Tape Recorders

[Invisible Man]

Yeah, I know there's a whole subforum devoted to this, but there's no one there.

I have an audio interface, and I kinda hate it. Also, I have no DAWs or audio software...I have a laptop for work, and I can't get the goddamn IT guys to give me the admin password to download whatever I want. So I think that's out the window.

Anyway, I really want to get back to the immediate, knobby, one-take kind of stuff that I used and loved when I first started recording. None of this 'digital bouncing of tracks' nonsense that I had to master to use a Fostex; no real editing after-the-fact, &c. So I'd need to overdub stuff, as I mostly make all the sounds myself.

Instruments/sounds: modular, guitar, bass, other strings (uke, banjo), assorted percussion, and tons of drums or all shapes and sizes (many of these are processed by pedlols). I think I'm good on mics--never use more than two at a time. I have a little 4 channel mixer, too.

Any reasonably affordable options out there for simple analog recording? I'm really going for ease of use here. Sound quality is important, but not the 'most' important feature. I have two little kids, and, on the rare occasion that I'm able to get away to be weird and noisy, the last thing I want to do is open my fucking laptop and fool around with an interface.

Summary: cheap, needs two tracks (with overdub features), simple to operate. Any ideas or reviews?

[D.o.S.]

You're not going to want to hear this, but there's a reason cheap DAW interfaces have replaced most of the cassette stuff of yesteryear -- they sound better, they're cheaper, etc.

This is cheap and looks real easy:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP008EX

[rustywire]

Non tape recommendation: Treat a DAW as if it were a tape machine. Skip the rabbit holes of plugins and complicated side-chaining.
I like Reaper for this purpose, a license is something like $60 and well worth it. Or if you want to go the free route, Audacity. But I seem to get better sounding recordings with the former in apples to apples comparisons.

Are you looking for open reel solutions or cassettes?
Cheap 4track/cassette portastudios are generally shitty, and now they're (largely) overpriced, not nearly as practical because of hipsters.
The good ones (Tascam 244, 246, 464 etc) are still worth consideration... but aren't nearly as budget-friendly as they were a few years ago.
Also it's become increasingly difficult to find one in well-kept condition. They will likely need work.

[Invisible Man]

Yeah, you're right. I've used a bunch of DAWs (Pro Tools, Audacity, Ableton, GarageBand), and I get the appeal. I just don't want to do it anymore.

The one you linked to is a lot like the Tascam and Fostex machines I've used in the past, which isn't a bad thing. I just want something mechanical that I can mess with. Seems like it is unlikely to happen, but thought I'd float it out there.

Non tape recommendation: Treat a DAW as if it were a tape machine. Skip the rabbit holes of plugins and complicated side-chaining.
I like Reaper for this purpose, a license is something like $60 and well worth it. Or if you want to go the free route, Audacity. But I seem to get better sounding recordings with the former in apples to apples comparisons.

Are you looking for open reel solutions or cassettes?
Cheap 4track/cassette portastudios are generally shitty, and now they're (largely) overpriced, not nearly as practical because of hipsters.
The good ones (Tascam 244, 246, 464 etc) are still worth consideration... but aren't nearly as budget-friendly as they were a few years ago.
Also it's become increasingly difficult to find one in well-kept condition. They will likely need work.

Good thinking. I've always used DAWs as simple recording interfaces--no real effects. Maybe I've got this wrong, and I could use one of those new controllers that came up in a recent thread (GAS Party, probably). Basically, I'm saying that I cannot handle making music with a mouse or keyboard right now. I need some different tactile input. So if anyone has ideas/products for getting someone up and running quickly with a laptop as, essentially, a storage space...I'm all ears.

Cassettes do seem to sound terrible. But I listened to this recently (Tobacco's 'Gods in Heat') which is all recorded to tape...sounded super fun. So I'm picky. I really just want to stop mousing around.

http://songexploder.net/tobacco

[D.o.S.]

I know you know this but recorded to tape =/= cassettes. First Jesu record's guitar tone is a POD... into a (then) $2,000 preamp.

[rfurtkamp]

If you want something stupid, just get one of the $149 Tascam digital 4 tracks.

Will have faders and knobs, and sound better realistically than any basic junker 4 track you get your hands on that goes through tapes like sin.

Treat it like one - don't get in the rabbit hole of editing.

I just use a DAW like a tape recorder myself, I even still leave 10s of academy leader at the start of a track and always will.

[Invisible Man]

I know you know this but recorded to tape =/= cassettes. First Jesu record's guitar tone is a POD... into a (then) $2,000 preamp.

Yeah, I glossed over that distinction in my last post. I think the Tobacco record was literally recorded to cassette. That seems extreme to me...and vaguely 'hip,' which is not my thing...if I could get my hands on a 2" reel-to-reel, I'd flip out, but I assume that's true of most of us. But that podcast did get me thinking about how much fun I had before I tried to do a 'good job' with recording.

