Three Reasons to Produce Music on Tape in the 21st century
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 24. 07. 2024
- I'm not a purist. This is subjective. These are my main reasons why it's fun to produce music on a TASCAM 4-track portastudio.
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Subjectively nailed it đ
SUBJECTIVE đ
@@MadeOnTape Haha
@@MadeOnTape I say that your subjectivity is imperfect
@@MARTIN201199 đ
A cassette 4-track instantly gets me closer to The White Album sound than ProTools, and that's a sound I've been chasing since day one. Cassette is still your most accessible ticket into the analog world. Great vid as always. âïžđ
thanks for watching David! love your 4-track and 8-track music!
@@MadeOnTape Thanks so much, man.
Dude you are a great breath of fresh air
you're very kind!
Im watching this video for the third time. Your channel is like a favorite tv show
thatâs awesome to hear thank you! love this community thatâs building
Im an analog man. There are many reasons for analog mixing, tape, and vinyl, but if nothing else, physically working with your equipment and handling your music, experiencing your music, creates a much more intimate and genuine experience. You get it man! You get it! I think our minds may work similarly. I'll see if I can get my setup uploaded if you care to look. I've been focusing on a podcast project lately though. I'm an analog man.
heck yes! iâm down: send me anything via instagram @madeontape or email madeontape@gmail.com
I love how angry people get when you tell them you record on tape lmao like, itâs always Full Sail University graduates who donât understand tone or how to use their ears. Tape forces me to focus and get the sound right on the way in. You SHOULD do that with digital as well, but with Tape, you HAVE to. There is metering, but you canât see the waveforms like you can on a monitor. Itâs great ear training, and like you said, the workflow is much more fun in my opinion. DAWs have more flexibility in editing and are more forgiving than working with analog formats, and with that said, I think that the format is irrelevant as long as you know what you want to accomplish within the parameters youâve chosen. Iâm a very hands-on person, and I made a whole album in my DAW and wasnât happy with the results, but then I started getting more familiar with my Portastudios and R2Râs, and my whole perspective changed. All of a sudden, I was having fun making music again. It took me going through all of that to realize how much I hate editing things in post, and how tape just suits my preferences so much better. To anyone reading, If youâre on the fence, but youâre interested and have a little extra cash, look on your local CL (Reverb is way too expensive these days), find a Portastudio and just try it out. You may be surprised how much you like it. Thank you for everything you do, I love your channel â€ïž
Thank you for sharing! I love this comment. At the end of the day, anyone who gets angry about music is just a sad person. This is literally art, and fun (not diminishing the serious social issues that music can bring light to...)
Thanks for watching!
I experience the same anger, and don't make many friends on either side. On one side you have the analog purists who spat upon anyone that dares touch a computer and keyboard. On the other side you have full on digital or nothing crowd where PCM is GOD and analog tape is SATAN. I think the benefits of analog is when you combine the two. Bridge the gap between the digital and analog world. That's what I find most interesting about modern digital technology with analog tape and film for photographers.
@@benkleschinsky even having said what I said, I couldnât agree more with this ^ I use tape as much as I can, and then use digital for final editing and safe storage when Iâm recording my own projects. Itâs a great way to conserve tape, thatâs for sure! I see benefits to both, so it would be stupid not to use them! Theyre all just tools that are at your disposal, the performance and the song should always be the most important part
@@nintendoor1 100%. At the end of the day they are just creative tools to produce works of art. It shouldn't matter how something was done. As long as it produces the results you are looking for. I shoot with film photography as well, and the film community can't fathom why I make corrections in Photoshop. Why not have the best of both worlds? Some folks are just angry at the world.
Hey man, I have the same Teac deck, I am hoping to hook it up to a Tac Scorpion console. I can't believe I only just found your channel. Right on man. Sweet videos.
I 100% agree brother. I just picked up a tascam portastudio mkIII a week ago and started recording and itâs been an absolute game changer for me after twiddling around in my DAW for years. It has def helped me greatly in regards to easy instant high quality sound, hands on workflow and visceral connection to the creation of the music. And of course forcing me to finish things in a sense as well when the cassette is run up! Love the content you create, please keep it up! Subscribed!
thanks for this comment and the sub đ
let me know if thereâs anything youâd like to see covered here!
I thoroughly enjoyed this video! I learned a few things, thank you! I agree with all the comments! I'm definitely going to get into it. Hopefully you put out some more videos
more videos coming and i appreciate your nice comment đ€
Love your vibe mate !!!!
thanks so much for watching!
