Producing a Song Entirely on a Cassette Recorder

[@mandelbro1]

Due to popular demand I've released "Far Away" on streaming platforms, links to it are here: mdnt30.com/go/far-away Thanks again for the insane amount of comments, feedback and love! Never expected this to blow up. You guys are awesome! 💛

[@Scudmaster11]

Is mono cassettes became popular... than we would have 4 hour cassettes and CD wouldn't be able to complete with the time

[@72marshflower15]

Mike Oldfield became world famous with his production of Tubular Bells, a 45 minute long song created from just this same process.. You know it as the theme to the exorcist.

[@subg8858]

Stereo tape makes the tape wider not longer

[@LetArtsLive]

That was freaking amazing can you listen to it while you're adding tracks ?

[@dalrok]

@@72marshflower15 Fyi: Tubular bells was recorded on a professional Ampeg 2" 16 track machine (i think it was a MM1000 model). It involved more than 250 overdubs and thousands of punch-ins, that could only be done with these very robust and precise broad tapes. The first demos before the start were produced on 4-track 1/2" tape to develop the recording schemes.

[@tomifg]

thanks algorithm for showing me this 3 years after its release

[@spamusicinspace]

same

[@survivor030406]

Same here

[@franmanley1635]

Agreed!

[@davidpachecoegido]

+1

[@firmankurniawandys3236]

me too 😂

[@JunkyardSam]

The song turned out great and it's such a reminder than maybe music doesn't need to be so overproduced. This was so simple and appealing.

[@UltraCodex66]

It sounds like a demo

[@yphonichs]

​@@UltraCodex66 "maybe music doesn't need to be so overproduced" ...

[@S14M07]

This song could use a little bit of working, but as some of his friends said, it feels human, it feels natural, and I really like that.

[@wilhelmtheconquerer6214]

Exactly, although I'd argue that an 8-track would be more reasonable. That way you can mic kick, snare, x2 overheads, x2 drum room, bass amp and x2 guitar amps in one take ("live" of the floor) and then be able to add the vocals, harmonies, solos and other smaller stuff afterwards (keys, percussion, sound FX, etc.) Nothing sounds as good as rhythm track where everyone's playing together and playing of eachother, especially recorded to tape and using analog effects

[@columben7272]

Great song

[@aureodelacruz]

I use bouncing all the time with my 8 tracks limited ableton lite.

[@calvinm9884]

Lmao light gang

[@kevindube7096]

Even with unlimited tracks bouncing is useful because my CPU _is_ limited. Saves a lot of lag to bounce a group of tracks with memory intensive plug-ins when the settings are all set & they don’t need to be doin their tingtang in real time 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@axilleas]

Using Reaper I don’t have such limitations but that seems like a good idea to prevent me from chasing my tail around the mix... Thanks!

[@RollyPraise]

Do the same things, but on the PC

[@NiranjanBallal]

Same here man!! 😂

[@johnnyharris]

Video is really made.

[@ailyas3556]

that was a very comment

[@Deuce_B]

@@ailyas3556 That was an extremely reply

[@benjs.mp4]

@@Deuce_B a pretty response

[@derekbeck6761]

@@benjs.mp4 That retort is certainly constructed.

[@MC.DOLLAH]

Bro I feel you I’m high too lmao

[@MrPitatom]

I love how the young generation are embracing the old technology. I've been using tapes since I was 4 years old. I'm 53 years old and still use them at home and in the car. Respect!

[@abriction]

my favorite thing about tape is the way the low end sounds. even just the bass guitar and the drum track alone sound sooo satisfying to listen to. it's such a warm and cozy punch.

[@dalrok]

Really? I call it dull and muddy. Even the 1/2" tapes sound inferiour in comparison to a digital master. Had to live with that kind of 'studio' for some years (the money ..) in the 80s and hated it. Best experience (not): You have everything finished and then the tape is scrambled while rewinding. Congratulations! Go to start and try again! Everyone who used these things at the time would never want to go back to this crap. If You really like that muddy sound, take a good recording and use Your EQ to smash it. ;-)

[@huarachudo47]

So, that was the "fatness" everyone used to talk abour, referencing analog recording. Cool. It sounds great.

[@stinghouseproductions8502]

@@dalrok Well, that's just like...your opinion. Man.

[@dalrok]

@@stinghouseproductions8502 Yes, it is my opinion, and is based on my experience as a musician who used these machines in the 80s and years of studio work. Starting with the Fostex X-15, Tascam 246 we soon took a mortgage and switched to a used Teac 80-8 8-track tape & Revox B-77 2-track for mastering. Later we got a Studer A800 MKIII 16-track 2" & Tascam 32-2 until 2019, when we switched completely to digital, after working in parallel with digital (RME) IFCs. We sold them, because even the bands, that came because we had the analog machines, only wanted the digital mixes, when played to them in blind A/B, because they had so much better dynamics and transparency than the analog ones despite the high quality of our analog equipment. We still do our mixes the same style we did for analog, no 'compression wars'. So they sound like analog on steroids and the bands like them. I'd never want to go back to cassettes with their heavy crosstalk and muddy 'fat' sound (that You can expect from a tape, where 4 tracks have only .15" in total at a comparatively slow speed of max. of 3 IPS in comparison to a 2" 16-track (where a single track has .125") at high speed 7.5-30 IPS.

