Emulate the Sound of Old Cassette Tape. Mellotron. How to

Downloads below!
Exploration in emulating taped instrument sounds like those found on a Mellotron. Creating old worn tape character using old cassettes, guitar pedals and DAW plugins.
Featuring:
Strymon Capistan
Digitech Obscura
Strymon Deco
Logic Tape Delay
Sony Walkman
In this vid we explore several options for recreating the Mellotron sound, the sound of old magnetic tape and tape echo. I explore cheap cassettes, guitar pedals and basic DAW plugins with surprising results. Putting the WOW and Flutter back in the mix. Download the plugin presets to try it out. More options to come.
Download the Logic plugin presets and instructions here:
drive.google.com/open?id=1_De...
You can also find me here:
E44 Music:
tinyurl.com/e433HyFlw
E433 Wordpress:
tinyurl.com/ctvzecks
Bandcamp:
tinyurl.com/e433bndcmp

[@illcomeupwithacreativename4096]

i'm trying my hardest to learn how to create music and this is really helpful, thank you

[@amplifier2]

Beautifully done.

[@TheKingBJ]

The best option is to build a mellotron yourself, put looping cassettes under each key and have an orchestra record on all of them

[@ZElTGElST]

El Capistan plus metal tape walkman are the winners to my ears. Even better combining both. Cool video

[@element433]

Yep! just the right amount of dirt and wobble!

[@craigshaw141]

Great info dude, but that flute "melody" was driving me nuts.

[@element433]

Imagine how it left me!

[@RobertBartko]

Excellent. Thanks

[@AlbertoMartinezDelRio]

Great video!

[@MilesLargeTV]

Dude, this is super helpful! Thank you so much!

[@element433]

You are very welcome. Thank you very much.

[@Jerkcurb1]

i have never found a logic tutorial that appeals to my interests as much as this one did. Thank you

[@element433]

Thank you very much. I had hoped it would be useful. More on the way!

[@Jerkcurb1]

i played a digital mellotron (m4000) and havent found anything that lived up to its excellence. More analog to digital emulator Logic videos / equipment would be great! its a niche that i am very much into !

[@element433]

I'm sure you are right about the m4000/ The reviews I have seen and heard sound real nice. Thanks again!

[@nichttuntun3364]

I enjoyed your video :)

[@kontrajelly]

Thank you. strings great

[@xtalplanet]

best track for vintage horror movies

[@BrianRussell37]

Wonderful video. Thanks!

[@element433]

Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed!

[@MrKayMrKay]

Beginning a video by mentioning "Stratosfear" is an epic win to me :)

[@element433]

Excellent!!!

[@TheKffb]

TYPE I Sounds the best imo wow great

[@element433]

Agreed, special when it’s been used

[@emilybruder79]

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

[@element433]

THANK YOU!!!

[@personmcperson4440]

Obscura can be had for less than $100. SO worth it. Thing's nuts.

[@LeadGuitarOfficial]

where? in argentina lists for 330usd new

[@personmcperson4440]

I see them on ebay and reverb pretty often. Shipping to Argentina...I wouldn't know. You could always message a few sellers, and find out. Worst that happens is they say no.

[@GreenLeaf5656]

that el capistan sounds crazy with those strings. makes me wish i had a few hundred dollars to spare.

[@element433]

Agreed, it has amazing controls, though I keep finding myself going to the Obscura, it just has something. Thanks for watching!

[@jonaseggen2230]

Oh man that walkman...

[@element433]

That Walkman keeps surprising, amazing!

[@jonaseggen2230]

@@element433 I remember seeing this in operation by a journalist many many years ago, and it cost a fortune also then. Actually probably more then than now, even though they are rare and sought after. A third party company made a box for it that looked a bit steampunk, but witch gave you propper trs/jack connections as those tiny patch points/holes had a tendency to get rather worn when working in the fields. It also made the walkman almost twice as heavy..

[@element433]

I got one for £200 on EBay though you have to get one with the original power supply as anything else destroys the speed control circuitry. Worth checking. Recordings come out super clean on new chrome and metal tapes

[@jonaseggen2230]

@@element433 that's a really good price! I prefer to have a first hand look when I buy second hand anything, or at least here in Norway due to tax hassel, but I'm still looking : )

[@samuelehret-pickett7983]

@@element433 got given that exact model, original lead, box, case for free by my college cause no one else was going to use it

[@isaacberryhill4553]

Did you ever try using the tape saturation feature on the Deco?

[@element433]

Yes. It's great!

[@deniedvalhalla]

This got me wondering Theorically, may I record a full mix into a cassette and then record it back into my daw? Any chance it will sound any good?

