Using a cassette deck as a Tape Delay Unit

[@catleaderk]

Thanks for providing me your knowledge. I have never known the "tape delay". Thanks!!

[@wehappyfewmusic]

You’re welcome and hope it was useful! 🙏

[@crackhousedubs9027]

You can feed the delay back to itself. This technique is often used in dub production. Aux Send (Instrument Channel) > Tape Deck > Mixer Channel > Post Fader Aux Send (Delay Channel). Driving the Delay Feedback with Delay Channel Fader. Experiment with both Aux Send Levels and Delay Channel Gain to get it right.

[@wehappyfewmusic]

I love that dub style delay, thanks for the clear breakdown. 👌

[@williamoates9887]

Most Excellent Informative Video Adrian .....

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Many thanks, Wilbur!

[@BogoEN]

Very cool, thanks for posting. This reminds me that you can also get a cheap reel to reel and do the same, but it also gives my old Sony 3-head new life, potentially. Thanks!

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Hey, great to hear you like the video and hope you get some nice results with your Sony R2R!

[@peterkiefel4324]

This is really good thanks for posting. It is a very short delay (I'm guessing well under 100ms) which could put you more in ADT territory so makes me wonder what it would sound like if you added a pitch modulation pedal into the aux signal path? Also wondering if you can push the echo into self oscillation? Thanks for the post!

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Hey thanks for checking out the video Peter! Yes it probably is moving into the ADT territory and good idea to put a pitch shift pedal in the signal chain. I’ve tried pushing it into self oscillation on my Tascam 424mkIII and it sounds pretty cool. It was super easy to setup on the 424 by bringing the tape return into one of the spare mixer channels. I’ll probably make another video about that👍

[@graxjpg]

I’d imagine a feedback loop with a send of a mixer would be incredibly easy. Gonna have to give it a go

[@wehappyfewmusic]

@@graxjpg cool, let me know how you get on. 👍

[@qlyde]

Just found this channel today in my search for a decent 4/8 track to record guitars, bass, rhodes & synths in my studio with some more character. This is awesome, thanks for these videos man! If you have any opinion on the MT8XII vs 488MK2 in terms of sound quality I'd really love to hear it since you've featured both on your channel! I don't care too much about the features since my workflow will mostly stay in the DAW. I'd be using it for recording individual instruments and then bouncing into the DAW during production, and also sending out Finished Songs in 8 Mixed Stems (from the DAW to the 8 Track) for a sort of Cassette Stem Mastering sound on the final mixes. Cheers

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Hey welcome to the channel and hope there’s some useful stuff here for you! The 488 mkII and MTX8 mkII are both great machines so you can’t go far wrong with either if you can get a good working model. The MT8X mkII is better setup for your requirements as has 8 tape outs. You can get 8 outputs out of the 488, but it’s not pretty. There’s not much difference with sound quality and both are surprisingly good for cassette. One thing to keep in mind though is you can only record 4 tracks simultaneously on either machine, so you would need to play at least 4 tracks directly to tape. Cheers for dropping by…

[@qlyde]

@@wehappyfewmusic Thank you this is really useful, much appreciated! Subscribed for the future content. I actually came across a serviced (with 8 tape sets) Sony TC377 for less than either of the other two options. It’s really tempting but I still think an 8 track is better suited & more flexible. Final question haha, would the audio quality on the TC377 still be better than Cassette with 8 stems as a tape mastering device?

[@wehappyfewmusic]

@@qlyde Interesting question, you’d definitely have more options with 8 stems out of the portastudio but the Sony would probably give you better quality due to the tape width and speed. That said my Sony TC377 wouldn’t sound better than my 8 tracks, as although it’s been serviced it isn’t calibrated correctly still. If you go down the R2R route you might be better off getting a Revox/Tascam if you can stretch that far?

[@qlyde]

​@@wehappyfewmusic Thank you, your help has been exactly what I needed. I'll have to look into calibration and everything before I decide but I think the 8 track path is best for now. An R2R tape Master would be awesome but gear is worthless if I don't know how to use it or set it up to it's potential!

[@wehappyfewmusic]

@@qlyde You’re welcome and let me know how you get on. 👍

[@DaveZula]

Very cool. ✌️😎

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Many thanks, David. 👍😊

[@savingsoul]

Can the record button be on pause or does it have to be recording to a tape to work?

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Hi, it has to be recording to tape to work.

[@ChristianBannister]

Can you recommend something newer under £300 that would achieve the same result?

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Great question! Theres a Teac W1200 available new currently, but it gets very mixed reviews. All the best deck were made between the late 80’s to mid 90’s so you’d be better off getting a serviced vintage unit if you’d like better quality.

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Just thought of one, the Nakamichi DR-10 was in production to 2002 and is a great deck! Might be a touch more than £300 though…