#67

For me it’s a few reasons…

  • I like to avoid using a computer as much as possible.
  • I love the sound of tape. Hiss, saturation, compression, warmth, wow and flutter, the frequency response, random artifacts and drop outs. Most of what I do is synth based and I try to do as much as possible to give the synths a warm and natural character. Recording the synths through analog gear, with a mic, and then to tape helps tremendously in achieving this sound.
  • Pitch. I either slightly wiggle the pitch knob as I’m recording back into my DAW for a more wobbly/bendy sound or I just play things back at half speed. Half speed can give you some amazing results.
  • Tape loops. They are fun to make.
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#68

Same for me, points 1 & 2 in particular. Removing the computer from the recording process brings me much more pleasure in making music, once I hit on something i like i just hit record and go with it. Then I can transfer to the computer later, inheriting all that lovely crappyness from the cassette medium for editing and mixing etc. These are two very different mindsets for me and separating the compositional/structural editing and EQ’ing from the creative part has proven to be the best way for me to work with my modular.
If I want to write a more conrete structured piece of music and track it to tape I will generally compose with beatstep/keystep and track to tape, with less edits to do, if any at all, once on the computer.

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#69

i’ve been using a sony clear voice tape recorder (with various length loop tapes) in my rig for the past year or so. i love the way it can add texture, dimension, and a bit of unpredictability to a live set. i’ll often get a bunch of loops going on my other gear (ehx 22500 looper, op-1, modular), record the output of the speakers into the cassette recorder, and then layer the cassette recording loop underneath.

the playback speed control can be useful too for half speed, or more performative effects:

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#70

Agree 100%: I found the process of “producing” music on the computer sapped my creative will, and recording things became a chore and endless tweaking to “get it right”.

1 Like
#71

This thread gave me some interesting new ideas.

My question is now: Is anyone using a belle epoque pedal from catalinbread or something similar like the original ep—3 Tape Echo for manipulating sound, for a more analog sound. I thought casstte players manipulating sound, might be related to a tape echo manipulating sound.

Can you recommend this idea?

#72

Cassette players manipulating the sound would sound similar to a tape echo with actual tape in it. I’ve not used the Belle Epoque pedal, so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but there’s a nice randomness about actual tape “screwing up” the sound, that in my opinion, can’t be achieved as well by an algorithm in a digital world.

1 Like
#73

I just started recording my modular directly into a Tascam Portastudio 414mkii and I’m getting some very unpleasant distortion. It’s not happening all of the time but when it does happen it’s pretty bad. I tried sending the audio through an attenuator first but it didn’t fully solve the problem. Any advice on the best way to record modular to a multi-track tape deck like this?

#74

Have you tested the portastudio with anything else? If not, the first step would be to find something that records without distortion and then figure out what output that was…

#75

Yep, just recorded some bass guitar and it sounds great. Seems to be specific to the modular.

#76

So if it’s not happening all the time, is it only happening at the loudest moments?

#77

Modular can output well over +4dBu line levels. Up to 15v. This can easily exceed the input levels of a line input on a mixer. You need an attenuator or, ideally, a modular-to-line output module to adjust the voltage accordingly and in some cases provide a suitably low output impedance too, esp when driving sensitive or vintage effects.

#78

It depends on what you want, and there are tons of great ideas, but what about space echo? Too the question above, yes I have used a tape ech, and it’s very easy to manipulate sounds.

#79

I do the same thing - I’ve had no issues with my output sources being Clouds and Tangle Quartet. But yeah modular runs pretty hot so you just have to pad the output a bit.

#80

What pre-amp module as used?

#81

A Ladik Line PreAmp.

#82

Oh, like the A-520? Do you need to bump the levels in any way? Granted I’m a bit new to all this but I’ve never heard of a pre-amp that can split all 4 separately.

#84

I just got a Ladik 4 channel line output and I have the outs permanently running to my 4 track. It’s keeping everything nice and tidy.

1 Like
#85

I’ve made 3 cassette loops recently and all three of them have large drop outs in the audio where it loops. The tape itself looks physically perfect. The scotch tape is on the inside of the cassette tape as it should be. I’ve try this with two tape recorders and there is a drop out every time. What else could be causing this to not loop seamlessly?

I think maybe this has something to do with the erase head? Maybe I need to block it with something?

#86

Yeah, you can put tape over the erase head, but that didn’t really work very well for me, so I opened up my recorder and just disconnected the erase head completely

#87

exploring the ways of Fostex 280 with modular in live / minimal / improvisational context right now