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Just bought an old cassette recorder, aka hipster machine. What now?.
So I found this beauty in a small town’s thrift store.
It was sitting on a shelf amongst a ton of stuff. I recognized it from some Hainbach video, so I looked it up online. They’re selling for like 170€ and I bought it for 20€ 🙋🏻♂️🤗
Will it work?. Needed a transformer for its actually 120v American (wtf is it doing in a small town in rural Spain?). And it works!.
It’s like the Library Of Congress ones featured in many Hainbach videos. Has variable speed and can play both sides (one in reverse). But this one can record too, it’s even got a built-in mic.
Anyone here that has played with these things before?. I’m gonna watch some YouTube tutorials about making tape loops and off I go.
I’m thinking of hooking it up to the aux of the Tascam, sending stuff from the iPad and recording it back in at a different speed. Maybe “tuning” it with the speed dial.
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Ohh variable speed. Yes, do that. I have it on my Yamaha 4 track, I run a synth sequence in to it on a loop cassette, then mess with the speed control. I think from my recollection of the Hainbach vids you’ll have greater latitude on the speed control. Excellent bargain find.
yes! depending on how low / high the speed can go, you usually easily alter it with a Potentiometer to add even more.
Get an old answering machine cassette, then look at the Gauss threads for ideas. What you have there is an analog version of Gauss (minus the bells and whistles).
My old 4 track I had broke beyond my ability to repair so I gave it to an old coworker. Definitely want to pick up another some day. Preferably one with aux in
I remember when I was writing post and I had all those plans 😂. Reality check after having played with the thing for a while. It’s not that straightforward!.
It turns out that when it records it doesn’t erase the previous content. It sort of overdubs, which is weird and unexpected. Took me ages to realize it was working this way, I thought I wasn’t capable of recording. I don’t have any blank tapes so not a good staring point.
Why answering machine cassette?. Are they different to regular music tapes?. Maybe it’s related to not being able to record on top of the existing… oh my I just purchased a source of obsession…
Answering machine cassettes are endless loops. You can also make your own cassette tape loops if you have fine motor skills and a lot of patience.
I'm wondering if your recorder might have a switch to turn off over-dubbing? That seems unusual behavior for such a machine.
The ones that you record your message to callers on loop, so with the sound on sound thing your unit is doing you’ve got all the fun you need - I wonder if it’s been modded to do that as it’s not generally normal, you either have to electronically disable the erase head or, more simply, use a bit of foil or something to cover it/prevent the tape getting near enough to actually erase… great find for €20!
Sell it for profit on eBay and splurge the money on apps or ice cream.
Do you really want a lumpy hunk of hardware that will eventually break on you? You can get all the "lo-fi" efffects you want these days with software. And the software will give you way more different sounds than one cassette recorder.
Watch Sylvia Massey’s video about using a cassette recorder as a room crush mic on drums.
Maybe one day the hipster machine will be an iPad 1.
That sounds like a plan - gauss and something like chow tape can surely give you your tape fix with with less hassle, more flexibility and more portability. Anything you make with this will end up as a bunch of 1s and 0s anyway! But always a buzz to pick up something 2nd hand that you know to be of more value than the seller realises!
Yeah - worth buying and having a play with, even if you eventually sell it on.
Unfortunately for me, my wallet and my workspace, I love it all, the two worlds of virtual and real are alike in some ways, but vastly different in others, I’m not sure which I’d choose now if I were restricted to only one of them. Maybe if I was travelling, or in a tiny flat I’d be software only, but with the way my life is now, I’m fortunate to inhabit both worlds…
I do wanna like and give it some use.
But it’s not as easy as I thought. Im having some issues and it’s hard to tell because of concurrent factors.
So this particular unit might be good for messing with the speed and getting a super grungy, telephone-like sound. But not usable as a drum crusher or anything that will preserve a decent amount of frequencies.
Step 1: clean the heads.
Yeah that sounds like it needs a clean
Looks like a fantastic unit, don't sell it!
Check if the unit has an erase head that the tape passes before reaching the play/record head!
It looks like a machine made for a very specific purpose, we never know...
We're longing for Lo-Fi like crazy nowadays and you say it's too much?? C'mon 😂
Do it like Hainbach: Be veeeeeery patient, creative, invest enough time and find the best uses for the little pearl.
A lot of stuff that Hainbach uses would look boring in the hands of others.
Can the play/rec head be adjusted in height and azimuth (angle vs tape, usually done by 2 screws and the head mounted on little springs)?
It shouldn't be too difficult to get a properly recorded stereo tape as a reference for adjustment.
And @tahiche what does the tape speed look like? As you know it from other recorders or much slower?
What now? is your question
If you have children let them wreck it with a hammer or a crowbar, good fun for 15 minutes. Or whack it yourself!
I really have no clue how such a piece of junk can be incorporated in a setup. In the days of tape decks, there was pretty advanced stuff on the market. This thing is really a low end device, a voice recorder.
You need to go and look at this German guy called Hainbach on YouTube....
Well for me that is the clue, I am not Hainbach and the OP isn't either... Hainbach probably wouldn't ask this forum what to do with it....
If you don't have the superpower of being able to wear funky retro jumpers in all seasons, you'll never make magic with this. #jumperpower
Wow, ok. Man, you might not want to learn about tape cassettes or Hainbach but it’d be useful if you learned what a forum is for. Tip: asking questions and advice is one of uses.
I’m afraid the hipster vintage cassette might need a “TE Field table” to function properly 😅.
Well I can imagine you record a sound or musical part with this thing, and when you play back you change the tape speed (or other way around, change speed while recording) to get a wobbly lofi Boards of Canada sound, This output you record again, back to your DAW or sampler.
So you can manually manipulate sound with it. It would be nicer if you can automate this process, I see aux in and aux out/earphone on the frontside. I assume this tape machine cannot play and record at the same time? So that would be a dead end.
You could teach them what a tape recorder is and how it works.
🤣 not nice! (but in a good way)
They prefer whacking that stuff. Maybe I have failed as a parent... In my days I used tape to record songs from the radio broadcast. And later taping records to tape. I also had this home computer that loaded games with cassette tape. My kids are 10 and 13 and this application simply doesn't exist anymore in their world of experience. So I can show them but I am afraid it will not make any impression. If they crack open a laptop or an old alarm clock, they see what is inside, circuit boards, chips, wires, springs, that does make an impression how stuff is made.
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