Post by ocarolan on Jan 25, 2014 11:24:56 GMT
I could have posted this in any of several sections really, but I've plumped for this one. Rooting around in the depths of a drawer of old cassette tapes recently produced some interesting finds! I thought it could be an insight into home recording techniques from 30 years ago!
This is a very old recording from around 1982 of a cheesey instrumental of my own devising. I used my then newly acquired Fostex X15 4 track cassette tape recorder and my also then newly acquired Squier JV Strat and Aria elctric bass;
app.box.com/s/0g465cza528jg0kd48x9
Not having any electric guitar type pedals, or even an amp at that time, the guitar and bass were both recorded directly into the tape deck, monitoring on headphones. This works fine for bass, but the Strat tone is somewhat thin as a result.
The harmony leads are a bit wobbly in places thanks to bouncing tape tracks to get more than the 4 the machine allows. I think that on this recording there's a strummy track, an arpeggio track, a lead track probably doubled and a harmony lead track as well as electric bass and biro-on-pad-of-paper percussion.
For the benefit of those used to simple computer multitracking, the method was to record up to three tracks then bounce them onto the remaining empty one, freeing up the original three for more music, and so on. Tape hiss build up, as well as speed fluctuation become more obvious the more bounces that are done. All a bit Sgt Pepper in miniature but with considerably less talent! usually best to record the most prominent things last to minimise the number of bounces on those tracks.
The Fostex used standard cassette tapes which normally had four tracks available - prerecorded tapes used two tracks (L&R for stereo) to play one side 1 and the other two to play side 2 in the reverse direction after turning the cassette over. Blank tapes in this machine could record all 4 tracks in one direction and hence were not playable on a standard cassette deck until remixed in stereo onto a standard recorder.The machine was quite versatile though, and it was especially useful to be able to adjust the mix in realtime whilst bouncing within the machine. The final result then had to be recorded onto a separate tape deck if it was to be played on anything other than the Fostex.
Never was satisfied with my acoustic guitar (Guild D35 at the time)recording via microphone on this set up despite using a small diaphragm condenser mic (of dubious quality..?). Even bought,in desperation, a cheap Ovation copy by name of Clarissa so I could record directly onto the tape. Needless to say this didn't sound particularly acoustic, but it wasn't too dissimilar to the then familiar Ovation sound at gigs.
This is all very crude by today's standards/possibilities/equipment but was pretty nifty for it's time - I couldn't afford a Teac Portastudio or the Akai reel-to-reel jobbies that were also around, but it served my purposes well enough then. It was a huge step up from recording onto Teac cassette deck which had an "overdub" button that allowed one overdub and resulted in two separate tracks and that was it. I used to record these out onto a separate tape deck and put the result back in the Teac for one more overdub, giving three tracks, but that was about the limit before things became very unmusical.
In the mid 1960s I had made folky type recording on things like domestic reel to reel tape recorders (Grundig as I recall), usually with friends. We sent one of our tapes off to a firm that made vinyl LPs out of submitted tapes. Quite a thrill getting that done - even sold a few at school. I'm sure my brother has my copy somewhere - must repossess it and have a listen (with huge embarrassment no doubt)sometime when I eventually get another record deck.
Any more nostalgic recording/memories/anecdotes out there....?
Keith
This is a very old recording from around 1982 of a cheesey instrumental of my own devising. I used my then newly acquired Fostex X15 4 track cassette tape recorder and my also then newly acquired Squier JV Strat and Aria elctric bass;
app.box.com/s/0g465cza528jg0kd48x9
Not having any electric guitar type pedals, or even an amp at that time, the guitar and bass were both recorded directly into the tape deck, monitoring on headphones. This works fine for bass, but the Strat tone is somewhat thin as a result.
The harmony leads are a bit wobbly in places thanks to bouncing tape tracks to get more than the 4 the machine allows. I think that on this recording there's a strummy track, an arpeggio track, a lead track probably doubled and a harmony lead track as well as electric bass and biro-on-pad-of-paper percussion.
For the benefit of those used to simple computer multitracking, the method was to record up to three tracks then bounce them onto the remaining empty one, freeing up the original three for more music, and so on. Tape hiss build up, as well as speed fluctuation become more obvious the more bounces that are done. All a bit Sgt Pepper in miniature but with considerably less talent! usually best to record the most prominent things last to minimise the number of bounces on those tracks.
The Fostex used standard cassette tapes which normally had four tracks available - prerecorded tapes used two tracks (L&R for stereo) to play one side 1 and the other two to play side 2 in the reverse direction after turning the cassette over. Blank tapes in this machine could record all 4 tracks in one direction and hence were not playable on a standard cassette deck until remixed in stereo onto a standard recorder.The machine was quite versatile though, and it was especially useful to be able to adjust the mix in realtime whilst bouncing within the machine. The final result then had to be recorded onto a separate tape deck if it was to be played on anything other than the Fostex.
Never was satisfied with my acoustic guitar (Guild D35 at the time)recording via microphone on this set up despite using a small diaphragm condenser mic (of dubious quality..?). Even bought,in desperation, a cheap Ovation copy by name of Clarissa so I could record directly onto the tape. Needless to say this didn't sound particularly acoustic, but it wasn't too dissimilar to the then familiar Ovation sound at gigs.
This is all very crude by today's standards/possibilities/equipment but was pretty nifty for it's time - I couldn't afford a Teac Portastudio or the Akai reel-to-reel jobbies that were also around, but it served my purposes well enough then. It was a huge step up from recording onto Teac cassette deck which had an "overdub" button that allowed one overdub and resulted in two separate tracks and that was it. I used to record these out onto a separate tape deck and put the result back in the Teac for one more overdub, giving three tracks, but that was about the limit before things became very unmusical.
In the mid 1960s I had made folky type recording on things like domestic reel to reel tape recorders (Grundig as I recall), usually with friends. We sent one of our tapes off to a firm that made vinyl LPs out of submitted tapes. Quite a thrill getting that done - even sold a few at school. I'm sure my brother has my copy somewhere - must repossess it and have a listen (with huge embarrassment no doubt)sometime when I eventually get another record deck.
Any more nostalgic recording/memories/anecdotes out there....?
Keith