[@machinelanguage5108]

​​@@dalrokdude I made music on 4-track cassette recorders for years. I love the sound. When I listen to my old stuff from the early 90s, it sounds so deep. Sure, there were limitations (like bouncing tracks down from 3-traks to 1-trak to get more tracks, the ever-present low-level hiss, syncing recorded tracks with what you were recording into open tracks, etc.) Those limitations brought out innovation. An example is discovering how to get intense, ducking-style compression by using radio shack Y-adapters and pushing the levels of the 2 inputs hard, adding distortion pedals, etc. I got an incredible sound that could NEVER be recreated or emulated on my DAWs, through my attempts to get more input channels.

[@MichaelJ023]

The important things to consider when recording with a 4-track are: Start with a machine that has built in noise reduction (DBX, Dolby C) like the Yamaha MT, use Chrome or Metal Hi Bias tapes, use high tape speed, record your levels a bit on the hot side - in the red - don’t be afraid of clipping - real tape compression is especially beautiful on bass and drums, minimize the use of bouncing - keep the amount of tracks to a minimum - focus on your performance of each instrument. The real beauty of these machines comes out when you limit yourself to 4 parts, rehearse them very well, and then do your best performance for each part. Leave the expansive layered multitrack recordings to modern tech. And finally, if you are going to use reverb, use the effects loop at mixdown instead of using it on each individual track at the beginning. Decent 4-track machines will have effects send-returns for each track.

[@TonyLeva]

I could not agree more!

[@TheMentalblockrock]

also makes a BIG difference to use a mic pre-amp with a compressor built in.

[@briandiolun139]

Great advice. Thank you!

[@putridfetidini5468]

ALL OF THIS IS TRUE. Such a pain in the ass, lol. Aficionados out there, no offense but I dont miss it 🙂

[@stuartsmith5146]

Right! Record hot! But check out my other post for reverb options.

[@TimLeeSongs]

So nice to hear a young person giving respect to old tech, rather than just bashing it because it’s old. We had one of these at school when I was doing my music GSCEs in the mid 90s and it was the first thing I did multitrack recording on and it just felt magical and so exciting at the time! Great video.

[@samtayla2326]

Actually these days vintage gear gets more love than ever. Stuff like tape noise what was considered a negative side effect is actively searched for. Who ever hates old gear cause it's old has no clue of making music

[@scottlarson1548]

KZbin is full of videos of young people playing with old tech. The stuff is cheap on eBay (except for the old tech that's actually good).

[@ricklesshorse8159]

Excellent. .. many Souvenirs !

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

Well I am older than the unit and still deeply grateful we moved on ...

[@scottlarson1548]

@King of Iron Fist You edit video using a razor blade and tape?

[@jamesmarkjackson1979]

I was a teenager in the 90's so all my early song writing/recording attempts were on a similar 4 track. I think they teach you to be a better song writer, there's no where to hide. It can sound quality might be dreadful but if the song structure is there, the lyrics are good, the chords and harmonies are interesting or there's a catchy hook or whatever it can still be a good song. It's all too easy to polish a turd with modern recording techniques and as a result so many musically boring songs with the same 3 or 4 chords are pumped out because we get distracted by the fancy production values.

[@adamjacksonmedia]

I love how young people are discovering recording equipment my dad purchased me in the early 90s, and I have been using for decades.

[@WolfgangXP65-67]

Oh as a Gen Z , I definitely want to buy it for my band!

[@BugzKiller]

I'm in my 60's, been doing this most my life. Started out on an old Mono reel to reel..LOL. Then I started collecting Only 4 tracks recorders, mostly tascam only. best choice for me. It got to the point where I had about 6 of them I bought online, used. Then I sold them all and stuck with my Tascam 424 MKll, which I use all the time. In fact the Mkll I bought new, and it stayed unopened in the box for 5 years before I started to use it! So that's my baby till it croaks. No Digital stuff for me, ever! Plus I bought Quality High Bias cassettes when they were closing out at the big box stores way back. Got enough of those for a few lifetimes! Keep on 4 trackin people! It's the Most Fun way!! Great Hobby for a lifetime! Nice Video as well!! Keep it up!

[@mandelbro1]

Totally agree! The taping continues...

[@BugzKiller]

@Lil Yeet what do you mean

[@switchfakienollie1]

Would be great to hear some of your music! N if you feel the need to sell some of those high bias cassettes I’m all for it haha

[@gwugluud]

Jpc I’m in my 60s, I have had a similar journey , lol. I love my (what I now have) , a Yamaha MT, which is the most hi fi cassette rig ever. Don’t eschew the new, I have plugins of tube compressors and classic 60s tape rigs which get you as lo fi and analog as you could ever want, plus there’s extra features you can dick around with not possible in “analog nature”, such as changing the pitch of 1 track without affecting the others, and 100s of wild capabilities. Reaper has a demo you’re supposed to pay for, but not required, and they don’t gay down anything, the demo version is identical to the paid version. You may be missing out on more adventure and crazy expressive possibilities than you realize. Try it, man, then if u don’t like it, nobody gets killed, or Little Susie’s puppy won’t die, etc

[@timallnutt4287]

Chrome (high bias) tapes make a huge difference on 4 tracks.

[@i3zd]

Cool as fuck. Wish more bedroom producers would get down like this, show us what it sounds like when you don't have 1,000,000 controls and effects at your fingertips. So well done!

[@nicholastotoro7721]

This was all that existed when I was in High School, at least all you could afford when working at a record store part-time and being a student full-time.

