Crappy Cassette Recorder as an Effect Microphone ||| Cheaper Than a Plugin

[@franceshaha]

This channel is so underrated

[@MadeOnTape]

🙏 i don’t feel that way thanks to this comment 🙏🤘🤘

[@migzz7976]

That was and is why cassette recorders are so cool, you just keep them running the whole time that way you can catch everything, it’s like a fish net

[@yetanotheruser1989]

The blended audio on the drum beats sounds brilliant. Such a warm crunch!

[@MadeOnTape]

💯

[@zooblestyx]

I got one of these (not the exact same model or make) miracle boxes for xmas when I was 10. My brother had gotten one a cpl years ahead of me. Man, we used to torture those things with our weird games and ideas. One thing was to try and hold down the buttons while recording at just the point where it started recording, and it would stutter in and out of running the tape, for hilarious results, and probably drastically reduced service life. Much inspiring to see that there is still unexplored territory there. ^_^

[@MadeOnTape]

oh that sounds like a fun experiment! kids are the best at testing limits

[@MrC-w7j]

another effect we could create from that kind of shoebox recorder : a ''Megaphone'' effect . I experimented that effect back in 2019 when i was recording a demo for my one man band project . I needed a ''yelling in a megaphone'' part , so.. i recorded that part directly on the shoebox recorder ,then i placed my vocal mic directly on the cheapo speaker of the recorder , and played back the tape while recording it with my daw .... and finally double-tracked and delayed one of the tracks to create a slight echo .... Voila !

[@MadeOnTape]

thanks for sharing! that's a killer idea and technique 🤘🙏

[@MST3Killa]

Sounds pretty bad honestly. I get the recurring theme of just blending bad audio with good audio and considering that an 'effect', but the novelty wears off after mere moments.

[@MadeOnTape]

one person’s trash is another persons treasure ✌🏻

[@NothingAiring]

5:20/14:55 sounds like something from Ghosts 1-4 by NIN

[@MadeOnTape]

thanks Henry!

[@marketienne9203]

Thats just distortion with tape hiss. You can do that by recording too loud (minus tape hiss). There are no other effects.

[@MadeOnTape]

isn’t that fun! also we bypassed the tape, so there’s no tape hiss. happy recording! 🤘

[@unsoundmethodology]

Very cool! I had dug out some old dictation recorders - walkman-style cassette and pocket microcassette - after seeing Heinbach do some neat stuff with the variable speed controls (most of them can, unmodded, at least do half/double speed, and some have finer control than that) and the tape saturation, but I hadn't thought of just using the inherent properties of the mics and recording channel like this. Thanks!

[@MadeOnTape]

LOVE Hainbach!!! i’ll be on the lookout for varispeed units!

[@wildchurch]

Subscribed - mainly for the ideas but also partly as you come across a bit like Jello Biafra!

[@MadeOnTape]

ahhhhh that's amazing thank you

[@tortfeasor99]

I was going to suggest trying a mini cassette dictation recorder, since those machines had especially intense compression and would also be easier to position. But then I noticed that they are weirdly expensive now.

[@MadeOnTape]

i noticed that too! seems like a novelty market mark up perhaps? you can still find them randomly for cheaper on FB marketplace tho!

[@sideburn]

It was how we saved and loaded data off a computer pre- floppy / harddrive / usb drive

[@MadeOnTape]

amazing! side note my dad was a an early mainframe computer architect and he still has one tape canister from the IBM 3850! crazy to think of sophisticated super computers storing data on two inch tape! 🙏🙌

[@sideburn]

@@MadeOnTape yep. I still have an original “Frogger” video game cassette tape for the Atari home computer. It would take about 5 - 15 minutes to load a game that was about the same amount of data as an emoji.

[@MadeOnTape]

the thing “futurists” in the 1950s and 60s did not often predict was the data processing size and speed! it’s so fascinating how it’s all still 1s and 0s just faster and smaller 🙌

[@sideburn]

Ya digital is so basic actually. Seems like there’d be a better way by now. I Always think of digital as just drawing waveforms on a piece of graph paper and the “resolution” is just the number and size of the little squares on the graph paper. And yer never going to get those squares small enough to match analog so digital sucks! 😂

[@Wedontwantnowarnomore]

Come on! Not so long ago. I use mine everyday. Retro baby But I obliged to say so good sound 🤩 Rocket 🚀 on. Spacy 🤪 Yeah!

