RECORDING WEEK 2025: Say what you will about contemporary recording technology, but the excitement and allure of the recording studio really isn’t what it used to be. The democratisation of technology, powered by ever more affordable computing, means that studios no longer look or feel the way they did even 30 years ago.
While many commercial studios continue to use large format mixing consoles, one machine has been generally consigned to the history books: the analog tape machine. The only problem is, there are many who still have a love affair with the sound of tape. But why? And will these technical behemoths be making a hardware comeback any time soon?
To address this latter question head on, the straight answer is ‘no’, tape is not coming back any time soon, at least in the guise that we once knew.
