How I Use 4-Track cassette to record a lofi indie pop song | No Matter Where We Go

This is how I use a 4-track cassette recorder to produce a lofi indie pop song. If you wanna hear the final song (No Matter Where We Go), then it's on my bandcamp here:
martinyammoller.bandcamp.com/...

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks for watching… you can hear the full and final song from this video on my bandcamp here martinyammoller.bandcamp.com/track/no-matter-where-we-go

[@dhawaltandon]

Love the vibe of the track !

[@dorfschamane2809]

Damn, thats such a cool way to record a song and i really love the old school tape stuff

[@MartinYamMoller]

🙏😉

[@theblowupdollsmusic]

This is a really great song! Nice work.

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks ... I appreciate it🙏

[@ZackWebsite]

SOUNDS SO GOOD MARTIN !!! LOVE IT ! rlly needa get a tape deck

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks a lot 🙏 yeah tape machines are gold for those smushed sounds😍

[@binface9]

Nice! Great tune Martin

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks 🙏😉

[@jacob.b.barnes]

The GOAT! Lovely tune.

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks dude

[@Unfunnyness]

If you do a technique called bouncing you can just record a mix of the two drum tracks and put them on one.

[@unsigned5324]

I think he knows that XD

[@lukegruntz]

awesome song man

[@MartinYamMoller]

Glad you like it🙏👌👍

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

Great work! I listened to the song, really nice.

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thx dude. It’s nice of you to say🤘 and thanks for listening 🙏

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

@@MartinYamMoller 🎶🤘🎶

[@ricksnowden2150]

Liked and loved!

[@MartinYamMoller]

👍

[@SONWU]

Great song!

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thx. 🙏

[@StarrAckerman]

Fantastic song

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thx 🙏🤘😉

[@soundminedd]

Song was great. Subbing and following. Keep rocking❤

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks dude🤘🙏

[@dannydaniels8091]

well done!!!!

[@MartinYamMoller]

🙏🙏thx

[@nickthompsonsurfinonthelake]

Cool video

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks a lot🙏

[@TableauxMultimedia]

I dig!!!!

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thx

[@xdef1ne]

Sounds good dude! I can’t wait to use my 4track Could you explain how you digitalised the seperate tracks? Thanks!

[@MartinYamMoller]

4 track machines are ace!.... The model I have is the Tascam 424 which has separate outputs for each track. Just run a jack from those into my soundcard (which has lots of inputs) and record in Reaper. So hopefully you have a 4-track with separate outputs. Not all do.

[@eddavenport1970]

Beautiful Martin.....so you record all your trks to cassette, then send to Reaper to mix and what not.....sounds awesome my friend. :)

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks... Yes, that's pretty much how I do it (even sneak in a cassette emulation vst sometimes for double the fun😉)

[@eddavenport1970]

@@MartinYamMoller Nothing wrong with adding a lit' mo tape sauce to the mix...lol

[@fractal5621]

i fucking love this

[@MartinYamMoller]

thanks🙏😉🤘

[@goroonline3777]

I love this!! I'm trying to find a mic tho when I get mine. What was the one called you used for vocals? thx for this :)

[@MartinYamMoller]

I think it was an old and cheap Sony mic

[@MAYSUNmusic]

cool

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks a lot… I spent waaay too long doing this song, so I appreciate it👍🤘

[@MAYSUNmusic]

@@MartinYamMoller worth it ;)

[@M3SS3RUS10]

Great video! Might be a stupid question, but if you’re recording electric guitar on these, can you still use your pedalboard? How does it work with/without an amp too?

[@MartinYamMoller]

No stupid questions😉... Works pretty much the same recording electric guitars on these cassette tape recorders. No problems with using a pedalboard or an amp as well. There are no rules about this stuff really. Just use whatever gets you a sound that you're excited by.

[@baramundi__88__]

Det er sku da meget fedt.

[@MartinYamMoller]

Tak

[@elnyoutube123]

How do you send the tracks to the computer? Are there any special cables or inputs?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Nope, nothing special ... it's just normal RCA cables (the white and red ones) with a jack adapter. Pretty standard stuff.

[@mortenkalland]

Cool. I have some old mc cassettes with recordings, but the 4 track porta gives to much noise. Maybe I have a channel open live or recorded it to loud in 1994?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Might have... Lots of denoising plugins that can be helpful

[@pedrosavala8811]

Whenever I go record from my laptop from the tascam, I find using the 3.5mm jack decreases the quality of the audio or is it the program I use (audacity)? I have the first gen of the 424, no xlr cables

[@MartinYamMoller]

I'm not quite following🤔... "record from my laptop from the tascam" ? Which are you recording 'from' and where are you recording 'to' ?

[@ben_moy]

Audacity shouldn't decrease the fidelity of your audio itself. Are you using an interface (A/D converter) to send audio into your laptop? I used to use an iRig dongle, but it was never as good as later using MBox or Focusrite interfaces.

[@BCC288]

song is dope. what exactly does the dictaphone do? i didn't understand that part. you bounced the song as it was to the dictaphone tape and the guitar overdub on it?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Thanks, glad you like the song. The guitar is played directly into the Dictaphone, which is then recorded into Reaper running on the PC. Hope that makes sense?

[@BCC288]

@@MartinYamMoller i'm more curious about why you recorded into the dictaphone vs recording into the 4 track?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Well, the dictaphone had a different type of noise and input distortion from the 4-track, and this helped the lead part on the guitar stand out more from the parts on the 4-track. Make sense?

[@helxis]

New to all of this.. What is the point of recording to a 4-track if it is going straight to digital from there? Couldn't one just as easily record straight to digital if that were the case?