Loved hearing your perspective on this topic. It's a big one, for sure. I mean ... I know it's still very much a niche in the world of recording. But for those of us involved in it, the question is a big one.
ultimately when it comes to art,
you gotta follow your heart
2021?!! How the duck did I ended up being so ahead into the future?? Wait a minute, are we already in 2023???? DAMN!
lol I need to change the thumbnail maybe đ
I agree with the workflow part. I have an Alesis HD24. Basically a big digital portastudio. It's all wired through my Allen and Heath Gl2200-32. For me it was like going back to my days of large multitrack tapes. All effects are outboard. Very simple workflow. I still master in Mixbus.
Great thoughts here. I totally concur. Much of it is hard to explain, but you did it well.
thanks for watching and listening đ
I have that exact same TR 505 drum machine as well as the same Tascam Portastudio.
they are very fun
Totally awesome!
thanks for watchin!
Exact reasons why I have my 414 and love using it!
đŒđŒđ€
I love the TR-505 =)đđ Love cheers to yaÂŽâŻâ€ BTW đ The entire universe is in away inperfect itÂŽs in flux for unexpected things to happens, that whats the tapemaschine captures from one that operates it, good mistakes bad mistakes,.i ramble but it so freeing to hear you talk about this topic. đ†from Sweden.
thanks again for watching! Yes that's exactly why I love these machines!
Man, might be one of your best, I donât think I could have said it better. Like another viewer posted, Iâll just send folks this video rather than getting on my tired old analog soap box again. AND (have to share with somebody đ€·ââïž) my Porta Two arrived over the weekend! USPS did manage to break it, but the seller refunded some of the price, so Iâll get it fixed up and rocking in no time đ€đ». Canât wait to check out your next episode đ€đ»
oh man i'm sorry to hear about that mail fail...what a drag. hope it gets fixed!
@@MadeOnTape thanks, though Iâm not short on 4-tracks, so I can be patient (for a little). Rock on đ€đ»!
Sir, extremely underrated channel. Subbed!
thank you! welcome to a growing community đ€đ
I love audio cassette tapes any types đ
they are super fun đ€đ»đ€đ»đ€đ»
Totally agree about the sound itself. I always tell people, for me with little effort I get the sound I enjoy. I never could on a computer. Like you said there are wizards out there, but I am not one.
Also..
Thereâs no updates that outdate your computers operating system.
iâm the guy who updates his OS like four OSâs later đ
@@MadeOnTape same.
nice statement!
Welcome back bud. While I am very comfortable working in the DAW,
I absolutely agree that the sound is awesome. I was wondering if you could maybe take a mix that was done all in the box, and then run it out to the tape machine and print it back in and see if it imparts that beautiful character. Iâd love to see a video of that!! đđ»đ
that's a good idea and i'm not sure on which side I'll fall when it's done!
@@MadeOnTape I love the sound you are getting with that Tascam!! I would love to be able to run my mixes through something like that and impart that sort of natural compression of the tape, and then print it back in so it can be obviously uploaded for streaming etc.
@@TheGarageRecordingSC it's a great topic idea that i'll cover soon!
@@MadeOnTape awesome brother can not wait for that!!!!
It's been a while...
i'm back! sometimes life grabs you for a couple weeks and you can't make youtube videos hahaha
don't worry, no one died. more videos coming down the pike, too. thanks as always, Mark!
I have cassette tapes I mixed back in the early 1980âs and they were played many hundreds of times and they still play well today. I have countless albums that are too scratchy and the CDâs have the same problem with scratches and irritating skips that never can be erased or advanced beyond the skipping.
iâm sure iâll be collecting cassettes soon!
@@MadeOnTape Donât wait, many types have already disappeared from the market for good. Metal tapes especially are getting more rare and the price is skyrocketing.
I can give you a reason to record on tape that isn't subjective. MOVEMENT! Tape is moving at all times, just like the human body is always moving when it listens to music. When you are at a live concert, your body makes subtle and even subconscious movements to help your ears find that "sweet spot" to listen to the music. Analog playback brings back that movement! Its not magic, or mojo, its MOVEMENT!