[@BSpenceTravels]

I worked all summer, saved up $500 and had my friend's dad buy a Fostex 4-track recorder on his credit card. My parents wouldn't do it because they thought it was a waste of my money. Long story short, our band recorded a record, dubbed 50 copies and sold them at school to our friends. 1997 was the beginning of my DIY recording career. Small time stuff. Still doing it. Ha

[@minibuns5397]

Yup. The Tascam 424.

[@lueezec358]

@@BSpenceTravelsCool story 🤟

[@johanlovstedt832]

I bought a Yamaha MT50 a couple of months ago and I’ve had so much fun being able to quickly lay things down as the format almost forces you to mix fast and move forward without getting stuck in tweaking a million parameters. This song really shows the core of that process. Beautiful!

[@LimJim]

I am blown away by the quality of the editing and visuals and the overall effort you put into this video. Absolutely amazing

[@emillindroth]

I made songs recording additional tracks while copying one track from one tape to another on a double cassette deck back in the early 90s. You only had that many takes and the treble was all muffled, which you had to take into account when planning the order of the tracks. I slammed a large pillow with a kitchen pot for kick-drum and used the toilet lid as snare, tuned down an acoustic guitar for base and just did Hhats with my mouth. Yeah, I grew up poor, but the whole idea of how to go about it, in your head, resulted in a different take on music production. Using less instruments and basically no digital or electronic instrument to produce a larger sound was a challenge back then. I don't think many of the musicians of today could do it.

[@mossesandrade5969]

We are twins dude! I did the same thing. SOS Between 2 decks. But I had Dolby B and later had 2 cassette decks with Dolby C. Expensive Metal tapes kept the top end present. Those recordings from 1986 - 1995 blow me away. No hiss and they good sound. Thanks for sharing. I stereo miked those pans and posts. I used a wall as kick or just the floor with my fist. I made my own electric guitar. Took a $3 Radio Shack mic and through it into the guitar sound hole. Right to the bottom. The mic got plugged into an old Sony portable quarter inch mono RTR. I would then turn the recording level all the way up until it was nothing but distortion. Then I would mic the RTR speaker and record that. Great sound. I made bass just like you did except with the $3 mic thrown in to the sounding hole. The mic would exaggerate those bass frequencies. I got a real 1960's boomy bass sound. The bass was recorded direct. The output of the RTR went to a Radio Shack 5 band equalizer where I would turn down the 1, 3 and 10 khz frequencies, but turn up 60 and 240 hz all the way up to +10 db.

[@darwinsaye]

That’s how my brother and I did it in the late 70s/early 80s. But we used two old dictation-style tape recorders.

[@MacintoshT.Reznor]

Prove it

[@valley_robot]

I didn't have a drum machine, I used to use a suitcase as my bass drum and a cardboard box as a snare, I used to use my clock a lot to help me know how much time I had recorded, we had no tech but we still made countless cassettes of 4 track music

[@MacintoshT.Reznor]

@@valley_robot prove it

[@jimmiejames4674]

I'm a gen x er and yes these were essential in my creative process of song writing. Believe me you had one shot to record your parts live. Actually made me focus more on my parts before recording. The struggle of only having four tracks was very real.

[@mandelbro1]

There certainly a real struggle with these formats, but the extra focus that it necessitated from you must have had a positive impact on your performance

[@danjwalker]

I could bounce tracks on mine but after you bounce two tracks into one, you were stuck with it. No undo :)

[@jaimeandresmolinacontreras1851]

I am from Chile, southamerica. I am 54 years old. When i was 19, I used to write songs and record them on one go on a tape recorder. We were far away from using separated tracks. After watching your video i realized the purity of the sound. You recorded what you were able to produce. The sound was real. Great video. Thanks for sharing your experience with analog recording.

[@agustin3710]

The sound from the buttons being pressed is soooo satisfying

[@seltic13]

as a proponent and owner of 3 424s your happiness in hearing back the sound of tape warmed my soul.

[@rens1379]

This is so sick. It makes me wanna record something myself.

[@rens1379]

@@mandelbro1 Thanks for your reply! Will do!

[@gwugluud]

Go and do it. You don’t have to impress Gene Simmons, just express.

[@versnellingspookie]

@@gwugluud why would you want to impress Gene Simmons? ;^)

[@Junkopartna]

They’re around 300 great machines tho

[@Cryo837]

No compatibility issues, no viruses, no updates that break things, no having to deal BOTH your recorder AND all the things that go wrong on a computer. And most important, you can QUICKLY get down those moments of inspiration before they disappear. No matter how rough, a good idea won't be lost while you fiddle with a computer. If you can get by with 4 tracks, a LOT less hassle!!!!

[@captaindoeverything]

The mission statement for my studio is simple, "Be honest, be expressive." Regardless of what format you prefer if the emotional content is real it will come through as it did here. Well done.

[@mandelbro1]

Love this

[@YellowJelloMusic]

Fcuk perfectionism, just create 😃

[@goamateurzero622]

Dude, watching this made me so happy! I’m in my late 30s and all the recordings I made with my first band in the 90s were done on 4 track recorders. I still treasure those recordings and memories. And all those „human imperfections“ are what makes music great and what I miss in today‘s recordings, both budget and professional. Thanks for bringing back memories! Well done!

[@PC0067]

I started practicing multi-track recording around when I was 15 or 16. My mom gave me the Fostex Dolby C 4-track at the time. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I was very excited. I watch your video to remind me of this memory and I discover your excitement and your joy which I share so much that I cry! Thank you for this incredible moment!

