Cassette Tape Mixing and Mastering - TDK-SA with Technics KX580 Deck

[@JunkyardSam]

Wow, it was interesting how different the tape types sounded. I agree, this extra bit of processing really adds a lot. It's amazing how this old tech we were so quick to get away from was better than we thought at the time.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Keeping analog sound in the analog realm as long as possible seems to be the trick!

[@beatprocess]

This is the video i been looking for, for 72 hours

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks so much!

[@realastrology3976]

Man ........analogue is a killer

[@Magnum_Opus_Music]

I don't need to find out! I just know because i use cassettes in the studio. Just bought 300 extra because they are getting expensive. Clean the heads and go 😁 I have high studio quality from cassettes. Most people use it wrong and just throw every tape in and never clean it and they just pull some dolby switches and after that they have a shitty recording. I run it through a great audiophile chain and i dont even have a bias noise 👌 Only chrome and metal tapes tho Cheers for bringing this out my friend Cheerse and enjoy some good music 🎶

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Nice work

[@AlexHippert]

Very detailed and thorough! Great advise and good practices when working with tape.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks. More planned soon!

[@schlechtj1]

I want to add a couple things that will hopefully make things even better. Cleaning the heads is not all you have to do. You must also demagnetize the heads. The magnetic tape running over the metal head will cause it to be magnetized over time and this will effect the frequency response. I'm sure you can still get tape head demagnetizers. Mine looks like a cassette tape with a battery and circuit board and it only takes 5 seconds to do. The second thing is that you can make your own noise reduction in your DAW and it will probably work better than the analog circuitry in the tape deck. Here is the theory on tape noise reduction: You want to make a compressor to compress the music before it goes onto the tape. Make sure it doesn't have all that stuff like threshold, attack, etc. just pure compression and makeup gain. This will make sure that all your sound is louder than the tape hiss. Then, when you play back the tape, put an expander on the input channel. Make sure you expand exactly the opposite to how you compressed. This will restore the original audio and then "expand" the tape hiss to be even quieter than it originally was. You may need to experiment with ratios and the like. A higher bit rate and depth would probably be advised. Good luck!

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks for your contribution. Tape hiss can certainly be an issue in some cases. So far it has not been as issue of concern in my setup.

[@MattCupan]

Or, just a simple de-esser.

[@MarxismIntensifies666]

Devilish/Dirty Phonk, Memphis tape aesthetic is >>>>>>

[@emerymesich1134]

yoo thanks for taking the time to do this!!

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

You're welcome. More to come soon, too!

[@OgDj2024]

Interesting demonstration! I couldn’t tell the difference

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

It's subtle. Good speakers or headphones definitely required. It's marginal, but generally nice saturation adds up across the various channels of a mix and generally produces a nicer overall final production.

[@Magnum_Opus_Music]

Try it on vocals people and you hear very good what tape can bring to the table 💯✨

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Good shout. I'll give it a go

[@Magnum_Opus_Music]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse magnetic recording is 1 of my favourite and fascinating recording methods. The song gets a different vibe and timing, love the magic that comes from it ✨

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

@@Magnum_Opus_Music yes, there's a genuine tonal thing that is great, even with cassette tapes

[@Magnum_Opus_Music]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse Yess it does its own thing each time,no recording is identical in the micro details 👌🎶

Nice!! watching from Brazil

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks. Enjoy.

[@sonyajones]

Really nice comparison video! I use a cheap Behringer mixer with USB and analog outputs. Also a couple of really nice 3 head and another regular cassette decks. Also VHS video decks for recording at times. Really does work good for some different productions. Thank you for showcasing your results. One company is actually making new cassette and reel tapes for sale now, thank goodness.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks, and sounds like your embracing analog too!

[@sonyajones]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse - I never left it... Still have original equipment that I bought in the 70's and 80's. Just mixing it more with digital. I was slow embracing digital. Still buy both the LP and the CD of each album that I like.. LoL I did upgrade my SVHS machines to studio equipment that I bought from closing television stations.

[@matthewtunnicliffe201]

This is really helpful. Great video.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Most welcome

[@TheOliveradams]

The only time we used cassette tape in the 80's in pro studio's was for the artist to listen to the recording (mostly demo) at home or in the car , it was never used as master , for mastering we always used real to real 1/4" ..

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

@@TheOliveradams yeah, two different mediums, with different fidelity.

[@spindorit]

I would love to see a test with phase-inverted signal and then merging two signals

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

@@spindorit it wouldn't be an exact null, as tape isn't a perfect science or perfect method of recording. It's the character it bestows that we love

[@sonysoni5079]

Great video, thank you. It would be nice to hear another test with that same tape deck recorders, and same cassettes, but only driven harder. From lighter saturation-compresion, then hoter overdrive, to a fully cranked distortion. Sorry on my bad English.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Good idea. I'll make that video soon

[@sonysoni5079]

Nice. Thank you. Cant wait to hear that one. See you around. Subscribed.

[@Batsinthebelltower]

Epic video man can i ask , when you record your drums to tape and then back into the DAW how do you make sure they are aligned to the projects timing grid ? Or can you zero latency monitor the cassette recording as its happening and get it back into the DAW that way ?

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Zero latency monitoring is the only way to do it to the grid. But with this tape machine it does not have record monitoring functionality, sadly. So I just align sections as close as possible. There are often breaks that allow shifts to sound natural.