[@element433]

I often record parts to cassette tape first and then record it to DAW. If your audio interface is half decent you should have no problem at all. The only thing to watch out is that with beats, because of the tiny fluctuations of tape will be slightly out with the original, but you can correct this in the DAW with either beat splicing or by using a little time stretch.

[@Datachrome]

Very interesting, have you tried the Instant lofi junky from Zvex?

[@element433]

Thank you for the heads-up. It looks and sounds interesting, I will check it!

[@snooptiger]

Hi i am new to this stuff and wonder how you managed to work with walkman. Is that sound coming out live? I mean did you use the cassette tape recorder like an effector?

[@element433]

Hi, no it was recorded as it only has two tape heads. To use as an effect you need three heads and there would be a delay

[@snooptiger]

Thank you so much for answering! I learnt something today!😊👍

[@kazamiyuuji9315]

what is the name of the font used? looks cool

[@element433]

I think it was a stock font like “courier new” or something. I will check in the original preprod file and get back to you. Thanks for watching!

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@Jeremie Louis It has to be Courier New, looks just like it.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@Jeremie Louis Glad to help.

[@fritz3802]

But what are the source strings coming from? Midi/ modern keyboard?

[@element433]

Good question! I tried to find the most plain vanilla strings I could get. In the end the EXS24 stock strings samples in Logic X fitted that description. The same for the flute. Thanks for watching!

[@fritz3802]

Element433 so there isn't any chorus on these strings?

[@fritz3802]

I'm trying to see the most of what I can do with plugins on program in studio one

[@element433]

Chorus works in a similar way. A very short delay is (usually) modulated slowly by a periodic wave like a triangle or a sine wave. The modulated version is played along side the original non-delayed version to create a "choir" effect, hence the name "chorus". The difference with this effect is that instead of a triangle wave or a sine wave modulating the sound we are using a random (sometimes also referred to as "Sample and Hold") to do the modulation BUT we don;t have the original along side. So the effect is a 100% wet processed signal. In the "school recorders" part of the video I had mixed the original signal in by mistake and it created a random chorus like effect. I did notice that there is a Tape" plugin for Studio One, although a little pricy. Another option is to see if you can modulate the delay time using automation and draw in a random curve, though that would be real artisan work!

[@element433]

The strings had no chorus or any other effect on them.

[@CrossCuntryFranco]

Logic/GarageBand has a few Mellotron presets :) Just thought you should know.

[@element433]

That’s good to know, thanks!

[@vMUREKv]

damn, what is that lo-fi piano loop song btw?

[@element433]

It’s an impro on an old school piano I recorded ages ago onto an old Walkman cassette recorder. The tape was really chewed up and was left to collect dust. Now I’m going through all those old tapes and finding bits like that.

[@vMUREKv]

It's really good. I also love the bandcamp album you've put out

[@SkinnyVampiress]

Can you upload this lo-fi piano recording somewhere? it's awesome!

[@juanimewu1425]

But there aren't any tutorials on hooking these into your DAW especially not for reason users

[@element433]

Do you mean the pedals? There is an EHX pedal called 8-Step which apparently allows MIDI to control the expression inputs in pedals. Some other pedals like the Chase Bliss have MIDI capabilities, so you could hook them up that way. In terms of audio inputs and outputs you would need a multichannel audio interface.

[@juanimewu1425]

Element433 so to make sure I got it right I need a bigger Scarlett focusrite. I've been trying to find the right cassette players to bit crush my instruments with and also will playback through the tape just make it sound like that through the monitors or is it actually changing the studio as well. It's just alotve questions that longer because no one ever really covers this topic much without doing it passively as if it's common knowledge. 😩

[@element433]

The way I did it was to play the DAW flutes through the pedals and re-record onto a small digital recorder and monitored the live result via headphones plugged into the small recorder. Then I off loaded the file onto the computer and put that track along side the original so I can mix between. I hope that makes sense. It’s the cheapest way to do it unless you are using stock plugins.

[@juanimewu1425]

Element433 ooo say what yu saying is yur end result is from modulating the DAW flute through the pedal first AND then recording the result of that with the cheap tape and Walkman??? And then Yu send the output of the tape back into the interface ? But that doesn't explain how the flute ends up in your DAW. Maybe u have all these questions because I've NVR had a reason to use more than one I/O. So I have a hard time understanding the signal flow

[@element433]

The flutes played through the pedals is via a digital recorder. The flute to real cassette was the DAW to cassette.

[@SweetChinMuzik1]

type I cassette all day.....cheap and dirty

[@Youtube.Commen-tater]

Rob Lo To be fair it's not the greatest for your tape head, best recorded and listened to on a boombox or generic walkman.

[@WillJukedTheBox]

or just use the DAW cassette plugin for $40...or the crapre number two in reason