[@jimneversink9700]

Best thing about working in the old fashioned format is not having to constantly upgrade or install new software or deal with bugs. Your ‘latest’ machine is the latest forever if you look after it. ♾❤️

[@kevinsturges6957]

That piano sounds fantastic! So much 70s character in there. ❤️

[@mandelbro1]

Thanks! I agree

[@aezidoubleu]

Incredible the buzzing and realness of 4 tracks is irreplaceable

[@elonmust7470]

What buzzing?

[@CrystalDennisMusic]

My motto when writing music is limitations breed creativity and this defs shows that. It was really cool seeing some old tech in action, I really liked that warm tape sound and it was indeed powerful seeing you don't need all of these bells and whistles to make music. Really puts things into perspective. I tend to write songs that are like 4 to 6 tracks of instru and feel bad it isn't as beefy as it could be but this shows there's nothing wrong with that so I need to kick that thinking out the window. Great video!

[@maurodelmar7240]

i agree with the feeling about using the tascam 424. i´ve been finishing an entire album made with it. we recorded the complete band in 2 tracks, and i had the rest 2 for voices and arrangments. it is really another experience, lot of fun and more "responsability" for what you do in tape. you can do it again, but you have to erase the previous take, or "punch in", a function that works really good.

[@SeanDuranMusic]

I use my 424 Tascam for recording my drum set. In 93-94 these 4 tracks were $1500 that's when they came out. I recorded a few songs like that, except my songs were highly influenced by White Zombie and thrash metal. Sorry can't show people nothing, I've hide ALL my 'ONE' man videos for the time being. I don't know why you have tape speed on high. After I 4 track my drums I put them into my DAW software, with is Studio One version 2. You have alot to learn, about songwriting and producing. But that's what music is about, learning. You'll never stop learning.

[@electricnebraska]

A Tascam 4 track saved my life back in '92. Thanks for the nostalgia.

[@mandelbro1]

My pleasure :D

[@tiphaine6409]

Imagine being literally talented at everything AND being the hardest worker in the country... you should be proud Bart

[@LeeCrampton]

So nice to see a youngster restricting himself to pretty ancient and basic tech but putting it out there. well done indeed and I especially liked the creative video making too (the opening sequence was a hoot). Cheers. Lee

[@NintenDub]

And....there's the absolute art that comes from using the machine itself. It's not easy to do track by track,live.theres so much back n forth and messing up, and getting ready again, and being right at the end of a last instrument without erasing it(depending how your doing it)

[@jonatanhee1708]

I've been recording hours of music on 4 track back in the 90's, but actually the first double tracks i ever did was on a boom box with two casette decks. You could have a drum beat or guitar on one tape in deck A and while that was playing out loud and deck B was recording you could sing into the build in mic and voila! Quality was terrible off course, but the thrill of making it work when you were 12-13 years old was amazing!

[@Briansmusic-]

I used to use 2 tape machines to bounce back and forth back in the early 70's. I had a Tascam in the late 90's and by the time I got my 1st PC I was using both together.

[@Briansmusic-]

I forgot to add the days of quadrophonic albums and mixes on other playback deceives the reel to reels and even the 8 track cartridge recorders were 4 track machines just labeled as left and right front and left and right rear. Anyway my dislikes of the 424MKIII which I had to fix were the transport buttons that failed after heavy use but I modified with some extra plastic to make them spring back up and easy touch and the single motor drive which stays running constant when the unit is powered up. I also modified that by putting a micro switch between one of the leads that powered it. That way the belt and motor can be off and the mixer on while you premix inputs prior to recording.

[@shotbyjustinp]

i’m 22 years old from fayetteville NC i’m an up and coming audio engineer i’ve been recording vocals for about 6-7 yrs in pro tools.. this makes me appreciate what tools we have now a days!! love from north carolina❤️

[@shotbyjustinp]

nice to see all these people comment on this, music brings people together no matter the age range

[@pjarrey6283]

@Busta Speeker who hurt you?

[@CrowClouds]

If you want an earthy, warm lofi ish sound in a DAW, try the Waves plugin called J37 tape machine. It is really awesome.

[@kbmadethatshit6364]

Or pass your music to a audio engineer @kbquest_ on insta to do it for u. 🙂 (FREE PROMOTION FREE REAL ESTATE FOLKS)

[@JoeCoutureMusicCouture]

Hours of fun on my Yamaha 4track. I use DAWS now and it really makes me appreciate the multi track capabilities, as well as the ability to run several effects bussing. It was nice to see someone made this video to show this process. I started in the 70's with 2 cassette decks. Can anyone say nth generation signal degradation 😅😅😬

[@wolframheldmaier727]

Thank you very much for this Video. I am an 80s kid and had an Fostex 260. bouncing , drop in and out via pedal and neither copy/Paste nor sync. You are partly right about the democratisation in producing music. You need the money to purchase and these recorders were horribly expensive in these days. Maybe today producing is to easy and the quality and the creativity is missing. But we had fun then and today with recording.

[@djacroama]

I like how it forces you to be creative with what you're working with. Excellent work dude

[@rennhoalohaloren6211]

The beauty of raw simplicity. In the age of laptops and AI, imperfection is the revolution of humanity.

[@soberman7924]

don't comment often, but your honesty and vulnerability was so refreshing. we really don't need to do complicated things to achieve meaningful results. keep up the good work, bro!

