Hi fellaz.
Due that i can' t resample patterns on my 505 to add extra fx. I thinking to purchase a cassette deck to write my beat on it and then, back in my sp. Has anyone here, have tried this method? Worth the money? I have found a cheap Luxman k322. Also i have thinking for another sp, like 404 or 202, but the prices are pretty high at this time.
Thanks in advance!

Of course! Maybe you'll find an extravagante tape deck with cool speed/pitch control...but i am not that deep into tape decks to know which one to recommened...

Thank' s TGN. I' m searching for decks that have bias adjustments. The problem is that i can' t found reviews from users.

If you're looking for a deck for recording and bouncing work:

1 - Ensure it has three heads so that you can hear the recording while you're making it.
2 - Enure it has Bias contol so that you can adjust frequency response to your taste.
3 - Ensure it has Calibration control so that you can adjust tape saturation to your taste.

A good deck will have two types of recording level control. The main recording level control you see on all three head decks (usually the big knob) is used to set how much level is getting into the deck from your external equipment. However, "Calibration" is a secondary recording level, and what that one does is control the strength at which the deck will take your signal and magnetize it to the tape, or in other words, how much it 'saturates' the tape with the signal.

If it were labelled "Head Power", it would give you a better idea of what it actually does, and here is why it's important to have Calibration control. It's because the strength at which the tape gets magnetized during recording is what creates the pleasant distortion, richness, warmth, width and the natural compression effect of tape, so having this control allows you to find the sweet spot regardless of the tape you use, and to set it how you like it.

Most people think it's the Bias control that does this, but it isn't, you need Calibration control to do that. So look for a "Calibration" knob, or "Record Calibration" or whatever term is used by any specific manufacturer. "Bias Calibration" is not the same as "Calibration".

I can recommend a deck, but then again I'm "Biased", get it?

There's a lot of snobbery out there in the cassette deck world so try not to fall into that trap. To give you an example, I own a Marantz SD-60 which is a highly regarded deck to start with, but what a lot of deck enthusiasts aren't aware of is that it's such a high quality deck that it was adopted by Revox/Studer and rebadged under their 'Professional' division as the Revox C115. It was also adopted by Philips (inventor of the Compact Cassette) and rebranded as their top-of-the-range Philips FC-60.

For a deck to boast just one of those rebrands would be testament to a decks quality, but we're talking both here, and believe it or not, the Revox rebranded model isn't even as good as the original Marantz SD-60, because they removed the rare ability to switch HX-PRO in and out whereas the Marantz SD-60 always retained that ability.

So basically the Marantz SD-60 was designed under the Japanese company and continued to be made in Japan throughout it's prodution (even after Philips became involved and Revox/Studer had their rebrand on the market). So if you want a serious quality deck at a bargain price, there simply is no better than a Marantz SD-60. There are decks being sold on eBay for well over £1,000 that are not in the same class as the Marantz SD-60, yet an SD-60 can still be had for less than £200 (for now at least).

Once you get the hang of the Bias and Calibration controls on an SD-60, the recordings sound richer and wider than the source. But whatever deck you go for, it's very important to understand the importance of the Calibration control, and that it's a very different control to Bias. As long as you have both those controls, you can enjoy the recording process to the fullest since you get to control how the deck handles saturation level (tape magnetization strength) and frequency response independently.

Thank' s SP- USER! I Have found a Marantz SD 53. Has bias and rec calibration adjustments but unfortunately has 2 heads.

Bruh, that's just a regular 2-head deck and it certainly doesn't have "Record Calibration". You need to go way higher than that if you want to enjoy and control the process of recording.

Be careful about model numbers by the way. For example a person might assume that a Marantz SD-62 is a higher model than a Marantz SD-60. The two could not be further apart. The SD-62 is consumer grade, plastic front panel and lacks calibration control. The SD-60 is audiophile grade, aluminium front panel and has full control over calibration.

If you want a Marantz then you need the SD-60 plain and simple, but there are plenty of other awesome decks out there. To be fair though, if all you're doing is bouncing for Hip-Hop, pretty much any deck will do, you can pick up any old deck and be perfectly happy with it. In fact you might even be happier with a poorly maintained deck that has appalling wow and flutter levels etc, and if you paid next to nothing for it you won't be too bothered about butchering it a bit to add a pitch control to it.

Roland have managed to shift thousands upon thousands of SP samplers due to having an effect that mimics the wow and flutter of cheap or poorly maintained gear, so it's not as if it would be out of place when using it to bounce for Hip-Hop production.

