if you are live. You need a feed from the sound board and record some final setting checks and you 'should' always listen to the tape output when live.