[@MadeOnTape]

🤘

[@alexbeattie6868]

Tried this with two different recorders and got no signal going into my interface, not sure what I'm doing wrong. I connected it using a 1/4" cable with an 1/8" converter on one end

[@MadeOnTape]

hmmmm. It can be an impedance thing? If you're on IG find me there and I might be able to help

[@northernbrother1258]

A cool effect would be to gradually replace the clean drums with the distorted version like it’s degrading into oblivion.

[@MadeOnTape]

hell yeah

[@volodimirsci]

This tape recorder didn't sound so lame. There were no lows, very few highs, but everything played clean and even. Throw such a plugin in the trash.

[@MadeOnTape]

never heard a plugin that does the same thing, and this was only $10

[@apoena-allnitemusic7203]

"Ancient...". cassete was yesterday man... Grand parents? Shiiit

[@MadeOnTape]

fun fact: humans are closer in time to T-Rex than T-Rex was to Stegosaurus

[@tokenofdevotion]

Didn't the casette recorder have a mic input you could feed from the daw output?

[@MadeOnTape]

yes! some do have that! But for this I wanted to use the whole machine as a "microphone"...It's built-in limiter is crunchy in a fun way to mix in with regular mics

[@biancabasjes3775]

Super cool man! Does the casette recorder need to be powered while using it as a mic? And do you also need to boost the signal when you want to hear it on a recording device?

[@MadeOnTape]

yes it needs power of some kind, and i'm recording it but I can't remember if it comes in Line level or mic level. have fun and happy recording!

[@woosix7735]

haha, yeah that's the only type of cassette recorder I have, the multitrack ones are a little pricy nowadays... (Yes I did get it from my grandparents)

[@MadeOnTape]

it’s all about the fun you have with it! 🤘🙌🙏

[@woosix7735]

Hell yeah!

[@VIDSTORAGE]

The opening guitar on Street Fighting Man/Rolling Stones was recorded on a little portable cassette and was used on the record instead of a guitar in the studio ..Keith was looking for a certain sound from an acoustic guitar and that was they way he found it using the distortion ..

[@user-zo8ve2xh5z]

Question: when you recorded the audio from your cassette recorder into your daw, how do you make sure the cassette audio is 100% aligned with the other files? Because there’s no perfect playback I often get phasing issues. Or did you mention that already? :)

[@MadeOnTape]

excellent question! For this technique in this video, we are bypassing the cassette completely. I saw the engineer Sylvia Massy do this several times... You're basically using the machine as an effect microphone. The omni mic and limiter in the machine does a crazy crushed drum sound that's very unique. As for other cassette projects, I work in the analog world 100%, and if I'm ready to add tracks digitally, I would bring in the cassette recording and work around it. In other words, I personally wouldn't try to add analog cassette tracks to a digital recording (with some exceptions!). Hope this all makes sense!

[@xitshawks7497]

Question could I just use the aux cord as a cable between the pc and cassette recorder

[@MadeOnTape]

it really depends on the cassette recorder. And I assume you also mean using an interface with your computer? I've picked up some of these cassette players that didn't have a good output...luckily they're dirt cheap

[@nicolaslexa1169]

Super good Idea! What IS the model of the recorder? Did you try it has an overhead mic on drum? Thx for the answer

[@MadeOnTape]

good question! i think it’s one of the SimLine by Panasonic recorders i have never tried it as an overhead, but i’m always up to try anything!

[@nicolaslexa1169]

@@MadeOnTape thx for thé answer I ll try to pick one and recording drums maybe not using it as an overhead but maybe more by putting it just above the basse drum pointing the snare.

[@glenesis]

Oooh! I had to plug the mc into mine. Fancy!

[@jamespatient7438]

Hey man! Do you need an empty cassette? How can I find the right one for it? Thanks legend🙌

[@MadeOnTape]

thanks for the kind words! you don’t even need a csssette on some models since you’re just using the microphone and limiter any cassette will do! preferably not a fancy one 🤘🏻

[@jamespatient7438]

@@MadeOnTape Thanks! Should the cassette be empty or?? This was all before I was born! Could you advise me on where to find one? I’m looking at getting this same cassette recorder :)

[@BrayDOGreviewz]

Fuck yessss

[@biggrime]

Very very cool. Great video. I have one and never thought about using this.

[@MadeOnTape]

have fun! it's a cool technique: quick and easy!

[@maartengewitter]

got one of these will try to use it next time for vocal-recordings to get that crunchy sound addiotnaly. thanks

[@h.markhorton8188]

Would it work with a small Walkman cassette recorder? This is really interesting fun ways to deviate.

[@MadeOnTape]

as long as it has a built in microphone, and some way to monitor that signal, yes it will work!

