MPC to tape deck recording

Just came across a Amstrad 8080 hifi (1980 I think) in a charity shop for next to nothing, thought I'd give recording some of beats off the MPC onto tape and see what it does to the sound. Most of my stuff has been put thru the S950 so they're already pretty 'grimey', or however you wanna put it.

How many of you do the same? And if so is there any specific technique you use when doing so? Not the most technical thing in the world I know, just curious!

Peace

I've been recording my "beatz" and stuff to cassette deck for the past few months.

Recording chain:
MPC 1K, Volca Bass & Keys, Monomachine, mics and turntable outputs >> ZED60-14

ZED60-14 main outputs >> FMR RNC >> tape deck

On my deck it is really easy to distort straight to sh*t so I really keep everything nice & tight from the source - the compressor is just for added control/effect on the way to the cassette. Nothing fancy going on here, the compressor isn't adding color or anything like that, just acting as a sort of muzzle on the dawg.

from time to time i record sounds to a tascam 122 mkII - depending o what i want to accieve, from subtle tape warmth to utter distortion i play around with the recording levels untill i hear something i like. my tape has three heads, so i can listen to the recording live from the repro head so i can adjust the settings live without having to stop and rewind my recording.
because this tapedeck has some beautiful, lighted and very sensitive vu meters i sometimes just send signal thru it to watch those needles dance...

if i find the time i will compare the results of that real tape to some of the tape saturation plugins that i have, like the klanghelm ivgi or the stock logic tape delay (that can be used purely for tape saturation if you turn the delay time to zero).

finding new cassette tapes is the harder thing to do, and old used tapes do sound different.

peace, jo

I record the drums and the vocals only from my roland VS to a reel to reel. Then from the reel to reel back to the VS recorder.

Once you have your drums sorted for the entire track and you put it on tape it sounds beautiful when recorded back into the VS at 24 bit 44.1 or 48khz.

Everything else is just straight into the VS on its only track then bounced down to two tracks in the final mix. I like the tape sound on drums.


Peace
Ian

What also works is recording the drums through my Marshall tube amp 2x12. The Egnater 212 sounds good also. The tubes and the mic make the digital drums sound nice. A bass amp works even better but the cymbals (high pitch sounds) will not sound right. Its a bit of work but the tube amp sound is that old wonderful sound.

An old reel to reel and noise reduction unit is one of the best investments you can make if you want to warm up your sounds. It just takes a bit of faffing around to run sounds to it and back to the MPC/DAW. I think it's worth it though.

I get a very heavy distortion on the bass, which drowns out everything else in a muddy mess. So I use a high pass shelf on the signal befor it goes to the tape. I then mix the output with a lpf version of the original to restore bass again, if needed. This can introduce phasing tho as the tape sample is very hard to align exactly over the original