Max The Tape Recorder's Third Album
More technical infos
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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Tracks 1 & 2: "Spooky" and "Temple" Tape: Realistic Supertape - 7" - 3600' (0.5 mil) Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Radio-Shack's Realistic Supertape was a low budget tape of medium quality for general consumers, but this particular thickness (0.5 mil) was surprising, it has quite a high output and is very rich in high frequencies (well I know, it was 30 ips, but still...) I recorded 2 pieces on this tape ("Spooky" and "Temple"), and more than half of the tape was remaining but couldn't use the rest, unfortunately this tape stayed in a very humid environment in the past and the rest of the tape was more or less usable, I in fact had a hard time finishing the 2nd piece because of that. |
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Tracks 3 & 4: "Nice day" and "Jam" Tape: Realistic Supertape Cassette - Type I Normal bias Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Tascam 238 Recording speed: 4.2 ips --- These 2 pieces are the first recordings I made on the (newly acquired) Tascam 238; After this recording I discovered a few tricks to make Type I tapes sound better with the machine, since they're not high-bias tapes. |
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Track 5: " Heavy load of fear (like often being used) (discouraging...)" Tape: Ampex 631 - 5" reel 600' 1.5 mil Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- The Ampex 631 is often referred as a "voice tape" since it probably dates from the 1960s era, however at 30ips with Dolby C it gives very good results, depending on what you want to do with it (if it's 2 track mastering then I would suggest later tapes, unless you're looking for that particular sound). |
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Track 6: "46/48" Tape: Capitol - Type I Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Tascam 238 Recording speed: 4.2 ips |
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Track 7: "Will someone open the damn door??!?" Tape: Scotch 145 - 5" reel 600' 1.5 mil Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips |
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Track 8: "I smell a Grammy!" --- This is an experiment where I took an old VHS videotape cassette (it was either a Fuji or Sony, I forgot) and cut the tape in half to make it 1/4" wide; I believe this kind of tape is high-bias, therefore the Fostex E-8 had a hard time erasing what was previously recorded, so I used a magnet in order to do so. Very thin tape and yet quite resistant, I had no trouble with the tape transport on the E-8 during playback and recording, however since the tape's width was manually cut it was not always 100% 1/4" so I had a hard time with the fast-forward or rewind, the tape sometimes "jamming" in the capstans... It's a good thing I saw that before recording, as I had to cut a few splices where the tape got damaged because of that! Incredibly high response for the high frequencies at 30ips (!). |
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Tracks 9 to 12: "Weird and cute little jam" etc... Tape: various unknown brands segments Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC A-3340 Recording speed: 15 ips --- These pieces were recorded using the TEAC A-3340 4-track machine at 15 ips; This is the first machine ever (made in 1973) intended for home multitrack recording. |
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Track 13: "Dinosaurs mating time" Tape: Audio Plus - Type I Normal bias Tape's state before recording: new (unopened) Machine used: Tascam 238 Recording speed: 4.2 ips --- No offense to the manufacturer but this is one of the worse quality tapes out there ahah! But after calibration of the Tascam 238 and recording at 4.2 ips (pitch at max) it gave relatively good sound, surprising. But if you record with it at the normal speed of 1 7/8 ips then I hope you're not looking for too much high frequencies... ;) This tape was for very low budget consumerism, and was sold brand new for $1,49 (and on sale at $0,99!) Good for small "boombox" radio or voice recordings. |
© 2009 Max Songs Club