[@mdjmz]

where has this channel been my entire life? i’ve been messing with tapes and fuzzy recording stuff for abt a decade. i’ve been binging. you rule

[@MadeOnTape]

ahhh that means a lot thank you!

[@RyanSommer]

Don't look now. But you got some imitators!

[@MadeOnTape]

that’s a high form of flattery!

[@gwugluud]

Back in the 70s, prior to cassette 4-tracks, which didn't happen until 1980, the way I and the only other punk rocker in my entire school recorded "songs" was, we'd record guitar and drums with one K-Mart tape recorder, then take a 2nd tape recorder, place the other recorder which had the guitar/drums next to it, then engage "record" on the 2nd recorder, and play the guitar/drum "track" so the 2nd recorder would capture that, while we sang vocals at the 2nd recorder. Rinse/repeat for the bass track. It was pretty dismal.

[@MadeOnTape]

dismal like Daniel Johnston 🙌🏻 definitely more ideal recording ability accesible to people today: i’m not an analog purist. if all i had was the method you described, it would feel dismal to me as well. thanks for watching!

[@frannieto2676]

any VST with which you can get that effect?

[@MadeOnTape]

great question! any kind of super crusher/limiter would get you to a similar spot

[@mattxoverbey]

I’m so happy that I stumbled across this channel. I had the pleasure of speaking to Sylvia last year in a zoom session and she talked about using a cassette recorder for drums and that opened my eyes to different possibilities with it. Glad someone did an in depth video on this.

[@MadeOnTape]

thank you that truly means a lot. i hope to dig deeper into similar territory as the channel grows! 🙏

[@JordanSeal]

Great video. I have a similar Panasonic and love that consumer-grade cassette sound, but I've never used it exactly like this. Noting to self...

[@MadeOnTape]

let me know if you’re distorts quickly like mine 😂🙏

[@JordanSeal]

@@MadeOnTape Mine doesn't seem to distort as quickly, but I'll be real with you: a few years ago, I tried 2-3 different models and picked the one with the cleanest/clearest sound. FWIW, distortion might help mask some of the automatic compression, which was really noticeable when I tried to use mine as an "effect mic." It's a cool sound but easily overpowers a normal mic signal on softer parts.

[@MadeOnTape]

@@JordanSeal that's good to know! I still walk into places like Goodwill when I have time to see what weird stuff ends up on the shelf! Maybe the next one will be cleaner

[@mattwardynski7429]

Haha those toms! Would love to hear you try blast beats with that tape recorder....

[@MadeOnTape]

oh god i need a real drummer 😂 thanks to all for putting up with my crap drum examples. i swear i’ll get more qualified folks soon 😆

[@mattwardynski7429]

@@MadeOnTape you're doing great on the drums! I was just laughing at the distortion with the tape recorder haha

[@joaoantoniovione484]

I learned about that technique while reading Sylvia as well. The mic on mine was a dud (was an early 70s Aiko deck, tossed it away last month after scraping for parts). But I figured I'd strap it through the auxs on my mixer. Guess they have FET limiters inside, got an absurd snap on my kick drums, and snare crunch as well... and that was as far as it has gone, in terms of usefulness.

[@joaoantoniovione484]

That "Song 2" intro tho...

[@MadeOnTape]

absurd snap and crunch: sounds like the name of a food product! i’ve had better luck with machines from the 90s, and they are all absurd! thanks for watching 🙏 and let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see covered on this channel

[@MyBichSustained]

They also great for picking up spirits too...i know!

[@CarloGoiff666]

does it records in stereo or only mono?

[@MadeOnTape]

this one is a mono machine very very lofi. if you’re interested in a great stereo machine, check out the Uher report monitor 4200

[@IanJamesBeats]

DUDE! 2:07 blew my mind! I have this exact cassette player and never knew you could do that!!!!

[@MadeOnTape]

blew my mind the first time i heard about it! and it legit sounds cool blended in 🤘

[@DrRubberfunk]

Nice work. This was all I had for recording when I first got a drumkit in '87 - my late 70s shoebox recorder (that I got with a ZX Spectrum for loading games), and a mid-80s 'proper' Panasonic Stereo Radio Cassette - which had the added advantage of ALC (Automatic Level Control) which did super squashy things to drums recorded via the built in mic without adding too much distortion. Hours of fun! In '99 I happened to be in a studio in Birmingham where Brendan Lynch was producing, and he had a pair of cassette 'corders set up either side of the drums as FX mics - sounded just like my bedroom ;)

[@MadeOnTape]

ahh thanks for sharing! I love the "stereo" pair of cassette 'corders...might have to try that myself now! 😂

[@jimjohnson2190]

We used cassettes yes it was fine

[@MadeOnTape]

thanks for commenting! did you watch? no cassettes we’re involved in this video. cheers from NYC 🗽 ✌️

[@kikeheebchinkjigaboo6631]

I still use tape recorders

[@MadeOnTape]

me too! 🤘

[@jessefillmore]

Hey Chris , great video as always . Sorry I had to back out of your Patron . Tough times, hope you understand . I'll be back though . Have you thought about having a PO box . I could donate cassettes or other cool items .

