The Bottle Garden analog studio cultivates unique music
In a basement in Mile End, Montreal bands are shunning digital and cutting tape instead
New technology just isn't as inspiring for musicians as it used to be.
Vinyl made its comeback and now tape is being rediscovered as a way to record music.
The Bottle Garden analog recording studio in the Mile End neighbourhood was created over a period of eight years by members of the critically-acclaimed band Freelove Fenner.
"The sound is different," The Bottle Garden's Peter Woodford said.
"And tape costs money so you have to be decisive. You can't make unlimited tracks."
They built a lot of the equipment in their basement studio by hand.
But he added that neither digital nor tape recording is necessarily better than the other.
As for the tape used to record, Woodford said it isn't in short supply just yet. There are still two manufacturers in the world — one in the U.S. and one in France.
The Bottle Garden studio's Caitlin Loney and Peter Woodford join Jeanette Kelly on Cinq à Six Saturday, March 26, at 5:05 p.m. on CBC Radio One.
With files from Cinq à Six