Ableton Forum

I'm trying to thicken up my digital synth and other sounds by bouncing the track to tape and back. I've heard this technique being used and I like the results, but before I go for it I have to ask a silly question (i was born in the CD era).

Will any tape player do? I notice that many of them have 1/4 or 1/8 inch inputs and outputs, but shoudl I go for stereo inputs/outputs ( I hesitate a bit when asking this because the point of the technique is to downgrade sound quality).

heres an example of what I am looking at: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RQ-2102 ... 211&sr=1-1


cheers ( :

That machine is mono. It will definitely downgrade your audio

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... J0BEPMCMAA#

would that do? It comes with the mp3 conversion which is a completely unecessary feature for my needs, but other than that I cannot find very much.

Go and look around second hand shops and the like, there must be loads of old walkmans and cassette boom boxes knocking around.

I guess it depends on what result you want. Tapes, being analogue, will add some analogue flavour to your sound but will also add noise, hiss and other junk associated with tape. I remember doing this years ago recording sounds out of a PC then recording them back in. You can EQ the hiss out but if you want to have a good dynamic it may be better to look at one with a large reel tape. These normally have a higher recording resolution but to experiment almost anything will work.

In fact, if you have an old VCR, that can do the same thing.

Yeah, the question is how much do you want to downgrade the quality?

If you're looking for "analog mojo" you can get it without completely ruining your frequency response, dynamic range, and signal-to-noise ratio. I've had a fair bit of luck with some of the better cassette 4-tracks that run at double the normal speed.

The next step down would be to just pick up an old hi-fi cassette deck, where obviously the quality will be roughly proportionate to the original price.

If you want to destroy the signal, then go ahead and get a cheap portable recorder.

Why stop there though? I have one of my mixer's aux sends hooked up to a dodgy old Fender practice amp, which in turn is mic'd with a SM57. I move that setup around the house depending on what sound I'm after. By messing with mic positioning and the EQ on the amp it's proven to be a surprising flexible lo-fi/reverb effect.

Ideas like that are cool. I sometimes forget about simple approaches to effects. More fun too.

Secondhand, or ebay. Ask some friends or your parents, uncle or something. They likely have one stored away somewhere.

Only reel to reel with at least 15ips speed can give you some nice saturation. The miracle happens when you record your signal with +3dB. It's not distorted as on ordinary cassette tape. It's saturated.
I have from my old times Fostex R8 (0,25" tape) but there are many others decent second hand reel to reel tape recorders that wouldn't cost more then 200-300€.
Otherwise get the PSP Vintage Warmer. Cheaper, cleaner, easier...
And don't waste your time on cassette tape recorders or VCRs.
Greetings.

yeah, vintage warmer is probably a decent alternative, not the real thing obviously, but for a software emulation it's pretty good.

Maybe its just me, but I think WW sounds like poo.
There is a trick to use the casette play head for very nice distortion. Use a casette adapter: Its a casette looking device with an audio cable attatched. Put it in a casette player, and send your audio through it, while record button on the deck is down. Boost the input, record the output.

look for old technics or denon/marantz tape decks that haven't gotten much use. clean the heads (the portions where the tape touches the tape player, look online for clarification) with 90% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol). you will most likely get better results from hunting at a goodwill or 2nd-hand store than anything new. and don't go for the ones like you have shown- those are for voice recording, and will probably be mono. look for a proper deck.

the harder you drive the signal to tape, the more saturation (aka distortion) you will get. hiss is an annoying byproduct with all tape and is generally to be avoided as much as possible, except in cases where you want that hiss for effect.

memes_33 wrote:look for old technics or denon/marantz tape decks that haven't gotten much use. clean the heads (the portions where the tape touches the tape player, look online for clarification) with 90% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol). you will most likely get better results from hunting at a goodwill or 2nd-hand store than anything new. and don't go for the ones like you have shown- those are for voice recording, and will probably be mono. look for a proper deck.

the harder you drive the signal to tape, the more saturation (aka distortion) you will get. hiss is an annoying byproduct with all tape and is generally to be avoided as much as possible, except in cases where you want that hiss for effect.

All good advice, but you forgot to tell him to demagnetize those puppies

Besides those brands (and I really like Denon and older Sony stuff too, before it got all plasticky), those old "semi-pro" Tascam decks are nice too.

Also, if the decks support them experiment with Chrome and Metal tape too (look for switch for type2 or type4 sometimes), you can drive those in the red more. Another trick to brighten up stuff is to record stuff with Dolby B turned on, then playback with it off (this will also bring out the above-mentioned hissiness more s that Memes referred to) and you can mess around with the Dolby C and DBX noise reduction settings too if you have them.

It's definitely not the same "analog" sound quality you'll get from 1/2", 1" or even 1/4", but that doesn't mean playing around with old cassette decks is without merit.


STRATEGY

This is a little bit cheaper than Waves:

http://www.sknote.it/Roundtone.htm

...and it's good!