[@MadeOnTape]

i understand 💯! hit me up at [e-mail] !

[@BrayDOGreviewz]

Thank you brother!!

[@MadeOnTape]

thanks for watching!

[@MrKarlGP]

Hehe :) I tried twanging a twisted-up elastic band with one end pressed to the electret microphone of my ancient micro-cassette "dictaphone" and the 60s fuzz-bass vibes were epic :)

[@MadeOnTape]

yesss!!! amazing

[@JuanMotta]

Very cool technique, i'm going to find one!!! Thanks

[@MadeOnTape]

one of my favorites! i’m gonna use it on a drum session tonight!

[@nym053]

Sylvia Massey is a favorite crazy person of mine (actually just a creative genious 😋) I have a handheld Sony with inbuild mic. But the right one is squashed so as far as I remember it sounds a little too harsh 😅 but recording to the tape hot to type 1 still sounds great. Aarh yeah the cowbell is always great through any kind of drive almost

[@MadeOnTape]

Sylvia is the best. such a fountain of creativity. hell yeah overdriven 🐮 🔔 🤘

[@didierjoomun]

Great video! Sounds a lot like 'Pulveriser demolition' RE from Reason studios

[@MadeOnTape]

ohhh i’ll have to check that out! thanks for sharing!

[@andypickeringmusic]

These have 3 heads or as it's on pause it's just a preamp and compressed sound?! As always enjoy your video immensely!

[@MadeOnTape]

not usually three heads! just a mic, a preamp, and the compressor. a very fun effect that’s unpredictable!

[@andypickeringmusic]

@@MadeOnTape so cool! Love stuff like that.. Some of the Sony Cassette - corder are particularly good for this, the built in limiters are interesting and some have neat external mics that sound great

[@dogtooth1094]

This would be cool to use for some type of Times New Viking sounding project

[@MadeOnTape]

it’s one of my favorite studio tools and an easy way to get people excited 🤘

[@tiffanybelzar9207]

Awesomeeeeee 👏

[@MadeOnTape]

YOU'RE awesome!

[@pablog444]

Definitely cool way to use that recorder. I put my drum machine through a guitar amp to achieve that dirty lo-fi beats, but i was wondering about other methods (my amp is pretty loud so no way i can use it during midnight jams ;/). Do you know any other methods to dirty things up during live jams? I need the sound to be distorted while playing, not on a recorded track, so I was wondering about puting my drum machine through some tube preamps maybe? then into the mixer and have it in my headphones? cheers!

[@MadeOnTape]

i had a lot of luck with the SansAmp para driver DI. you can get way nastier than i did in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXuTdpeumpiXkNE

[@pablog444]

@@MadeOnTape great, thanks :)

[@PoipleBabby]

I appreciate all the work you've been putting into your channel, good tips, might have to pick one up if I see one at a thrift store.

[@MadeOnTape]

i appreciate this comment and we’re just getting started! happy to have you join me on the journey!

[@theelectricsplash7384]

Those distorted tom drums sounds awesome at 6:04! I have one of those little things somewhere and might have to use it, if it even works. I think I got because it looked like the interview cassette recorder in Almost Famous. It also can run off of C batteries, so it might be a more fun portable way to record stuff than a cell phone.

[@MadeOnTape]

let me know how it goes! these things are fun and inexpensive! 🤘

[@theelectricsplash7384]

@@MadeOnTape I definitely want to record some ocean sounds since we're kind of a surf band and we surf and live pretty close to the beach. Maybe just sound effects for song transitions, which are kinda cheesy, but think of "Dock of a Bay" or "Rainy Day in June." Something like that, but with a fucked up distorted cassette sound.

[@amelajay]

I'm here for it man.

[@Bor4enceto]

What would be the difference to blend the decapitator?

[@MadeOnTape]

the SoundToys plugin? i LOVE that plugin! this technique is less predictable, which can be a desired attribute or not, depending on the situation! thank you for checking it out 🙏

[@HerroVincey]

Wow, what an inspiration! Just what I was looking for.

[@MadeOnTape]

it's a fun technique! enjoy!