Ok SP- USER, i understand what u say, i will go for a much cheaper deck. I have saw a sony tc k500 and a yamaha kx 393. Can you suggest me some good manufacturers? Also to inform u, the marantz sd-53 has rec calibration i saw some photos of it.

Sorry bro, I don't know what photos you're looking at but the Marantz SD-53 most certainly does not have "Record Calibration" control.

Out of the two decks you asked about, I'd personally go with the Yamaha since it has Play Trim for playback which might come in handy when you're throwing all different cassettes in there. Basically, Play Trim is like a very mild tone control (so mild you might not even hear it on some recordings). The idea is to remove excessive highs or lows from bad recordings made on other equipment (it fixes incorrect Bias settings that were made during the original recording). The Yamaha also has an aluminium front panel which is surprisingly rare for a consumer grade deck.

The Sony will be of equal quality internally, but it lacks the Play Trim that might come in handy for you, and it lacks the aluminium front which means it will feel a bit less premium than the Yamaha. To be fair though, all of the big brand cassette decks were pretty damn good, and that includes the consumer grade stuff.

The only stuff you really need to avoid is the modern garbage being pumped out of China, but again, if you're after unstable sound and bad recordings for the Lo-Fi effect it brings, hell, what does it matter?

In fact, since you only want it for bouncing, you would probably be better off buying a retro cassette-based Ghetto Blaster and using that instead. Just make sure it has recording inputs on the rear and a headphone jack, and you're good to go. You could even use the built in EQ on those things while recording back to your SP!

Just be sure that if you do go the Ghetto Blaster route, make absolutely sure that it has manual recording level controls, because if you do not, it will have an automatic gain reduction circuit that kicks in, and believe me, you do not want that!

EDIT: Never mind. I just noticed the member 'SP-USER' is no longer active. Or maybe I was that member, I mean you never can tell these days, can you?

No wonder the forum almost died after I were banned, lol, fell flat on its fucking face it did. Went from 26 recent threads per week to just two in a matter of weeks!

I see Danswift is still a member by the way, but anyway, don't forget to keep an eye out for 'Box of Taboo'. I mean you didn't honestly think I was going to let Danswift effect my musical project plans, did you?

On the contrary. I even thought about using Danswift's and Run of the Hind's statements as part of the artwork by quoting them. That is I've thought about it but not sure yet, but either way it'll be my decision as to whether I do that or not, not theirs.

And what else ... oh yes ... you'll all be very pleased to hear that SP-USER finally settled on a suitable setup!!!

It's true, no shit!!! I bought not one but two Circuit Rhythms and that's what I'll be using to produce 'Box of Taboo'. Just gotta decide on a suitable analogue outboard EQ to connect tbetween them, and then I'll be in noise making heaven. There's no EQ on the Circuit Rhythm you see, so I need to stick an outboard EQ between them so that I can sample from one Circuit Rhythm to the other with control over EQ.

As for Chu, dude, that was me you were communicating with on Elektronauts

I'm pleased to see you made TGN as a moderator, good choice that, even if I do feel like kicking his fucking arse for not unbanning my account! Not that it matters now anyway cause like I said, I'm using Circuit Rhythms these days!

QUESTION:
What's cool, stylish and exactly what you need for making music efficiently?

ANSWER:
The product range I plan to bring to market.

Beatmode
You sell the 555? How come?

Replied in the Card Compatibility thread.

A new, Teenage engineering style, cassette deck. Just 149€..
https://www.wearerewind.com/

I wish them the best of success with this, although I recently watched Techmoan's video on it and it highlighted a few things I'm personally not a fan of.

It appears to be put together in a way that would involve destroying it in order to service it. And if that is the case then people need to avoid it since it would render it impossible to replace the belt, align the heads, replace the rechargeable battery etc.

Also, if statements on thier own website are anything to go by, I believe the battery is expected to last up to five years and is not replaceable. So what exactly are people expected to do with their £140 personal stereo after five years, carry around the national grid on their back?

So while I'm plased to see stuff like this being made, it's flawed by modern thinking and design practice and I personally won't be buying one. If they'd put it together in a way it could actually be serviced and it took standard AA batteries as most peronal stereos do, I would have been more accepting of it and would likely have purchased one.

One thing I do like about it is that it does not appear to have a limiter on the recording input. The result Techmoan got sounded to me as if there's no limiter whatsoever, and personally I much prefer that. I was actually very surprised by the quality of the recording for that very reason. Sure it was overdriven (fixable by lowering source volume) but other than that I thought it sounded better and wider than the source (typical analogue goodness at work).