vintagesurfdude wrote:
I'm wondering if/where you can get quality tape cassettes?

There's no such thing

Slightly off topic but pertinent to retro recording....

I had the good fortune of hearing Glyn Johns speak last night at the Nashville Public Library in support of his new book Sound Man.
It was an informative and entertaining event that gave some great insight to the accomplished engineer/producer's career and thoughts on recording.
Not surprising: He still favors analog 16 track and doesn't care much for individual tracking, prefers a whole band playing together. He also remarked about not being very fond of the "fix it later" mentality that is prevalent in today's recording environment.

Cool stuff, great guy and what I'm sure will be a great read.

Cheers,
Jeff

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

Hey guys, is there any way to get an "old record" sound or similar while recording on garage band?

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New EP Louder Than Life available on bandcamp and website.

I'm such a noob, but if you Google Penetration by the Pyramids,and listen to the one that shows an image of a white record, I really like that sound! Any ideas for a total beginner? Thank you!

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New EP Louder Than Life available on bandcamp and website.

CrazyAces wrote:

Cool stuff, great guy and what I'm sure will be a great read.

Cheers,
Jeff

Thanks for that tip Jeff; I will be getting his book. Plenty of time comrade; da, vinters are lonnnnnnnnng up here.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

I'll probably just order it & it can go on the shelf next to Clapton's book. Inter-library loan around here used to be great & the people were real ferrets but they changed their mechanism and now it.... well, like a vacuum cleaner.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Glyn Johns recorded many albums for The Who: check out his blog

Glyn Johns- Blog

and his discography

Glyn Johns Discography

Last edited: Jan 14, 2015 14:26:51

I know I'm resurrecting an older thread, but this is a cool discussion for me. In my days of playing I have gone from using a cheap old Realistic desk unit tape recorder to old Fostex and Tascam cassette 4 track recorders to having the opportunity to record in some professional analog studios on great machines with 1" tape to home recording myself first with various computer programs and then computer programs in conjunction with digital 8 track recorders.

I still have a couple of digital recorders, but maybe some of you will get a kick out of this: my latest recording project is a long distance one--my best friend in Texas lays down drums and guitar on an old cassette 4 track, sends me the tape and I dub bass and organ over it using an old Fostex X-12 cassette 4 track.

Yes, the recordings have some hiss and room noise...you could call it lo-fi (or even no-fi) but somehow it sounds...right, at least for this project.

We are doing a mix of originals and a few covers, all instrumental, in the spirit of the instrumental guitar rock he and I both love from the mid 50s to the mid 60s...everything from rockabillyish stuff to surf to fuzzy garage rock instros.

I don't know what kind of drum kit he is using, but all the guitar is done with a Danelectro U1 reissue guitar through an ancient Alamo tube amp and for a mic--on both the guitar amp and the drums--he is using a mic he gutted from an old WW2 surplus army bullhorn!

Since his end of thing includes some of the hiss and room noise (I'll call it "ambience" -har!) I usually track the bass and organ directly into the tape 4 track I am using, just to cut down on the extra hiss a little. Sometimes I go straight in with the bass, sometimes I run bass through my little practice amp into the 4 tracker.

I can't tell you how much fun this has been. he's talking about having some vinyl pressed up sometime soon. In the meantime I think he is considering putting a cassette release together. As someone mentioned, there is actually something of a resurgence of tape culture/cassette-only labels and such. I don't really understand that, but what the hey.

Really, the results are often pretty sloppy--we do most everything in one take, leave mistakes in unless they are too glaring even for us to handle. Typically I'll get his tape, listen to part of a track, go "Okay, I think I got this" and lay something down. Bone simple. Caveman style.

It's rough and as I say, the sound quality is far from professional, but somehow it comes together nicely. The tracks so far have a nice, atmospheric quality I think.

Not saying I'll never go back to digital recording or other, higher quality methods, but this really has been a blast, and so easy.

Last edited: Aug 14, 2015 14:42:41