Studio Pics

[sweepstakes]

I wonder how'd the recorder blend with my md&mnm...

Digital synths recorded to tape can be tasty. Think of how FM sounded in the 80s, for example.

 

regarding tape.. cassettes or whatever..  try slowing down the tape and recording that.. the you can pitch shift and get interesting results.. even with the noise.  something about the analog aspect of slowing the tape down then pitching and time stretching it after.. it's just a different process and _can_ sound cool on some stuff.

All kinds of fun to be had with changing speeds. Like the old jungle trick of playing a record at double speed, then sampling that, and playing it back an octave lower to save memory. Gives it a slightly different flavor, even if you have lots of memory.

 

Sweepstakes, you should get that 424 out, the preamp distortion alone will never not make me grin.  I love it.

Oh, yeah, good call. That would be a fun way to beef up some other things.

 

one of the things I've meant to try for ages is recording a single note on different tracks of a tape at the intervals you'd find on the first four drawbars of a hammond organ, and then running the output through the vocalist so I could use it in its "vocoder" mode (actually 5 voice harmonizing with MIDI control, none of the "intelligent" business) and playing the 4 track faders like drawbars.

Reminds me of this, probably my favorite story of recording a pop song:

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-10cc-not-love

I mixed down 48 voices of each note of the chromatic scale from the 16-track to the Studer stereo machine to make a loop of each separate note, and then I bounced back these loops one at a time to a new piece of 16-track tape, and just kept them running for about seven minutes. Because we had people singing 'Aahhh' for a long time, there were slight tuning discrepancies that added a lovely flavour, like you get with a whole string section, with a lot of people playing. Some are not quite in time, some have slightly different tuning, but musically a lovely thing happens to that. It's a gorgeous sound. A very human sound, very warm and moving all the time.

 

...

 

Then, all four of us manned the control desk, and each of us had three or four faders to work with. We moved the faders up and down and changed the chords of the 13 chromatic scale notes as the chords of the song changed — 13 tracks on a 16-track tape, fed through the control desk faders, back out of the master fader and onto that stereo pair of open tracks that was left free on the 16-track machine.

[spunktronics]

Very nice, what's the console?

Calrec S2 just had it serviced for the 2nd time and its pretty bang on now

[auxien]

Spiral sir I love that room. It looks so well lived in and comfortable.

 

Sweepstakes, what is that pop song story from?

[Guest]

http://imgur.com/a/Xov9M

 

studio ive been building for last 2 years, nearly finished

 

Nice! With a Urei 1176 for respect. ;)

[TubularCorporation]

  Reminds me of this, probably my favorite story of recording a pop song:

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-10cc-not-lov

 

 

 

I'll give you one guess where I first came up with the idea.

[mcbpete]

My studio circa 2013 -

 

[Guest WNS000]

^ lush

[digman]

My studio circa 2013 -

 

 

fuck yeah man, whens the album drop?

[pizza]

My studio circa 2013 -

 

 

clip from The Making of Analord

[Leon Sumbitches]

Haha, I remember seeing that when it was first uploaded and it periodically pops into my head when I'm making tracks or whatever

 

"music... muuusic..."

 

Also, on the subject of Portastudios/4-tracks, I've recently discovered this dude's Soundcloud, he does 4-track cassette stuff with a real '60s Ennio Morricone soundtrack/library music vibe and it's great: 

 

https://soundcloud.com/springreverb-1

Edited September 19, 2016 by Leon Sumbitches

[TubularCorporation]

Haha, I remember seeing that when it was first uploaded and it periodically pops into my head when I'm making tracks or whatever

 

"music... muuusic..."

 

Also, on the subject of Portastudios/4-tracks, I've recently discovered this dude's Soundcloud, he does 4-track cassette stuff with a real '60s Ennio Morricone soundtrack/library music vibe and it's great: 

 

https://soundcloud.com/springreverb-1

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing that.

[Braintree]

Digging that soundcloud. Makes me want to do something similar.

[peace 7]

Damn, that soundcloud is fucking sweet.  Thank you.

[delet...]

 He's really dedicated, good on him.

