Max The Tape Recorder's Tenth Album
More technical info
My fun with the "Max The Tape Recorder" albums is to recycle and record on old tapes (reel-to-reel, cassettes etc...), often made for "consumers" and not necessarilly for professional applications (although I sometimes use pro ones too, and the tape quality varies depending on the era it was made), and I try to get the best out of them using multi-track recorders.
I generally try to calibrate the machine as best as I can for the tape used, although sometimes I may also experiment on this side:
of course the Tascam 238 8-track recorder for cassette tapes was made to use only CrO2 Type II chrome tapes, other types of tapes can also be used with a few technical tricks.
These albums are where I go crazy and experiment with the technical aspects, and the music also.
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Track 1: "Open yourself" Tape: "ReVox FX 46" - Normal Type 1 position tape Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips (Both of the machine's pitches at max) --- Beautiful cassette. |
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Tape: Memorex (1200' 7" reel) Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips |
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Track 3: "3 little tunes" Tape: 3 different 3" tapes (one Sony PY-3A and 2 unknown brands) Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Very small tapes all recorded at the very high speed of 30 ips (inches-per-second). On one of them I could only record ~45 seconds! |
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Track 4: "Revealed garden" Tape: Fuji Film (1800' 7" reel) Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Rare Fuji Film reel-to-reel tape, very good quality. |
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Track 5: "Tape entour-loop-ette" Tape: (loop experiment) Machine used: Yamaha MT-120 4 track Recorder Recording speed: 3 3/4 ips --- After I saw Justin Lakes' beautiful "tape labyrinths" photos I wanted to do one myself. This is a tape loop (very small lenght of tape played over and over again) on which I recorded. I first had to do the "labyrinth" on which the tape would travel, which took a lot of patience. Then cut a small tape part from a high quality Maxell XLII-S Type II Chrome cassette, then fix the tape around the small plastic rollers. I then recorded 4 tracks on this loop of tape, played the loop while muting or playing one or more of the tracks which produced this little experimental electronic track. You can see
the video here. |
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Track 6: "Haunting the haunter" Tape: Memodyne CAS-2H Digital Cassette Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- This tape was made for computers. |
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Track 7: "Beat fill-up" Tape: Scotch 295 in a 10.5" Memorex metal reel Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 60 ips --- Yes the Fostex E-8 can go up to 60 inches-per-second if you play with the motor's settings inside the machine! The reels looked like they were going at fast-forward! The faster speed at which you record the lesser bass there is, so you can hear in this little recording experiment that the bass is inexistant in the very low range. |
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Track 8: "Saperlipinpin (Repousse Kim Oxyde)" Tape: Protek Chrome SCX-II - Type II Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips |
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Track 9: "J'aimerais" Tape: Ampex Grand Master Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Widely used high quality tape in the 70s/80s. Backcoated tape with the "sticky shed" problem so it needed to be "re-baked" before recording. |
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Track 10: "Will we ever make peace?" Tape: TDK SM30 Type II Professional Tape Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips |
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