[@mandelbro1]

Thank you so much 😊

[@MarkusAudio]

this video has all I Love - a Porta, 3 voice panned, chrome tapes a cool production...and Volca Beats 😊 ❤❤❤❤❤

[@maxostrowski5269]

Dude, I remember making music on something similar as a kid. I think it’s almost better to be limited in your instrument selection and editing capabilities. Makes something more realistic and definitely shows your talents when confined to those limitations. Great job 👏🏻

[@GeekTherapyRadio]

Dude...this content is astounding. Fully expected to see a sub-count in the tens of thousands. Keep up the incredible work! Also, it is heartwarming to see the "younger" generation taking an interest in analogue recording and passing the torch. I have several 4 tracks, even a Tascam 688 that crams 8 audio tracks onto a standard cassette tape. It is my prized possession in my studio. It's crazy how working within the limitations of 4 to 8 tracks of audio tape actually unleashes a flood of creativity and inspiration. It's exactly like working with a film camera. You only have a a few shots on a roll so you make those shots count. It's incredibly easy to lose inspiration with a DAW with infinite track counts and plugins and cameras with infinite storage. The technology is wonderful and facilitates wonderful things impossible years ago...but it can conversely be uninspiring. Again, great work dude! Here's a song I recorded a few years ago on my Tascam 464 4 track if you're interested soundcloud.com/johnny-hemberger/hallelujah

[@mandelbro1]

Oh lovely cover, man. Beautiful soft harmonies!

[@elonmust7470]

The reverbed electric guitar licks are flowing through my head. It would sound good.

[@naturestone3148]

This Video is excellent in so many ways. For younger Songwriters that are messed up because of Millions of Choices in their DAW of Choice. I use Cubase so i experienced that some times. Also that he shows his Process of Songwriting is very interesting for People that start out with making Songs. His Song is very unique and special and well composed. He is very talented and his Subs are way too LOW for the Work he puts in. I hope he is a professional Songwriter and Singer now. I have not checked out his newer Videos yet. I will soon. The best thing in this great Video is to see and hear the JOY that he has about his own Song and also his great smile when he first heard the 3 recorded Vocaltracks.🙏😊 Awesome Job Mandelbro You are going somewhere - and if not - just keep on singing and writing beautiful Songs. Thank you very much for this very nice Video

[@drindy5166]

It was a great beginning and start to my career as a musician back in the early 90's. Found a Tascam 244 in a pawn shop. So many years and amazing tune ideas got worked out and recorded with that piece of hardware. Almost wish I bought the same one that was sitting right beside it at the time. It had push buttons instead of switches. Other than that no other differences. Both were dirt cheap even in a pawn shop.

[@petefaders]

I'll never forget the day I got one of these. September, 1988. Life changed.

[@YoungNation666]

I love this and being a artist my self. You really show people my age what music is about and I love that.🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@GingerJediJammin]

Great effort! Good recording and songwriting too. I love the 'rounded' sound of tape and its reduced dynamic range (particularly cassette), this gives it a naturally compressed sound which, funnily enough, we chase in the digital realm. The analogue medium seems to be a truer representation of how the human ear hears sound, digital has always been very sterile and harsh to me. As your video shows there's no hiding either. You have to nail the take as there's very little in the way of post processing, unless you fancy splicing and sticking tape together! Overall this leads to a far more 'human' outcome which is sorely lacking in the ultra-processed and overly produced commercial music of today (my opinion of course). Keep it up!

[@magneto7930]

I had a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder in the 80s. I loved it. It was one of my favorite toys. I would often bounce three tracks onto the fourth track, or I would bounce all four tracks onto another cassette, also "punching in" parts where there was an empty space. Fun memories!

[@johnupdate]

I'm GenX and used to use a Tascam Portastudio until Logic came along. since then I've only recorded digitally and got lost in unimportant stuff far too often. That's why I got myself a second-hand Portastudio again some time ago. Due to the limitations and the fact that you can't undo decisions, I'm now concentrating on the essentials of songwriting again. 😀 And the best thing is: there’s no time correction, no pitch correction, no copy and Paste!

[@chrischismsounds]

This is so inspiring man. I love seeing your excitement and passion for this. Your music is also beautiful and it makes me just want to jump in and start writing something right now. Beautiful stuff.

[@paulrouet9968]

Really nice ! We want more vids like that 🔥🔥

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

I need one of these. Have been wanting one for ages.

[@onoraii.o]

as someone who plans on producing music this inspired me in so many ways. i will keep on coming back to this video. use it as my motivation.

[@renegonzalez6755]

The TDK audio cassette, very nostalgic. They might have not been the highest quality but they were inexpensive and easy to find.

[@MacXpert74]

TDK made some of the best tapes available actually, in different price ranges. The channel "Cassette comeback" makes nice videos about cassettes, demonstrating many different brands and types. kzbin.info/door/5yaZs2wSx-uqnXBkWmyqBQ

[@philpower_]

"The Dark Knight" audio cassette

[@renegonzalez6755]

The TDK type 2 SA had a great price to performance ratio. It was my favorite brand and model back when i was in middle school in the early 90's. I recorded classic 1970s Rock, old school Hip Hop and R&B on those at the time. When i was in High School my taste changed in music and i discovered Grunge and Metal music. I decided to try one of my father's 1989 era TDK type IV MA audio cassettes. What a world of difference. I noticed greatly reduced WOW and Flutter especially on my inexpensive portable players (Lennox Sound and Windsor.) I used audio cassettes till 2003. After i purchased my first digital audio player (Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 3) i Stopped using audio cassettes. Back in 2016 i revisited the audio cassette after purchasing a modified 1986 released Fisher Price PXL-2000 video camera. I find it so interesting to be able to not just hear but to also physically see via a recorded video stream the quality differences between audio cassette formulations, brands, country of manufactures and release years. That video camera is sort of like the ultimate stress test for audio cassettes. For example the tape speed is incredibly fast, faster than any high speed duplication dual deck. The audio tape in general was never designed to be recorded onto at such a high speed. There is a small margin for tape ribbon imperfections which can be seen in the recorded video (lower resolution, moire patterns and visible artifacts.) I would love to make a KZbin video about this but there are more than enough videos on the Fisher Price PXL-2000 video camera.