[@spooktasticaparanormal]

The drums sound blend was like the drum sounds on the old tamala Motown records.

[@MadeOnTape]

love those records! 🙌

[@spooktasticaparanormal]

@@MadeOnTape yeah so do I. Berry Gordy got the reverb for all those recordings from the toilet! Can you believe that?.. I laughed out loud when I saw the Tamala Motown documentary. You can just imagine the scenario if some was in the toilet taking a dump at the time of recording then you hear a plop sound on the record 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@JoshuaPickenpaugh]

The toms sound amazing with that tape recorder.

[@MadeOnTape]

yes 💯 i love that crunch !

[@collinstanley5246]

Great video! Very cool technique 🙌🎸

[@MadeOnTape]

🙏 it’s super fun! 🤘

[@TheGarageRecordingSC]

Damn it!!! Now I have to get my hands on a tape recorder because I want to try that as a trashy room mic for drums.

[@MadeOnTape]

it’s ok! they are CHEAP-O! 😂

[@TheGarageRecordingSC]

@@MadeOnTape 👍🏻🤣

[@tirwd]

God i love the microphone on these.

[@MadeOnTape]

🙌🎙

[@dadjeanious1025]

Are you going to get the same effect using the line in on the shoebox recorder (say, for a synth) or is the magic in the microphone?

[@MadeOnTape]

oooh that's a great question! I've never tried it! If line in doesn't work as well, I would either reamp a synth part or have it playing through and amp while tracking if I wanted to use the microphone on the cassette recorder... If you try the line in, let me know how it goes!

[@dadjeanious1025]

@@MadeOnTape called the "mic in" jack on my Sears recorder ... it does work. Much crunchier / distorted (in a good way) when I run a synth bass arp through the shoebox.

[@MadeOnTape]

that's awesome! happy to hear that!

[@breezy8061]

i have the the same one lmao

[@MadeOnTape]

does yours distort real quickly? i'm curious 😂

[@Lofyne]

Nice technique! So I’d assume this will still work if the heads on the recorder are worn out? As I have my uncle’s old cassette recorder here that tapes play back completely muffled on, and it’s also some cheap brand I have heard of. By the way, for some reason the combined drum recordings at 5:27 remind me of the drums in Man Parrish’s Hey There Homeboys song from the 80s. Even though the tempo is much slower.

[@MadeOnTape]

should absolutely work as long as you have some kind of line out! I recently got another one where that didn’t work :-( let me know if it works for you! 🤘

[@Lofyne]

@@MadeOnTape Yes, I will give a try when I get a chance. The brand is Lark, and it has the usual earphone and mic jacks.

[@stuffandjunkanduhh5049]

Clean and demagnetize the head that will probably help. If its OLD it could have some capacitors that need to be replaced as well. Tape heads dont have any parts that "wear out" its essentially just a coil like a guitar pickup or transformer. Could also be a cheap piece of junk I have quite a few of those haha. 🤷‍♂️ if youre handy with a soldering iron its pretty easy to build a better preamp than the circuitry usually inside the cheap ones with 1 opamp and a few caps/resistors.

[@MadeOnTape]

@@stuffandjunkanduhh5049 my little brother is a whiz with a soldering iron and recently took a lesson with him to gain confidence in this realm. Thanks for sharing! I'm sure I'll be collecting these here and there ...

[@Lofyne]

@@stuffandjunkanduhh5049 Yes, I’ll definitely give that a try. Just a bit preoccupied now building a tiny closet studio under the stairs. And yes, I remember there was a circuit diagram online years ago for a really simple preamp with very few components that apparently sounded as good as some professional preamps. Might still be possible to track it down on Google.

[@RetiredOldAccount]

I actually take out the mic and wire a jack to those leads to use it as a lofi recorder. Works great with guitar.

[@MadeOnTape]

excellent suggestion! Did Keith Richards do something like that? I always get that story confused...

[@RetiredOldAccount]

@@MadeOnTape no clue. I got it from Simon The Magpie

[@MadeOnTape]

@@RetiredOldAccount love Simon the Magpie such a quirk in the best way

[@RetiredOldAccount]

@@MadeOnTape Agreed! Definitely another inspiration to just try stuff. Especially with tape.

[@kgbinfo]

The drums sound sooooo good on that cassette recorder.

[@ehlerhog]

Complete waste of time. Get a day job man.

[@MadeOnTape]

😂 you think i can afford to live in the united states without one? i’ll take that as a compliment 🙏 for the record i can’t remember not needing multiple day jobs, and healthcare still sucks

[@davejones5745]

Direct your lousy comments somewhere else, this guy is cool!