Synthtopia: How to use a Tascam Portastudio as an Instrument!

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/09/16/how-to-use-a-tascam-portastudio-as-an-instrument/

This technique could easily be duplicated digitally...but the fact he's going all analog with it gives it that super vintage vibe.

Anybody got one of these 4 track recorders laying around? One you wouldn't mind parting with and shipping to me?? ;) :D

Cheers,
-S1gns

[aoVI]

I have an old Yamaha MT120--it has 4 independent 1/4" in/out, variable speeds, and I love it--use it for dumping down my ancient stuff from the 80's and early 90's.

here's one on ebay for under $40 with just 3 hours or so to go...

and another with a few days to go

and another

Edit: outputs are actually RCA, but independent, as well as a mono send/ stereo return

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

I actually recreated this digitally this morning, all in Live, using my new APC40mk2! Best jam session I've had in awhile.

Sure, it didn't have that ultra old school tape deck vibe, but it was still super fun and it showed me a new way to compose a piece. Seriously, why didn't I think of this before?

I saved my session, showed it to Phase47 and he's like "SAVE IT! Bonus track on our next album!" :D We'll see.

Thanks for digging those ebay links up for me! :mrcool:

[seismic1]

Do you have any tape emulation plugins? They should be able to help you get closer to "that" sound.

[seismic1]

That's probably a silly question. Ø47 has a copy of SDRR iirc

[Thought Experiment]

That's probably a silly question. Ø47 has a copy of SDRR iirc

I think you're right - I know he made some presets for it which are tres cool

BTW, I find SDRR indispensable - since I got it, I've used it on every track I've made - not on every instrument (although it's tempting to do so) but usually at least on the drums bus.

[seismic1]

I've used FerricTDS and SDRR in the past, but seem to be making some use of Satin these days.

[windspace]

I have never used another tape effect emulation, but I really like what Satin does for my tracks. I really don't know what I'm doing with Satin either, but I play around until my ears are happy

I don't have the CPU to employ it on many tracks unless I freeze some tracks, but I almost always at least use it on the master track.

I am going to try to recreate this 4-track setup with Reaper and Satin. I recently acquired an MPK49. I am building a Reaper template for the sliders and pots. I am thinking that I can add three instances of Satin on the master - one for tape delay, one for tape reverb, and one with neutral settings and the mod wheel midi mapped to the tape speed control. We'll see...

[GaryG]

I played around with these techniques a few years back (hell, must have been late 90s...)

Some REM tour film had footage of Mike Mills recreating the Star Me Kitten vocal pad with an 8 track cassette portastudio, I think each track was a different note. So i tried on my fostex 8 track digital thing (dmt-8-vl something something...) recording different guitar drones then mixing between them. Very cool but I never saved the sessions (only so much room on a 540mb drive...)

[KrisM]

I actually have the blue Tascam, a 414mkII (and used to do all my recordings on a 488mkII, but that 8 track beast takes up so much space...). Picked it up from an older guitar player for $20 a bit over a year ago.

Never used it like that, though. Excellent idea, and really cool. Plus with the right reverb/delays going off the mixer, you could swap tapes when you needed to.

National Audio Company sells brand new, high quality cassettes for about the price of, or cheaper than, eBay NOS stuff.

I should be able to do this with my OP-1, too, with the added ability to loop parts of the Tape, and then I can jump around to different sets of chords/notes/etc using the jump to bar feature

**edit** I can.

[Phase47]

That's probably a silly question. Ø47 has a copy of SDRR iirc

I think you're right - I know he made some presets for it which are tres cool

BTW, I find SDRR indispensable - since I got it, I've used it on every track I've made - not on every instrument (although it's tempting to do so) but usually at least on the drums bus.

Thanks! The SDDR is a fantastic plugin. My immediate reaction to testing it and then later while designing those presets was, "okay it can do some great saturation and more kind of effects, but let's get some subtle colorations going too." Some of the presets in my bank are pretty subtle, but can make a big difference on a group or pre-master bus.

I think it does a fab job of different kinds of hardware summing colors/gluing. And yeah, on the drum bus, it can yield magic.