[@vadimmartynyuk]

What’s the song called ?. At the beginning and thrupught the video ?

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

@@vadimmartynyuk it's just something I wrote. Unreleased.

[@leemski]

Excellent video! Thanks. What sample rate have you used for recording to the cassette and back, please?

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks. The sample rate is 44.1. So better results are still possible with 48k

[@leemski]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse does it make sense to go beyond 48K?

[@topa1798]

man you really have a strong hand lifting that player

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Er, thanks. It gets plenty of exercise 😉

[@Dani-El.]

Eh?

[@YouTube4Rudy]

Very interesting video. Did you use Dolby S or no noise reduction?

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks. Yes, used the Dolby noise reduction. Some people don't like the effect Dolby NR has, but to my ears it was cleaner and did not affect the actual music negatively.

[@DonnAaron]

Great video, thanks!

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

You're welcome. Enjoying, learning and sharing.

[@nitro5247]

Great video, I would however suggest lowering the music volume while you’re speaking

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks for sharing your advice

[@leothemetal]

Without visual content I would recognise the older SA, because probalby it wasn't stored that good and it has some of more high frequenses and less bass. There is significant change. As for goint through all the trouble adding tape sound to a mix-there is no point. And yes, I have some hight quality studio monitors.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Yeah, tape is kind of like a tone shaper in a very particular flavour. If that flavour is one you like, it's moreish

[@leothemetal]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse I used tapes all the time because there was nothing else in my childhood. I calibrated tape recorders, soldered my own playback and recording amplifiers and built in my self made Dolby NX Pro systems in the decks where they weren't designed to be, basically-I could get low price tape recorder and upgrade it to higher standarts. The whole time my philosophy was to reproduce the source as acurate as possible, without metaphysical talks about analog vs. digital. What I am saying- I am not satysfied with the results of your experiment not because of personal taste of tape sound, but because I don't hear any difference except for damaged older TDK SA. The only way a human can tell one tape frome another appart is because they have visual cues. If you would do blind test, a lot of would fail.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

@@leothemetal thanks for your feedback.

[@92trdman]

I believe a quality deck with metal cassette tape could make a perfect analog vinyl mastering

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Vinyl is no better than tape. It has its own character, which is great if you like that character, but it's not sonically better. Even MP3 at 360kbps beats vinyl. Sad but true. But we all love the analogy flavour still

[@adamblack8229]

Try Maxell Xi 2 more headroom and glee yup xo

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks. Will do.

[@beatprocess]

Ia this a 3 head deck that allows live sound to come out of outputs or you had to record directly to tape and plau back each track to DAW

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

I recorded direct to the tape, then played it back into the DAW. Not ideal if there are lots of tracks (stems), but as this was a single pass stereo track the re-sync worked out ok.

[@2winis2doit5]

Hi, I have the same plan and ordered some old tapes like BASF Chromdioxide and Maxell XLII-S in order to give my digital master a bit more flavor. Waiting for my new deck to test it. But I guess this is a very good idea, especially for Funk, Jazz, Alternative, Hip Hop and Vocal House. I would not recommend this for an EDM track or clean Pop.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Tape adds harmonics, but is lacking in the low end and top end. But on individual instruments it works great.

[@JGW-im3nf]

Is the Model 12 Analog as well ?

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Hi, no, the model 12 is a different cheaper beast.

[@CoinOpMilitia]

Thanks for the breakdown, Im in the process of deciding which tapes to get to try this out and am wondering how much difference there will be between Type 4 and 2 tapes. On another channel I watch the Type IV sounds the best compared with Type 2 but the recording you got out of the SA60 does sound great. Do you know which Type IV's are the best regarded? From my small amount of research it seems to be Thats tapes that are up near the top but I could be wrong. Would be interested to see a type IV vs the Sa60 in future if you continue on this path. Great vid keep it up!

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

If you can find a TDK SA-X tape, try that first. Metal tapes are good but I actually prefer the 'tape' colouration of high quality type II's. Let us know how you get on!

[@ACURAOCULTA]

Very good

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks so much. Happy to help

[@ACURAOCULTA]

Very nice

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Thanks

[@spritefroggy]

I think the intentions of creativity etc being so different is interesting. When I heard you say that you wanted the tape to sound as good as possible, I couldn't help but to realise that "Oh, no, I want to use tape to make my music sound grainy and warbly". Lol.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

Use a low quality tape for that. Easy.

[@Magnum_Opus_Music]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse exactly 👍

[@Mixingmachine774]

analog and digital.maybe it's an illussione.analog is more hot and soft.Actually analog is noisy but digital is very clean.Analog needs more equipment but you can do everything with a laptop.Analog is expensive but digital is very cheap.Analog need service but daw does not need service.Analog record hurts within years but digital record does not hurt.Choose your side.Analog or digital .

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

All valid points. For me it's a choice of Head Vs Heart.

[@GiancarloBenzina]

Low-to-hifi rubbish that can be appreciated by few (some) for a variety of reasons.

[@ephraimwarrior6766]

g0d i miss the 0ld ways case it just way faster i d0nt care h0w many vst used it will s0und dead, where a stand al0ne n0 delay and n0 reset buffer as y w0rk.

[@PetesGuitarUniverse]

I have fond memories too. But a blend of modern and vintage techniques is a lot of fun

[@ephraimwarrior6766]

@@PetesGuitarUniverse agree