Direct-to-Tape Recording Company (DTR) was founded in 1979 with the goal of capturing the sound of a performance as you would hear it if "you were there".

Although the recording media have changed from the open reel and cassette tapes we originally used in 1979 to PCM digital in 1982 and later to Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and now to hard disk recorders, our philosophy has remained the same. DTR recordings are normally recorded with two microphones to capture a natural sound and the acoustic space of a performance. We use no equalization, compression, limiting, or other electronic tricks and gimmicks that can spoil the sound. Very few splices (if any) are used within each movement or piece in order to capture the musical "soul" of a performance. The results of these efforts are recordings which duplicate, as closely as possible, the sound you would hear if you were at a live performance.

The music we are recording (primarily classical, jazz, and light classical) is served best by our recording techniques. By using only two microphones we avoid the myriad problems which occur with multi-track recording. Some of these problems are basic, such as microphones placed closer to an instrument than normal listening would dictate. An example you may have seen on some pictures of recording sessions is microphones placed under the lid of a piano! Have you ever tried to listen to a piano that way? The sound is not good--the piano was made to be listened to at a distance. When you listen to a group of instruments, whether an orchestra or even just two instruments performing together, you need to be back far enough to hear the "ensemble" created by the sounds of the instruments blending. Yet as part of that ensemble the instruments still retain their individual character while contributing to the whole sound. Multi-miking destroys that ensemble which occurs in a performance, since instruments (or sections of instruments) are separated. The "blending", if you can call it that, only occurs in the electronic mixing.

DTR recordings capture the ensemble of the instruments, the room acoustics, and the integration of the room acoustics with the sounds of the instruments. The result is a recording which sounds very close to what you would have heard at a live performance. It is the best way to record acoustic performances of any type of music as far as obtaining a more musically and esthetically satisfying recording. But the burden is that the "fixing" that can be done with multi-track recordings is no longer available, so more skill is required of the performers.

Music is an emotional experience. Our recording technique helps convey that emotional experience from the performer directly to you, the listener. A performer has to be good to record using our method of a total of only two mikes, since the opportunities available with typical multi-track recordings to "fix" the recording are not readily available with our method. The results are worth it. We call it conveying the "soul" of the music.  Multi-track recording is a valid solution for music specifically intended for it, such as rock and roll, but classical and at least some jazz, folk, and various other types of music benefit from the use of only two microphones.

We originally offered DTR recordings on real time duplicated cassettes and a wide variety of open reel formats. We later added PCM digital tapes and were, in fact, the label with the largest available PCM digital recorded tape catalog in the world. Later we changed to DAT and had the same distinction with the DAT format. Our primary format, however, is now the compact disc.

Our goal remains the same after these many years: to produce recordings that capture as closely as possible the sound as you would hear it at a performance.