I've recorded four short guitar songs on a cheap cassette tape recorder

Claude_Ruelle · June 2022

Hello everyone,

These a the four guitar jams recorded in may for the intros of my little youtube videos.

It's a lot of fun to work on a cassette tape recorder and I love to use it to record demos. I also definitely recommend it as a practice tool.

I like to think that each jam is a reflection of my mood during each week of the month. May had some chill and happy moments as well as sad ones. Some days were sunny, others were rainy and windy. All of these things seem to have made it into these short little songs, hope you enjoy them.

Claude

thecolourbox · June 2022

Really enjoyed listening to that, thank you for sharing. I always love the idea of recording stuff straight to tape/portable recorder/etc rather than the massive overcomplications I tend towards, playing live takes and overdubbing, but I lack the restraint sadly.

Love the clean sounds on The Folks Waltz

digitalkettle · June 2022

Nice...the joy of watching the tape wobble about and the advancing counter...4-track really focuses you.

BillDL · June 2022

Back around 1984, a few years before I was able to buy a Tascam 4-track Portastudio, I used to capture my ideas on acoustic guitar using two moderately sized "ghetto blasters" (before they got huge and rounded off). Sitting on the toilet seat lid in a tiled bathroom with the door open I would record the first part just using the internal stereo microphones that were surprisingly good, and the hard walls gave some nice reverb. I would then play that back while recording on my other tape deck while playing another part. I could do up to three parts before the quality went badly downhill. It's a totally different way of recording when you know that you don't have separate tracks to "undo" and you have to get it right first time. I still have some of those experiments on cassette tapes, but I don't currently have a working cassette player to check and see whether the tape has deteriorated over time.

Claude_Ruelle · June 2022

BillDL said:

Back around 1984, a few years before I was able to buy a Tascam 4-track Portastudio, I used to capture my ideas on acoustic guitar using two moderately sized "ghetto blasters" (before they got huge and rounded off). Sitting on the toilet seat lid in a tiled bathroom with the door open I would record the first part just using the internal stereo microphones that were surprisingly good, and the hard walls gave some nice reverb. I would then play that back while recording on my other tape deck while playing another part. I could do up to three parts before the quality went badly downhill. It's a totally different way of recording when you know that you don't have separate tracks to "undo" and you have to get it right first time. I still have some of those experiments on cassette tapes, but I don't currently have a working cassette player to check and see whether the tape has deteriorated over time.

That's awesome that you still have your old tapes! Who knows there might be some musical gems in there

spark240 · June 2022

Claude_Ruelle said:

BillDL said:

Back around 1984, a few years before I was able to buy a Tascam 4-track Portastudio, I used to capture my ideas on acoustic guitar using two moderately sized "ghetto blasters" (before they got huge and rounded off). Sitting on the toilet seat lid in a tiled bathroom with the door open I would record the first part just using the internal stereo microphones that were surprisingly good, and the hard walls gave some nice reverb. I would then play that back while recording on my other tape deck while playing another part. I could do up to three parts before the quality went badly downhill. It's a totally different way of recording when you know that you don't have separate tracks to "undo" and you have to get it right first time. I still have some of those experiments on cassette tapes, but I don't currently have a working cassette player to check and see whether the tape has deteriorated over time.

That's awesome that you still have your old tapes! Who knows there might be some musical gems in there

This was me too ,….and yes I Have plenty of old
tapes !

BillDL · June 2022

@spark240 ; I don't know what age you are, but I also used to sit up late at night listening to my radio cassette player trying to tape songs as they were played by Alexis Korner and te show hosted by Paul Jones from The Blues Band. There were some real gems (mostly older style blues) played by those two.

victorludorum · June 2022

Ooooooh that hiss! It's part of the charm I hear you say...

It only seems to be prominent on Track 1. Did you use Dolby for the others?

Claude_Ruelle · June 2022

victorludorum said:

Ooooooh that hiss! It's part of the charm I hear you say...

It only seems to be prominent on Track 1. Did you use Dolby for the others?

Yeah, love that hiss. It's more prominent on track 1 because I had a lower input level when I was recording. For the other tracks, I've managed to find a sweet spot with the input gain.

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I've recorded four short guitar songs on a cheap cassette tape recorder

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