So I heard a whisper on the wind that a few guys round here are using their 303 with a cassette 4-track at the mixdown stage. This is exactly what I've been planning and I've ordered a Tascam 244 to carry out this task. Since I'm a devotee of oldschool East-Coast mixtapes and 12"s, I thought a little cassette distortion might bring some extra flavour to my production.
So does anyone have any tips in using a cassette recorder with the 303, or how to get that fat distorted 90's sound on tape?
Basically I want to get my shit to sound like THIS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuf-wShOLg
Thanks in advance for any tips.
303/Cassette 4-track Setup
Moderator: TGN
303/Cassette 4-track Setup
"I had to take the young general, I couldn't turn out the holy man, I couldn't stop the wind from blowing and the air from being as clear as crystal; and I couldn't hide the mountain."
Re: 303/Cassette 4-track Setup
Hi,
I'm at work right now and can't play youtube vids. I'm just starting to explore tape worlds and experiment. It is not so easy to purchase a 4-track in my country, furthermore on a budget. So I went with a simple tape deck (some kenwood) which accepts type II tapes. Now i record tracks into computer (usualy about 4 tracks) and then record the final mix to the tape so that tape deck meters are in red (maxed) either by rec volume knob on the tape deck, or by master out knob on my audio interface. This way shit gets distorted. This is only one way, there are still things i haven't tryed out.
I'm at work right now and can't play youtube vids. I'm just starting to explore tape worlds and experiment. It is not so easy to purchase a 4-track in my country, furthermore on a budget. So I went with a simple tape deck (some kenwood) which accepts type II tapes. Now i record tracks into computer (usualy about 4 tracks) and then record the final mix to the tape so that tape deck meters are in red (maxed) either by rec volume knob on the tape deck, or by master out knob on my audio interface. This way shit gets distorted. This is only one way, there are still things i haven't tryed out.
Re: 303/Cassette 4-track Setup
personally i truìied that with my 303 and my yamaha mt120 4 tracks recorder.
i used a CRO2 (position chrome) cassette (that's the best for tracks recorders); i wanted to recreate some analog feel as Boards of Canada. so i recorded drums and synths on the 303, compress the whole and recorded on the mt120. then resampled everything on the 303; seen -if necessary- comp/eq again; then recorded on soft.
once i tried something similar with a yamaha su10 sampler with the mt120 (again), just to have some dirty fat drums. the su10 have few fx so i compressed everything on pc. but the (su10) sound was very cool alone. those drums were as i wanted. i just added to that another su10 pitched drums session to "complete" the whole "analog feel" thing.
i used a CRO2 (position chrome) cassette (that's the best for tracks recorders); i wanted to recreate some analog feel as Boards of Canada. so i recorded drums and synths on the 303, compress the whole and recorded on the mt120. then resampled everything on the 303; seen -if necessary- comp/eq again; then recorded on soft.
once i tried something similar with a yamaha su10 sampler with the mt120 (again), just to have some dirty fat drums. the su10 have few fx so i compressed everything on pc. but the (su10) sound was very cool alone. those drums were as i wanted. i just added to that another su10 pitched drums session to "complete" the whole "analog feel" thing.