[Leon Sumbitches]

Scooped one of these from Cash Converters today, it's an early '90s Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2:

 

 

Very much one of their lower end models but internet consensus seems to be that even bottom-end Naks knock everything else out of the park in that price range. Originally went for £350 or so in the UK; I paid £70 for mine and I'm well chuffed with it. Took some jazz stuff I'd taped off the radio and it sounded lush, also took some Marvin Gaye stuff for a spin on it and it just sounds so lovely. Haven't recorded anything on it yet but I'm hoping to use it as an end destination for stuff I've recorded on the Tascam. The Portastudios record at half-speed to increase the quality so you can't play back a tape at the right speed on a regular deck, hence you have to mix down the final product to an external machine. Obviously I could just record stuff off the Tascam onto my laptop but that's no fun... Very much looking forward to fooling around with this wee deck. Hugely impressed by the sound quality thus far.

 

Some external part of me is watching as I get progressively more nerdy about this stuff, lol.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Leon Sumbitches

[sweepstakes]

The Portastudios record at double-speed to increase the quality

/pedantry

 

(soz)

Nice Nak, btw. Been meaning to pick one of those up. Rented a house a few years back from a lady who had one. Gorgeous machine.

[sweepstakes]

Spiral sir I love that room. It looks so well lived in and comfortable.

 

Sweepstakes, what is that pop song story from?

Sound on Sound interview with 10cc about "I'm Not In Love", which btw has always been one of my favorite pop songs, even before I understood anything about recording.

[TubularCorporation]

Scooped one of these from Cash Converters today, it's an early '90s Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2:

 

 

Very much one of their lower end models but internet consensus seems to be that even bottom-end Naks knock everything else out of the park in that price range. Originally went for £350 or so in the UK; I paid £70 for mine and I'm well chuffed with it. Took some jazz stuff I'd taped off the radio and it sounded lush, also took some Marvin Gaye stuff for a spin on it and it just sounds so lovely. Haven't recorded anything on it yet but I'm hoping to use it as an end destination for stuff I've recorded on the Tascam. The Portastudios record at half-speed to increase the quality so you can't play back a tape at the right speed on a regular deck, hence you have to mix down the final product to an external machine. Obviously I could just record stuff off the Tascam onto my laptop but that's no fun... Very much looking forward to fooling around with this wee deck. Hugely impressed by the sound quality thus far.

 

Some external part of me is watching as I get progressively more nerdy about this stuff, lol.

 

 

Great find!  I've had a CR-1a (another of their lowest end early 90s models) for a long time, found it in someone's trash about 12 years ago and it's always worked and sound great.

[TubularCorporation]

 

The Portastudios record at double-speed to increase the quality

/pedantry

 

(soz)

 

 

Depends on the model, as far as Tascams (the ones I've encountered the most) the Syncaset rack units were double speed only, most of the Portastudios recorded at standard and double, but the 424 MKI has three speeds, they added a half speed option for getting more continuous recording time at the expense of quality. I don't know of any other 4 track that has a third speed.  Tascam dropped it for the MkII. I've never used a Portastudio that didn't do standard and double speed, though, but other brands and lines were sometimes double only.

 

If you have one that records at standard it's convenient for bouncing, because instead of bouncing 3 tracks to a 4th mono track you can mix down all 4 to stereo on a second cassette on any standard deck, then put the mixdown cassette in the four track and have two more tracks to overdub.  There are usually small issues with alignment and speed being a little off but that's part of the sound, and not really worse than the quality loss from bouncing internally, just different

Edited September 24, 2016 by RSP

[sweepstakes]

Right, my 424 has half, normal and double. I just meant, if you record at half speed, it's actually lower quality. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_tape_specifications#Tape_speeds

[sweepstakes]

I'm no expert on tape but I think a good analogy might be printed letters. As the letters get smaller, the ink starts to blot and the words get harder to read. Similarly, moving the capstan slower is records more changes in amplitude on the same section of tape, so the magnetic charge weakens and the sound reproduced by the tape head is degraded.

[xox]

Right, my 424 has half, normal and double. I just meant, if you record at half speed, it's actually lower quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_tape_specifications#Tape_speeds

Yes, basically just less kbps

[purlieu]

Digital cassettes.

[TubularCorporation]

Right, my 424 has half, normal and double. I just meant, if you record at half speed, it's actually lower quality. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_tape_specifications#Tape_speeds

 

 

Yeah, I misread your post, then responded, then realized I'd misread and hoped nobody would notice.

 

Although sometimes that lower quality is actually higher quality, if you know what I mean.

Edited September 25, 2016 by RSP

[Guest Chesney]

High fidelity is less legit sounding. It's weird how it works out when it gets to the listeners ear.