I was messing with a 4 track the other day, man those are really fun to record too. It's basically what sequencers were based on, so you can do audio layering like we do midi, totally free form. Kinda cool
And bouncing tracks is really fun, It'sa really interactive way of recording, like its a sport or a game, but it lets you do your thing and mess up and still be able to hook shyt up right.
Man, tape is such a crazy invention.
check this:
1935 The first usable Magnetic Recording Tape was devised by BASF in Germany. In 1928 Fritz Pfleurr. had covered a strip ofpaper with magnetized steel particles, but failed to produce a workable recording format because the paper was not strong enough to survive recording and playback. He interested the industrial giant AEG in the process; they turned it over to BASF, where chemists suggested replacing paper with strips of cellulose-acetylene (invented in 1932). AEG then developed a plastic-tape device called the "magnetophon" ; it ran at
7.6 meters per second.
Tape recording was born, and both AEG and BASF prospered through their close ties with the Nazis.
1898 The first Tape Recorder (which had been worked out theoretically by Englishman Oberlin Smith in 1888) was put together by the Dane Valdemar Poulsen using residual magnetization in a steel wire. All electro-magnetic recorders used wire or steel tape to record their signals, limiting their utility. Fidelity was poor and awaited further developments.
1901 The Photographic Recording of sound was devised by either Ruhmer of Germany or Duddel of England, perhaps by both simultaneously. Their technique involved making a picture of the "singing arc" phenomenon first noticed in 1882.
Lithotographic recording was the standard for all talking motion pictures right up into the 1970's, when George Lucas' Star Wars brought modern audio reproduction into theatres.
1924 Chester W. Rice and Edward W. Kellogg, both of GE labs, invented the first usable Dynamic Loudipeaker, which they coupled with a primitive (and revolutionary) one-watt amplifier. It was sold as the "Radiola Model 104" for $250, a very large sum at the time.
1925 The Microphone was invented at Bell Labs under direction of Joseph Maxfield, and electrical recording was on its way. The first commercial recording produced by electrical engineering appeared the same year. Within a very short time a new type of singer -'The Crooner - had appeared, with a style based on the intimate phrasing possible only with the microphone.
1925 It's difficult to believe, but Pulse Code Modulation - the basis of digitized audio - was completely worked out by Paul M. Ramey at this early date. Everything was there: sampling, quantification, and code. This ground-breaking work was then apparently forgotten! The idea was re-invented in 1939 by A.H. Reeves, forgotten again, and finally resurrected during WWII by Bell Labs during research into methods of encoding phone conversations.
