Studer A827 24 Track Analog Tape Machine

Used to record *Icky Thump*, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 *Sound on Sound* interview. > “Jack and Meg are big supporters of the analogue format, and he’s a big believer in the old-school approach: punch it in, no comping. If you don’t like a vocal take, just erase it and redo it. He has a Studer A80 eight-track recorder at home, and we used a Studer A827 with a 16-track head, and Emtec 900 2-inch tape, 30ips, no Dolby. I recorded pretty hot, because I wanted the stuff to have an extra little bit of distortion, and more edge and lots of tape compression. These things became part of the sound. I also had to make sure my levels were consistent, so when I spliced something in, it didn’t become unmixable and out of control.”

For the recording of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, signals were split and sent both to Pro Tools and tape. "The analogue side of the recording was a Studer A827 running 24-track ATR tape at 15ips, with +3 alignment and Dolby SR, because we didn't want to have hiss."

In this article it says Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) had a Studer A827 in his April Base studio

A Studer A827 was used to record Bob Dylan's 1999 album, Love and Theft, according to [this article](http://www.emusician.com/artists/1333/recording-bob-dylan/40613) by E-Musician.

Used to record *Sleeping Through the Static*, as stated by mix engineer Robert Carranza in this May 2008 *Sound on Sound* interview. > Recordings took place off and on over a period of three months in the late spring and summer of 2007. This included a 10–day spell at Johnson's Hawaiian studio, and Carranza ended up buying another Studer A827 plus a Malcolm Toft console especially for the project. "I took the microphones with me to Hawaii, and we had a duplicate of my outboard and preamp rack, so the signal chain was exactly the same. There was no great pressure in working. We really went with what we felt like." The only moment of concern came when the 18 RMG900 two–inch reels (recorded without Dolby, at +6/185) they had filled had to be sent back to Los Angeles for mixdown. Naturally, Carranza made Pro Tools copies before shipping. (...) Robert Carranza mixed the album at Solar Powered Plastic Plant Studios, happily using the Studer A827 and the SSL AWS900. > (...) "Choosing the studio equipment was up to me," explained Carranza. "Nobody had any foresight as to what to get. I already owned all the outboard gear that we needed and I also have a complete Pro Tools system, so the main challenge was to get a tape machine, a desk, and a monitoring system that would work in the relatively untreated acoustic space. We ended up buying a Studer A827 24–track from Harry Maslin, an old engineer and producer who has done a lot of great records. As for the desk, Jack wanted something economical and low–maintenance. I've grown up with API, and they're great, but I know how problematic they can be. The same goes for Neve. So I settled for the SSL AWS900. I realised that I could get any sound I wanted on this console, as opposed to a Neve, which will only give you the Neve sound. As I have a rack full of preamps, four Neve 1073s, eight API 512s, 12 API L200s, I only intended the SSL AWS900 to be used for monitoring and mixing."

Used to record *Icky Thump*, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 *Sound on Sound* interview. > “Jack and Meg are big supporters of the analogue format, and he’s a big believer in the old-school approach: punch it in, no comping. If you don’t like a vocal take, just erase it and redo it. He has a Studer A80 eight-track recorder at home, and we used a Studer A827 with a 16-track head, and Emtec 900 2-inch tape, 30ips, no Dolby. I recorded pretty hot, because I wanted the stuff to have an extra little bit of distortion, and more edge and lots of tape compression. These things became part of the sound. I also had to make sure my levels were consistent, so when I spliced something in, it didn’t become unmixable and out of control.”

Used to record *The Fall*, as stated in this February 1, 2010 *Electronic Musician* interview with Jones, producer Jacquire King and his assistant engineer Brad Bivens. > Recording in mid-2009 at New York’s The Magic Shop, Studio A (Neve 80 Series console with 1079 modules to 16-track Studer A827 2-inch 24-track to Pro Tools|HD3) and L.A.’s Sunset Sound, Studio 2 (Neve 8088 with 1073 preamps and EQs to Studer A827 2-inch 24-track to Pro Tools), Jones and King adopted a quasi Steely Dan approach, often recording the same song with different groups, then cherry-picking the best performances.

Used to track Outkast's *Speakerboxx/The Love Below*.

Used to record *Volume 3*, as mentioned in this April 15, 2015 *Electronic Musician* interview. > Deschanel usually sings into a Neumann U47. “I have done a number of mic shoot-outs to see what we liked best,” she says. “But we don’t always universally stick to [the U47]; I love an RCA 77, too.” > On this project, [producer Pierre] de Reeder placed U47s for Deschanel and Ward; both also went to Neve 1073 mic pre’s, and Deschanel’s vocal took a small amount of 1176 compression. “Nothing’s heavily compressed,” de Reeder points out. “It’s just barely rocking the needle and making sure everything’s in control.” > All of the other inputs went through preamps in Sound Factory’s custom API console, then straight to a Studer A827 24-track tape machine.

Used to track Outkast's *Speakerboxx/The Love Below*.

Used to record *Volume 3*, as mentioned in this April 15, 2015 *Electronic Musician* interview. > Deschanel usually sings into a Neumann U47. “I have done a number of mic shoot-outs to see what we liked best,” she says. “But we don’t always universally stick to [the U47]; I love an RCA 77, too.” > On this project, [producer Pierre] de Reeder placed U47s for Deschanel and Ward; both also went to Neve 1073 mic pre’s, and Deschanel’s vocal took a small amount of 1176 compression. “Nothing’s heavily compressed,” de Reeder points out. “It’s just barely rocking the needle and making sure everything’s in control.” > All of the other inputs went through preamps in Sound Factory’s custom API console, then straight to a Studer A827 24-track tape machine.

"A Studer A827 multitrack is on hand, a remnant of the Booga Basement days, but is hardly touched lately, Tsai says."

Used for *Home of the Strange*, as is visible in this documentary about the album at 3:50. It is bandmate Sameer Gadhia who mentions its use at 3:45. > Today we're gonna be doing drums and we're gonna be recording drums to tape [...]

“We enforce tape recording,” he says. “Pro Tools… [can make] the boldest, ‘fuck you’ punk band turn into the most paranoid weirdos. People get very timid very quickly. You need to encourage boldness and a certain kind of violence in recording.” To capture the violence, he calls upon a curated array of vintage and modern equipment. Microphones by Josephson, AKG, and Coles feed preamps from Ampex and Neve on their way to a Studer 827 2” tape machine before being mixed on either a Neve 5316 or Neotek Elite console patched into an Ampex ATR-102 ½” tape machine. There is no digital conversion in the signal path and Vanderslice likes it that way.

Visible in this promotional video for *Music Is Better Than Words* at 0:07 and at [1:07](https://youtu.be/ayZ6c8WrD5U?t=67).