123 Studios

123 ANALOGUE SPECIALIST

Brett Shaw " I have always loved the sound of tape. The first things I ever recorded were demos for my band "South" to a four-track tape recorder. These were picked up by a label called Mo'wax and released as the "Four track sessions". Even then I realised you could do many things with tape, like overdrive the inputs to crunch the sound and flip the tape backwards to record reverse parts. How I like to record to tape now is to sound vintage. Like Motown or even the modern Daptone records with minimal micing. Usually, one or two mics on the drums in the right places is just fine. When I produce, I often record in this format then import into the computer and work with modern sounds alongside the classic sounding stuff. "

123 now offers fully analogue recording to 24 track  3m or Otari Mx80 tape machine. There is also a 1/4 Mono Studer B62 Tape machine and a wonderfully wonky Revox A77 that all have different sounds.

Brett Shaw "Another side to analogue is to transfer digital recordings and use the benefits of tape. I did this a lot with the new Foals record. It's possible to use the tape machines as analogue inserts and while correcting the machine head delay in pro tools, to use them like you would a plugin. The SSL E series also lets you use the small faders to ride the level into the tape machine to get the exact amount of tape saturation whilst listening in real time.