[@samtayla2326]

"It's so like shity, it's nice tho!" Every song I ever made

[@mandelbro1]

Having heard your demo in the Discord, I have to disagree with the shity-ness

[@samtayla2326]

@@mandelbro1 haha well I mean, I wouldn't really be an artist if I didn't think my stuff lowkey sucks but somehow is the greatest shit ever

[@lovemaurice]

Completely disagree. This kid has mad talent. Lyrics, playing, his whole sound is rich. Then he does the Portastudio. WOW!

[@pascalbruyere7108]

Shity? Sound of the 80s, I still prefer it.

[@axelfiedel3793]

@@mandelbro1 I'm a gen Z who would really like to record on that kind of machine

[@petejackson9285]

Back in the 90's me and a guitarist and a drummer did a whole hour and thirty musical backing to a performance art peice on a Yamaha four track. We learned so much about what our sound source had to be, how to use it, how to bounce and compensate for drop in quality, why there was a drop in quality. All this made us better stage muscians and how to play in an group better. I cant see modern digital being anywhere near as three dimentional. In fact I hate modern punk music because it is too perfect. Punk was never meant to be perfect....

[@AVPROJECT1]

I bought, my parents did it :) , the first 4 trk cassette recorder in 1982. Exactly the one that you show in that old promoting video. I still have it....somewhere :)

[@nomadben]

I loved the song, that was so much fun to watch. I love that feeling when you start layering tracks together and hear the final result.

[@janbrinkmann572]

Nice video Bro✌🏼 I really like that you made the back groundmusic - of course - yourself🔥

[@supergimp2000]

Gen-Xer here. This is fantastic. I learned to record on a Fostex 4-track cassette machine as a teenager and went on to become a recording engineer in LA. Yup, this is how we did it. Next try editing with a razor blade! Been there, done that. How things have changed.

[@bluenotesharp]

Ahhhh , the tape neckties and my trusty grease pencil. I once had to change a drummers kick drum timing by using a blade and an SPX 90 as a triggered sample on an 8 track to save a deadline . I was working for a well known songstress. who wrote some songs for Cindy Lauper. When we cut copied and pasted it was for real.

[@tomdavis7427]

Elliot smith recorded his first two albums on a four track! Awesome

[@Junkopartna]

The Beatles recorded sgt pepper on a four track

[@scottlarson1548]

So did thousands of other artists.

[@Underdrummer]

We did this in the early 80's with my Dad's Singing Machine. No mixer. Dual decks and external mics. Lay down drumbeat and bass on tape #1, play it and record on tape 2 while adding bass and guitar. Reverse tapes and add vocals. The quality was terrible of course but I still have those old tracks and there's something magical about them.

[@tenderlyone]

This is great! I just wished I had found this earlier, because I think it’s one of the greatest things that I experienced in my days. Multitracking was a challenge, and when we could do it, it was a thing to enjoy it to the fullest. I love the sound, how warm it is, and how it really demands that you are the best you can.

[@MrGazz101]

You absolutely killed this. And for once the KZbin algorithm killed it in bringing me here. Keep it up!

[@thedlomax]

Commenting for the algorithm, awesome video!

[@OneroomBeatz]

Older music had way more feeling into it, now everything is too robotic, quantized, autotuned, while it can sound good on some music but it doesn't make it anything special. Limitations can sound better, it gives music more character that's why old music is being sampled so much in today's music. As a producer myself I don't like the sound of VST's it sounds cold loud and dead and every vst program sounds different which makes it a hell to mix sometimes. I bought a Focusrite Clarett 4pre and prefer to record real instruments on that rather then vst's or make my own samples.

[@Justinmorl]

Couldn’t have said it better myself

[@whiskerbiscuit6674]

Ok Boomer

[@YellowJelloMusic]

Right on! I bought Tascam 414 because I hate recording in a DAW. I also despise the overproduced mentality of today's music. Real human music has feel and well... sometimes mistakes. But that's what makes it interesting.

[@whiskerbiscuit6674]

@@YellowJelloMusic You guys sound like morons. You can record on a daw exactly the same way as on a 4 track recorder. Just don't over produce it. It's not hard. You're just a hipster.

[@bp.4928]

Don't think anyone can make the robotic/quantized argument given that the biggest hits of the 80s were very much produced, played with sequencers, triggers, and drum machines like the Linn Drum and LM-1 which feature *automatic quantizing*.

[@CannedFunkMusic]

I really like the direction he went with the whole recording. It doesn’t sound cookie cutter and the changes are really natural. Good job Lil Bro bro!

[@wavgod4871]

the fact that the mix is clean, no clipping no nothing just makes me proud and happy from one musician to another

[@marcomonaco5556]

Great video!