đș
I love your channel! Iâm having a problem maybe you know why! I plug my akai 1700 into a vcr to record. The monitor signal is clean after the recorder. But when I play back the volume fluxes đ I cleaned the vcr and tried it with just a mixer plugged in and recording and play back sounds great! So something about putting the akai in between the mixer and vcr I have problem no matter what I set the input levels are set at. Itâs driving me maddd đ
ooooo unfortunately without being there i canât really help. what youâre describing is like 90% of what music engineering is and itâs frustrating đ
I hope you get it to your liking đđ»đđ»
In the digital/tape comparison you did, l noticed the bottom end sounded more fuller and had more 'spread' on the tape than what was on the digital. Why don't you do a new release on 7" R2R at 7.5 lPS? l'd buy it. lol Peace!
thank you so much! thatâs high praise! Iâll probably do a R2R release down the road đ
My 3 reasons; I like tape. I wanna record 2 tape. I grew up with tape.
love it!
That is the true side of music: accidents, imperfections and, off course, no-right-path!
đŻ
Agree with all 3 reasons 100%.
if you had to pick one, what would it be?
@@MadeOnTape Workflow all day long. Anything in the way of creativity should be removed from the room immediately imo.
are you gonna use the reel to reel machine more? its a nice piece.
absolutely ! i have a list of topics but if you have any suggestions tell me!
â@@MadeOnTape you should go through a list of effects you can make with r2r tape. kinda like that rob scallon video.
I dig your opinion.
i dig your comment.
Question for you man: I'm in the process of making a more hybrid mix setup. I am going to route all of my ins outs from an analog mixer through my interface...most of the music will be in the digital envrionment, but each track will be routed through each respective channel of my mixer prior to reaching the speakers. I won't do much volume adjustment, panning, nor EQing in the box...rather that will stay stable in the DAW and only adjusted externally on the routed signal through the mixer. Can I just utilize an external tape deck to route my master recording through at the end...record from the mixer into an external tape deck...then, record the cassette recording back into my DAW--will this give essentially the same vibe as using a TASCAM multitrack cassette recorder?
i wonât say it will give the exact same vibe but if it inspires you, you should definitely try it!
@@MadeOnTape Awesome man thanks for responding to several of my comments thus far. I'm really amazed at the cost of the multitrack recorders, like the one you use from Tascam. Have they always remained this expensive? It seems the only ones that are cheaper all have some sort of issue or haven't been tested and may not be worth the risk.
@@fluorophoremusic3679 there was a time when they were very inexpensive, but a lot of folks have amnesia when it comes to the original cost of these machines. If you see a fully serviced machine for like $450 today, remember that it probably cost $600 or $700 in the 1980s. (well over $1000 in today's dollars)
I'm very privileged because I use my father's machine that he purchased the week I was born in 1987. Hope this clarifies a little! thanks again for watching
I'm about to decide between a 4 track or a 8 track cassete. Do you think a 4 track sounds better? Why? Congrats for the channel
you know, i have to be honest and admit iâve never used an 8-track cassette
iâve listened to many recordings! what specific machines are you looking at? That would be a bigger factor to me
cheers! thanks for the kind words!
@@MadeOnTape tascam 488 seams to be a little bit thin compaired to a tascam 4 track. I consider also the yamaha mt8x
Sick of iLock. Sick of updates. Fresh rubber. Fresh belts. Roll with no issues, whenever you feelz
i hear ya! Thanks for watching!
*sends video to bandmates to justify my reasons for using tape*
đŒđŒđ
5:14 I felt insulted. Dangs.
all love to my score readers, i've been one myself đ dig me some Stravinsky and Bernard Hermann
@@MadeOnTape I'm too deeply into baroque music
Great video and ethic! For the past few years Iâve been beginning to favor darker mics and darker, warmer sounds. I had the original TEAC 144 from 1979 which to my eternal regret, I sold to an edm guy who was going to use it for composing loops. What makes it worse is that the Tascam was METICULOUSLY cared for and maintained by the previous owner who sold it to me. No need to replace rubber parts etc. I cry. AnywayâŠI miss seeing those VU meters!
Now I have a great all-in-one digital workstation (circa 2004) with which I am trying to remain dawless, only using the built in compressors, fx etc⊠which are decent enough. I recently bought a dark sounding ribbon mic because Iâve been toying with the idea of recording an album digitally, but only using the ribbon mic to make the songs sound âA.M. Radio.â I just donât like modern, bright mics anymore. I donât like the hifi sound anymore. I want the album to sound like a warm cozy wooly blanket on a cold winterâs day whilst nursing a thick hot chocolate. Does this make sense? Has anyone else tried using a ribbon mic to record a whole album? Am I onto something here? Will I ever escape the âdigital black?â
i hear you re: âbright micsâ
I favor ribbons and dynamics for most of my recordings, but a beautiful clear LDC is a great tool as well. You should definitely try a whole recording with ribbons! i bet it would sound awesome đ€âïž
Why? cus tape is awesome and better than digital