Modern day tape players / recorders

Icoustik · February 15, 2018, 9:45am

Norwegian Leonardes from the Deluge community

I’m gonna try one of those myself today!

andreasroman · February 15, 2018, 11:06am

Bring a review here when you have, I’m curious to see what these offer, especially in the character department.

darenager · February 15, 2018, 11:35am

A very good vintage deck that is reliable and has spares still available is the Sony TC-D5 range, I have a TC-D5m it records with great quality, built like a tank, beautiful design and nice and compact, they can be expensive but for good reason and they were expensive new anyway, a classic. Also similar but in a walkman format is the Sony WM-D6c which I also have, I do not use it as much and mine is in need of a service but when serviced it is a solid recorder also, I prefer the TC-D5 form factor though.

Edit - just realised I already mentioned these above, ha #attentiontodetaildefecit

jb · February 15, 2018, 1:16pm

This thing is cool too if you haven’t seen it

http://www.analoguehaven.com/landscape/humancontrolledtapetransport/

For the lazy

I was considering buying a portastudio the other day cause they’re cheap at the moment, I saw this video and thought it was pretty sweet. I ended up just replicating it in the octatrack using 4 recorders and controlling track levels with a midi controller. Someone on the comments suggested using looping answering maschine tapes for endless loops which sounds cool. I still want to get a cassette player for sampling though

Jukka · February 16, 2018, 3:38pm

I’ve tape looped with cassette tape before. Just take a busted cassette (which is most of them – ok that’s exaggeration) and open it up. The ones i used had screws so that was easy. Take the little tape reel out –
i think i kept the plastic spindle connector part in the middle. Then i would just cut pieces of prercorded tapes at random and use (sticky) tape to connect a loop – tape on the non-magnetic side away from the read head. Just make sure the tape loop runs through the pinch wheel capstan. Cassette tape is slow so it can be a pretty short loop. The ones i did didn’t last more than an hour or so, but they were fun and i had good results. I’d recommend using a junk cassette player too.

Reel to reel tape is easier to splice and that’s fun too, just like all the old and amazing stuff like “It’s Gonna Rain” by Steve Reich (notice the stereo effects with this.) Or the original Dr Who theme from 1962 performed by Daphne Oram done with test oscillators and hand build distortion boxes and a ton of tape manipulations. Oram is a goddess of mine.

I like that Human Controlled Tape Transport thing jb.

CORRECTION: It was Delia Derbyshire that did the Dr Who as VanillaSun points out in the next post.

ADDED:

Oramics a very cool synthesizer invention by Daphne Oram (off topic)

A hand drawn waveform scanning machine from 1957.

VanillaSun · February 15, 2018, 7:21pm

I thought Delia Derbyshire was the creator of the original Dr. Who theme? She’s my tape temptress

Jukka · February 15, 2018, 7:29pm

You are correct my error. I do know this – sometimes! I love them both. And they both did plenty of stuff with tape and both worked at the BBC. I got confused reading the wiki page on Oram.

Jukka · February 16, 2018, 5:25pm

Delia Derbyshire – Falling

Icoustik · February 17, 2018, 7:44am

It was pretty good actually! Lots of character I’d say.
It has an input level indicator for recording and USB connection is nice for bouncing recordings back to the computer. Got lots of nice analog overdrive when cranking the input.
I only tried it with standard tapes (Maxell UR’s also from Kjell&Co), it’ll probably be extra nice with high quality tapes

t3h · February 17, 2018, 11:16am

This tape player looks like rebranded Grace Tape2USB1 or Tape2USB2 (onboard microphone) that you can see the review by VWestlife https://youtu.be/dtCeRTfEwd0

andreasroman · February 17, 2018, 11:12pm

These are all very cool. But I wish someone did this in style as well, like them old Tascams or Sonys. I’d pay good money for that.

Francis · February 17, 2018, 11:20pm

The zvex lo fi loop junky is based on an old answering machine chip. Sounds really nice has a very distinct quality but only 12 seconds and not cheap.

AAdra · February 18, 2018, 6:40am

I think this happened

andreasroman · February 18, 2018, 6:43am

Trust the hipsters to get it all wrong, every time.

Just bring back tape. No nonsense, quality stuff made in style. Wake up grandpa if you have to.

Noisebuddy · February 18, 2018, 7:36am

@andreasroman
great topic … I’ve got a very slim one back in the days, the size of a tape, thank you for bringing back those memories

TonyDS_1 · February 18, 2018, 8:28am

I love my grandpa’s Realistic tape deck… . He took great care of it.
I trashed my tape decks with a skateboard in the early 90’s… teenagers…

t3h · February 18, 2018, 11:42am

Tascam has promised to bringing back cassette deck CDA-580. They say it’s ‘pro’ instrument but the specs are just mediocre. http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2017/04/07/messe-2017-tascams-new-cassette-deck-and-more/
No idea about the deadlines

TonyDS_1 · February 18, 2018, 11:44am

They are available:

But… pricey

Scot_Solida · February 18, 2018, 11:55am

I am planning to grab one of these for my studio in the next couple of weeks. I have the older (non USB) version in my home stereo cabinet. I may very well replace it with a second CD-A580 if I like it.

jb · February 18, 2018, 12:31pm

Damn, that’s cool. more expensive than its worth though for me, The last thing I need is another looper so I’m a bit biased, it sounds really cool though. Reminds me a bit of that warped vinyl pedal but more hiss and less… watery? They both sound great to me. I wonder if I could mod an old answering machine with a tremolo for similar effect. It’s a shame with pedals that I can only ever find guitar videos, I’d be putting all sorts through them