[@latinx5129]

The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album was recorded on something similar Pros - Analog warmth and punchiness Cons - Who cares what anyone else says. Let’s return to vinyl, cassette tape and 8 track 😁

[@elonmust7470]

I hate digital sound.

[@gehitchkockt4362]

Amazing video!

[@soepil]

Hello, Gen X here. :) Very entertaining and informative video. And very nostalgic, too. Although I use Cubase now, I still have my Tascam PortaTwo HS 4-track recorder. Getting one of these back then was like having Compass Point Studios in your bedroom, or something. Learned a lot of tricks for recording. Thank you.

[@tc4300]

12:44 that moment when you are waiting while your friend is listening to your stuff, gives place to those long moments of floor observation.

[@althejazzman]

Having learnt recording on tape, I would have recorded the drums first so the piano had something to play in time with, and then done a live mix fading the drums in and out at the desired points. Old school habits die hard!

[@rafaelcaribbeanaudio3067]

I used to do this with a double cassette deck, changing the cassette betwen the decks to record and adding sounds...

[@LucyOLastic]

I had a Hitachi double cassette with a line/mic input and used to bounce from one deck in the same way. It was a great tool for sketching ideas in those days before I could afford a four track. Before that I used to cover the erase head of a single 2 track cassette recorder (my first, an old Wien) to record one sound over another, recording home made oscillators direct in and mixing in miked up live sounds from the Phillips valve radio which I used as an amplifier or a guitar, later a second player put through an amp, recprding its output and adding other sounds on top. No-fi, but it was fun, and started me on my journey. Even when using a Fostex X-26 four track I would mix down all four onto a two track, with effects from an ART Proverb and a digital delay pedal, leaving two tracks spare to add more. I came up with some pretty decent quality recordings that way.

[@rafaelcaribbeanaudio3067]

@@LucyOLastic Yes! I still have the tapes, and I laugh a lot listening what I recorded with the guitar over and over again

[@TheG7thcapo]

Same with me.

[@bouzoukiman5000]

The piano sounds amazing and vocal quality was good too

[@IronClan2024]

the hows : 1 : you need two good taperecorders ( i used grundigs ) 2: you need a room with very thick walls 3: testrecords: to find out where one tape recorder needs to stay and where the other, you need to make tests 4: the two set recorders do not move one inch from those places until your background music to you singing is done 5: REC A : record your beats and try to combine kick and snare or claps in one but make sure the loudness of the two is in a good mix 6: REC B : play the record of REC A back by a managable loudness and record in REC B what you want , such as crashes and shakers but REC A must be loud enough to end up along the crashes you record and the shakers in REC B 7: swipe the tape from REC B to REC A 8: play REC A that now has the tape of REC B back 9: Record with REC B REC A while adding to your record music such as a piano - which i did not have backthen - or guitar wike managing that the playback of REC B is louder but still not so loud that you get a overdrive 10: swipe again your tape from REC B to REC A 11: playback REC A and record that in REC B along your voice or vocals but make sure that REC A again is loud enough to end up in REC B while being noticeable and Audible as music 12 : sing along done for LO-FI fans this way is gold and you still today can do this if you can get your hands on such recorders. i had only two but if you have more then two you can actualy have your very own sort of tascam but you are gonna need some more hands for pushing knobs here. Anyway if you record like this, you do not need to add any lofi fx because the outcome will blow your mind without even needing any fx a trick for LOFI ( cifteli is a very loud instrument thats why i can tell ) : by covering up your guitar / cifteli in my case , so that its sound gets dimmed a litle , your record will have a whole lot of lofi character. now running your record in a DAW you can get rid of some of the LOFI Character but how can you get that record into your DAW ? well - allthough i never tried it - you need to make sure to have a tapereocrder that at least does have adio output. Those i used had some outputs labeld with line out and phones , so line out is the answer. you take your tape and play it back on the recorder while in your DAW you arm a track to record ( set it up so that your taperecorder will give a signal usualy via a audio cable and a AU INt ) and you record the whole song , or if you have more then one, your whole tape here you can now do a whole lot of stuff such as reducing the LOFI atributes or, if your record is to good and clean , increasing the LOFI atributes via fx and ...this does kind of render the whole thing as useless in the fiorst place you may say, since you can do such a record on your daw, but that tape does give you a very LOFI record and usualy the things happening in such records cannot be reproduced by no means producing LOFI beats and LOFI sounds is harder then one may think because on a DAW so many things you will need to simulate but on a tape you actualy get those without any effort

[@A..D..D]

I was in a band with friends and they bought one of these to start recording. Haven’t played in a band in a long time but for years had a lot of music in my head and want to record it. This may be the way. Great video. Thank you

[@maximum94]

I'm here from Instagram an I don't regret coming over

[@willb.2061]

Genius! Great video! Keep up the good job man! 👌💪❤️

[@majestijt3815]

Really cool video ~ deanpiepers

[@bro_leo]

Ouh okay, now I understand how this works. At first I was confused how can this thing record 4 different tracks at the same time in one cassette. So basically because an audio tape have 4 track inside the tape. Left and Right channel on side A + Left and Right channel on side B. So total is 4 tracks. I bet, this machine use a special or different play/record head than the regular tape players to be able to record 4 track at the same time.

