In the past I printed to an Akai reel to reel (1/4") but in all honesty it sounded way too good for what I actually wanted as I was aiming for a more lofi mastered output. I sold the reel to reel and went back to my old Fostex 4track and that gives me more what I want.
Legowelt does this with his tracks too (I think he has a Tascam 4track) There is a video of him explaining his working process on youtube. Basically creating a decent mix (master) then record it live to tape and then back from tape to a single stereo mastered track in your daw. Time consuming but worth it. Videos of musicians making or talking through their music
I just recently acquired a Heat+fx so I am experimenting with how to make it sound bad in a good way.
I also use plugins - Reels by Audiothing and Cassette by Wavesfactory. Overall Reels can colour the sound a lot more depending on how you use it whereas Cassette can be a bit more transparent but both can make significant differences depending on what you want. The nice thing about these plugins is that you can automate shittiness and ironically make that boring digital sheen sound very alive again.
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