[@MartinYamMoller]

The 4-track machine has a very distinctive sound.... That i think is quite difficult to replicate in the digital domain (tho i have to admit some plugins get surprisingly close to now a days). Mainly i record to cassette tapes for that special sound. But the way of working with a physical medium is also both nostalgic for me, as well as being much more satisfying than clicking around with a mouse. So music making is a physical thing for me, that i literally get to feel as I'm doing it. Does that make sense?

[@helxis]

@@MartinYamMoller Yes, thank you! I have done film photography for some time and feel similarly about my old cameras.

[@MartinYamMoller]

@@helxis Yeah... And film has so many different flavors, exactly like those old tape machines

[@drewlsy]

how did you get the 4 tracks into reaper?

[@MartinYamMoller]

The tascam 424 has 4 outputs, one for each track. I connected them up to my soundcard which has 4 inputs. Routed it in Reaper to 4 seperate tracks and recorded it. On this song i actually did some more overdubs onto tape and then had to manually align it up in Reaper, which takes quite a bit of time. Makes sense?

[@drewlsy]

@@MartinYamMoller So that means that you would need the RC jacks built into the soundcard right? The inputs are red and white RC jacks which not all sound cards come with. What if I took the head phone jack or monitor jacks and fed them into a USB audio interface then into a DAW? If my soundcard is basic or doesnt have inputs.

[@MartinYamMoller]

@@drewlsy you can get RCA to 1/4" adapters. Or even RCA to mini-jack cables which you can plug into the mic input on you pc/laptop. It's not going to sound great. But I'm guessing that's not what you're going for right?😉

[@drewlsy]

@@MartinYamMoller Then how do you post your finished work /song onto a social media platform like soundcloud or bandcamp, IF it's not up to par with the transfer through a normal soundcard in terms of mixing it down and sharing it. I've seen these cassette tape convertors, hand held devices that convert cassette recording into MP3's. How about keeping it on tape then transferring from tape to digital. OR..would I have to get a sound card upgrade with the RCA jacks.

[@MartinYamMoller]

@@drewlsy i'm not quite following... What is your question?

[@bigjed7545]

How in gods name did you get your electric part recorded like that, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure it out haha did you just run through an amp and put the dictaphone right on it or what?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Plugged the guitar directly into the dictaphone (a Sony M-1PD), the distortion is from it's mic input minijack. Then just recorded it directly into my soundcard 😉

[@bigjed7545]

@@MartinYamMoller you are my hero🤘 By the way, I stumbled upon your channel a month or so back and you’re the reason I’m on my indie/lofi journey right now. I just wanna say 2 things 1. You’re content is awesome, truly one of my favorite channels. Please don’t stop creating 2. In regards to creating music, I found myself actually excited to get off work and “get to work”. Being in bands around Nashville became something I just did and was just kinda going through the motions. You opened a door for me where I am actually having fun again. Sorry for the long response but I just needed to thank you haha

[@Kapeatrus]

Did you record your vocal into the four track or is that done somewhere else?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Glad you asked.👍 I recorded all the vocals into the 4-track, right after I digitized the drum machine beat, drums and bass, while keeping the guitar as a guide. Make sense?

[@gforce7four]

​​@@MartinYamMollersure but how did you sync the vocals from the tape back to the daw with other tracks? I assume manually in your daw?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Yup... Pretty much. Had to re-align some later parts of the vox takes because of tape drift

[@jackobrien1811]

Is the dictaphone the only effect on the guitar?

[@MartinYamMoller]

Pretty much yeah. Some eq, compressor and the excellent harshness removing VST Soothe2

[@rush9812]

what type of dictaphone you have?

[@MartinYamMoller]

It's a stereo Sony M-1PD. Very reliable and well built, yet it still has a very crunchy sound. It's high-end lofi

[@niggoniggoman7729]

Could you tell me what size that kick drum has? Never seen such a small kit. Great song otherwise.

[@MartinYamMoller]

It's not my kit, part of the practice room I rent. But I think it was an 18x16 kick.

[@niggoniggoman7729]

@@MartinYamMoller thanks for the information

[@harlingavelar1340]

What software did you use

[@MartinYamMoller]

Reaper to stick it all together👍

[@meinemudda3095]

I dont know the point of a 4 Track Cassette Recorder I would more buy a zoom g four pedal multifx looper 4 of them Still cheaper

[@MartinYamMoller]

Well, the old cassette machines have a particular kinda sound that I really enjoy … and they were cheap when I bought them😊 but I know what you mean about zoom multi fx, which are amazing deals. I just don’t get down to making music that way, make sense?

[@meinemudda3095]

@@MartinYamMoller ok back then i would also buy a 4track cassette mixer/recorder But I don t understand why people want noooow a 4track tape cassette recorder No looping No undo function No after editing

[@MartinYamMoller]

Well without undo, then you have to perform it the right way.... Or just record it again. And the bonus is that I don't have to sit and edit it afterwards.😉 Also if you want to loop, make a tapeloop The reasons you don't want to get a tape machine might be exactly the same reasons others might want a tape machine? Then again, maybe the two things just aren't comparable?... Maybe it's good to use both?

[@dannydaniel8975]

Using that computer, you're kinda defeating the purpose

[@MartinYamMoller]

I get what you mean... But to purely use the 4-track isn't the purpose for me. After all, the first thing I record to tape is the OPZ, a very modern drum sampler.... So it wasn't a purely retro 4-track recording from the outset. I'm really just using cassette recording to get a certain sound which is for me nostalgic. But maybe a purist video, where i only use late 80's era gear would be interesting to watch?

[@dannydaniel8975]

@@MartinYamMoller ok