Now you've got me thinking about my old POD (and the reverse-engineered Behringer V-Amp I had before that)...

I even still leave 10s of academy leader at the start of a track and always will.

Hahaha this is like the 'save' icon still being a floppy widget. I have 18 year-old students who have no idea what that image is, nor do they care. It means 'save.'

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

older digital 4/8 tracks are the super cheap ones these days. got my fostex for like $25 i think.
u could prob find a cheap cassette one, but like was said they are going up up in price, and up up in age. maybe have better luck locally?

whats already been said about treating your xyz(whatever you're using) as whatever you actually want it to be definitely. theres nothing that says you need to use all the features just because they are there!

[coldbrightsunlight]

I am with you in terms of in the market for a simple hardware recording solution for different reasons (my wrists hurt horribly when I use a PC do I only do it when necessary at work these days).

Those little digital Tascam things look perfect, tinier versions of the cassette 4 track my old band did some of my favorite sessions with. For me there's something really cool about the limitations of 4-8 tracks and not having to boot up a computer and plug in an interface etc that I find it a lot easier to make music. Definitely want to pick once up.

[D.o.S.]

So I dug into it a little bit, and based on the press it seems to be somewhat negligible -- recording to cassette doesn't actually tell you anything about what homie used to record the instruments, just that he bounced it to a cassette before he put it (in a DAW, from the read) down for mixing. And that's the POD example, right? It's all about the whole chain, not just a particular element (even if the hiss is pretty noticeable on that Tobacco record)

Another album that does that (and it's fucking amazing) is this one, complete with gratuitously long title:
https://celer.bandcamp.com/album/how-co ... ll-my-life

Wherin

Several years later, after leaving California, I put together a collection of tracks made with an electric piano and a wooden flute. Two tracks were copied onto two sun-baked cassette tapes I had found on the dashboard of a car, and the other two from a warped 12" test pressing. Revisiting these pieces after living in Japan for several years, they instantly reminded me of the trip, and what I left behind in the United States. The tapes fluttered and stuck, drenched in hiss and grime. The record skipped, wavered, and dropped in and out. Yet with these imperfections, it completely reflected my memory of the places, and what they represented

Mostly, though, I think the value here is in the priming (in the Meyer/Schvaneveldt sense).

[popvulture]

I totally feel you... sometimes when I sit down in front of a DAW, there's a huge disconnect. Despite being a massively powerful piece of software, my brain will just... I don't know how describe it... not want to engage with it, I guess. It sucks.

But yep, faders, knobs, something fairly self contained = immediacy. They help, or at least they help me. Maybe check out one of Tascam's smaller offerings. Just looked at their site—maybe the DP-006 would float your boat.

[JonnyAngle]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TASCAM-DP-01-Di ... SwAuZX1yT7

I have one of these and love it. Not tape, still digital, butstill awesome

[Invisible Man]

So I dug into it a little bit, and based on the press it seems to be somewhat negligible -- recording to cassette doesn't actually tell you anything about what homie used to record the instruments, just that he bounced it to a cassette before he put it (in a DAW, from the read) down for mixing. And that's the POD example, right? It's all about the whole chain, not just a particular element (even if the hiss is pretty noticeable on that Tobacco record)

Another album that does that (and it's fucking amazing) is this one, complete with gratuitously long title:
https://celer.bandcamp.com/album/how-co ... ll-my-life

Wherin

Several years later, after leaving California, I put together a collection of tracks made with an electric piano and a wooden flute. Two tracks were copied onto two sun-baked cassette tapes I had found on the dashboard of a car, and the other two from a warped 12" test pressing. Revisiting these pieces after living in Japan for several years, they instantly reminded me of the trip, and what I left behind in the United States. The tapes fluttered and stuck, drenched in hiss and grime. The record skipped, wavered, and dropped in and out. Yet with these imperfections, it completely reflected my memory of the places, and what they represented

Mostly, though, I think the value here is in the priming (in the Meyer/Schvaneveldt sense).

In which case I could just record to a DAW and then run the mix through a Warped Vinyl or Generation Loss if that were the only effect I were after. So 'cassette as effect'...hm. That does throw a wrench in my thinking.

[Inconuucl]

This reminds me of a stupid idea I had for a tape preamp, basically like a tape delay in that it reads and writes at the same time, but it does it continuously into a digital recorder, then latency adjusted.

[Invisible Man]

This reminds me of a stupid idea I had for a tape preamp, basically like a tape delay in that it reads and writes at the same time, but it does it continuously into a digital recorder, then latency adjusted.

I did this when I had a Moog MF-104M...record it with a fairly long delay for the preamp/tone coloration, then just time-adjust it back to 'the one.'

Which, of course, would not be possible without a DAW.