So. Analogue. Pretty cool, huh?

At The Crash Factory we record to analogue tape, rather than digitally into a computer. It’s not a fashion thing or a special effort to go ‘retro’, we just think it’s a much better tool to make music with. Whilst we certainly love the *sound* of recordings made to tape we use it just as much for the workflow it suggests.

Today tape is just about uncommon enough to warrant some kind of discussion about why we choose to use it and some of the considerations in working with it:

Organic

Workflow? A very human trait is that when presented with a safety net one will come to rely on it; when faced with infinite possibility one will look to make use of it. We’ve tried making records like that. It takes for-bleeding-EVER. We think that real creativity requires a bit of a push out of the comfort zone, that feeling that you have to change the world NOW, not in five or six guitar overdub’s time. But is tape right for you?

With tape it’s really easy to capture an organic vibe, but it’s also totally possible to make sprawling, intricate and – dare we say it – modern recordings. Tape makes you think on your feet and make decisions. Tape makes you commit to your instinct and move on- an element of danger is an exciting thing! If it all goes wrong, hell – we’ll play the song one more time.

Computers are great if you’re not too happy with what you’re doing: you’re under-rehearsed, the bass player can’t quite get the riff at the end of the chorus or the third song for the EP is a bit flat. The dude with the mouse can click away, add in samples and play some synth-string-banjo plugin and hey presto – it sounds like you did it right! We say let’s do it right in the first place. Rehearse. Give a performance worth recording, a performance truly worth 3 minutes of somebody’s life. That’s what it’s about, right?

Snipetty-Snip

Call us crazy but we’d rather spend an hour with you, in the room, working out the best way to play a blinding take than spend an hour clicking away with a scissors graphic and finding a kick drum sample that won’t make your record sound like someone was using a typewriter with robotic precision. Simply put, chopping things about while you sit at the back of the room is not usually our first pick of problem-solvers.

Computer recording certainly has it’s place – if you’re uncertain of your ability to produce something you’ll like then you probably need that safety net. If you like your music to have utterly inhuman perfection then it needs to relentlessly submit to the tempo-grid. Recording to tape is for you when you know what you want, when you’re thrilled with the music you make and you want the world to take notice; when you want to sound like you. Whether you want to make a bold statement or a right noise;  a real record… we can help.