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Not wishing to top a conversation or anything like that, but…
When I was a teenager, and living in Australia for a while in the late ’70s, I bought cheap reel-to-reel machines (they were in secondhand shops, dusty and neglected, for almost no money) and had two big humming valve ones (mono) (really dilapidated, only just working), and a third little transistor portable one (ditto). I also had a razor blade knife, and a roll of splicing tape (never had a splicing block, just used a broken cassette lid). Yep, you know where this is going. Tape loops. I was making actual loops. Of tape. That was the thing to do. I’m sure I’m not the only one here with reel-to-reel tape loop skills (z).
Brother I love hearing about other guys (or gals) experiences with tape/analog. It makes me very grateful for all of the power and convenience we have and I try not to take it for granted or lose the sense of wonder.
But analog had its charms too, tape loops and reverse recording especially. Backwards reverb was always a cool trick, Page used it alot.
Did you ever get super long loops going, like 6 feet plus of tape or more? Even though we can accomplish loops, reversal, etc. within seconds, there was a character analog brought to that stuff...
Did you ever sample any later in life and what were the loops like sound wise?
Be cool...
At that time one of my most played albums was No Pussyfooting, Fripp and Eno. I very much imagined I could do the same (conveniently forgetting about any necessity to actually know how to play an electric guitar). I didn’t manage long tape loops, and those cheap knackered reel to reels were just basic consumer models from the previous decades, and didn’t have separate play record erase heads (that would only appear on pricey upmarket stuff or pro stuff). The usual arrangement is a combined play/record head with a separate erase head just prior to it. That means you can’t easily take a signal off the tape (with a play head) and combine it back onto the tape (with a record head just a few cm away). With a longer loop, you’d be playing on one deck and then combining back on the other deck quite a lot later. With longer setups, I just couldn’t ever get the tape to stay on the guides!
I did eventually in the ’90s get an Akai sampler, and after a year or so of trying out sampling Jocelyn Brown and Loleatta Holloway, same as everyone else was attempting at the time, realised that for me, sampling was one of the most boring and tedious activities around. Maybe that’s why I’m not well stocked on sampling and looping iOS apps now, preferring synthesis itself. I suppose it was a phase I had to go through.
This is what most of the late ’90s and early ’90s as we all know it was made from — samples from these two songs: (see how many famous hits you can recognise in these two tracks alone).
Damn... Now i want to buy a cassette deck, so which one?
...and also CDs.
I've heard people make claims about cassette tapes being warmer than CDs or whatever, but we all know the human tendency to add extra justifications/window dressing/etc on top of the fundamental motivation; because humans love to be dramatic sometimes.. The real, bottom line reason is:
It's just cheaper to make cassette tapes.
As a music consumer, if I see a touring band I try to avoid buying their tapes if I like their music - I ask if they have a Bandcamp link or something then buy the digital download - or I buy a t-shirt (unless the t-shirt looks really terrible). I just don't have a working cassette player at the moment.
Most cassettes I buy at shows come with a download link.
Is that the one which was part of the "home studio" which included a little analogue drum machine ??
as far as i remember this was a standalone unit. no other devices were a part of it from what i recall...
That is f. superb! In fact, it’s more than fairly superb, it’s the best thing I’ve seen all year so far today.
Reel to reel..
I used to tour with a group I did music for back in the early 90s and the show had two songs (just instrumentals, the artist did not lip sync) that were all on open reel tape. Believe it or not, I would "scratch" the beginning of each song with the reels like this cat does and then drop the play button to start the song.
The crowd would go nuts.
I didn't have to do that, I just did it for show, and it wasn't something you would see from someone rapping back then.
I read about this dude on Reddit awhile back, the video apparently from a 1991 DJ Mixing competition. The Latvian kids couldn't get Technics turntables so they used tape machines that as the video shows they modified.
Looked like he had the playback head mounted on a spring loader or something...badass! We touched on it earlier in the thread how sometimes your limitations technically can actually be a good thing, but this is on another level.
That's really something. I'd give A LOT to know what that dude's doing today...
JRSIV are you still using the tascam recorder ?Is it still a good way to go ?
I'm guessing that I'm older than most here at 46. I come from the old Skool. Cassettes were analog, which produces a much warmer sound. Which is sadly has been lost in technology.
Actually, you’re probably younger than most (source: we’ve been through this one before).
@ugb1 : I still have both of my original Tascam PortaStudios, the 424 four track and the 488mkII eight track, but they're boxed up in my studio. I will still get them down in the future but right now I have like 10 songs that were started on the eight track years back that I'm in the process of finishing with my current iOS studio setup.
The bass, main drums (kick, snare, hihat) and a few guitars are mostly on the songs so they're benefitting from analog warmth, etc. but everything else gets better fidelity with digital. It's a hybrid technique I've used before with PC DAW's not iOS yet, so that's been cool.
With Auria it's been so easy, since I usually had rough mixes/stems of the instruments on stereo CD/.wav files, so I just import them in and overdub, mix, etc.
As far as Tascam, Fostex or Yamaha cassette multi tracks bought new today it is all going to be new old stock, if you can find it, because nothing in that category is even made anymore. Tascam's SD card multitrack PortaStudios are so close to a DAW just without visual feedback that there's no mojo to be had there really. Auria, Cubasis, etc do so much more than those digital PortaStudios can anyway.
If you want to experience working with older analog tape for a decent intro fee check eBay of course, because they have so many different types of used cassette machines. Also try local newspaper classifieds to see if they're listed that way. Sometimes a really choice unit will be being sold for peanuts because someone judt wants rid of the machine, mainly because of the technology now.
Last thing is to have your expectations in check when using cassette recorders. The sounds played back are not going to be like a 2" 24 track. Yes they're both analog, but its wiser to go into cassette recording knowing it's limitations and appreciate it for its own sonic characteristics.Be cool...
Thank you
The days when a 4-min. song was inexplicably cut in half, due to the limitations of the format.
Great stuff!
My Steely Dan "Aja" was the last 8-track I held on to.