[@headrushindi]

In the words of the famous star trek character Sulu. " George Takei" . " OH MY" .. I haven't seen a Tascam in years. I used to own that model back in the Stone age. So glad to see someone actually re- introducing the world to this tech. After watching you navigate that antique I am so grateful for Pro Tools.

[@adrianmunozcascos9691]

this litterally could be the intro of an album

[@justahungarianguy]

Bojler eladó?

[@DNHarris]

Gen X here. The history from analog to digital isn't cut and dry, rather a play between evolution and revolution. I had a DAW on my Commodore 128 then Amiga 500 back in the late 80s back in middle school that I played around on. I loved EA's Instant Music. Rudimentary stuff but little did I know what I had or how the progression of DAWs would revolutionize music. Did anyone else have a DAW on their Commodore and Amiga back in the late 80s? My 80s DAW of choice: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_Music_(software)

[@MacXpert74]

I used my Amiga 500 from the late 80s through most of the 90s to record everything using Music-X. But this was a sequencer program, recording midi data. But you could use quite a lot of tracks. The only limit was the 16 channels midi could provide. The end result I mixed down live to normal 2-track stereo cassettes.

[@DNHarris]

@@MacXpert74 That is awesome! Glad to see someone else from the guilded era of DAWs.

[@MacXpert74]

@@DNHarris Yeah, it was a fun time. Eventough with todays technology everything is much easier and vitually without limitations, I think I was more creative back in the day with what I had.

[@DNHarris]

@@MacXpert74 yeah I think that eludes to how creativity ignites within us. Our desire to learn and overcome struggle incites creativity.. because you have to try something new. Once you have done everything you know... you have to begin tearing down the building blocks of what you know. Then your mind begins to piece the subparts in new ways and experiment. Adversity (physical or mental) begets creativity and innovation.

[@Sizorhandz]

house music was big on those, i never had one but learned about it years later!

[@el_rabserino]

Awesome video. Does the tascam comes with basic eq features ? Or did you leave the tracks as is ?

[@MadeOnTape]

I believe this machine has a 10 kHz shelf and a 100 Hz shelf, which are amazingly useful. So useful, that I will often limit myself to these EQ adjustments even in a modern production (if well-recorded)

[@actuallyn]

that intentional 4:3 aspect ratio is just perfect

[@alfalfasprout69]

NIce video, this is how we did it back in the day, I remember seeing small cassette 4 track recorders in guitar magazines in the mid 90's and along with a CD Trainers in later years I really wanted but could never afford, my how the world has changes. Keep the greate vids coming.

[@FunkyFlo]

more funk music with a fostex x26 please! not such a emo lofi math gock shit!!!

[@mandelbro1]

What kind of topics would you like me to explore in the future? Comment below! Thanks for watching, and subscribe if you enjoyed :)

[@DJ_InYourFace]

First off, very cool vid. I'm personally interested in more videos à la "making a song using only...". For example, that little drum machine. Can you make a song just with that and vocals?

[@TurkundJDizzl]

i am interested in more stuff about songwriting, like songwriting essentials...

[@Mononitol]

This was freaking sick!

[@DystopianTofuTV]

Songstuctures simple and complex and the balance between having too much variation or too little in a section

[@ferrousdogma]

I took all my old 4 track recordings and imported them into my daw ( desktop audio workstation lol ) now , i can add more tracks digitally. What ends up happening is amazing.

[@dguyiop8]

I can hear a string section in this song. Actually leave it out.

[@giovanniparrillo9418]

Nice

[@SamThredder]

this thing started my 'career' in recording music

[@MelRog]

this is what music should be. fun, exciting, and easy to make. great video.

[@galoguevara6049]

"It's impossible to make a perfect song." Ohhh young blood - how wrong you are. 4-track recording involves well planned song structuring and recording sequence before you even begin (meaning the order in which you record your instrument tracks). There is more flexibility with 8-track machines, but the fundamentals of "planning ahead" still apply. 1- make it sound better by actually buying analog outboard gear (you know - actual "plugins"). 2 ch pre-amp / 2 ch compressor / multi-effects module / at least a 5 band equalizer / another stereo cassette player-recorder for bounding and mixing down (and another small mixer doesn't hurt - for overdubbing other live instruments in real-time as you bounce - don't mess up) 2- learn how to chain the gear together, at the most optimum levels to reduce signal noise - to get a more polished sound (both at the point of recording tracks, or bouncing tracks, and when mixing down) 3- Record bass frequency instruments (bass guitar or bass drum) on the outside channels. Meaning the first channel or last channel of the machine. This is because there is a phenomenon called "tape-bleed." The recording heads of the machine are squeezing 4 or 8 channels very close to each other - on a very thin magnetic recording medium. The thicker frequencies of the bass will be picked up by the neighboring channel heads. Example - if you record the bass on Ch-2 - some of the signal will "bleed" into the neighboring Ch-1 and Ch-3 (because the other recording heads are physically close to the left and right of Ch-2). To reduce this "bleed" it's better to record on Ch-1, because there is only one physical recording head next to it (Ch-2). The other physical edge has - well... nothing next to it. There are many more tricks like this that can make your 4-track or 8-track recording sound so much better (almost pro-level). And it helps to be organized, patient, and have actual good playing technique (especially timing and syncopation). Quantizing, time-shifting, and pitch-correction won't help you in this old world. Ahh... brings me back to my beginnings - nice.

[@SeanLaMontagne]

You'll still never get "the perfect song" lol. It's impossible for a reason.

[@Thesmartestmanalive81]

Oh please share all your perfect songs with the world.