I still use my Tascam Portastudio 488 from time to time to transfer songs into Reaper recorded many years ago.
The quality is quite good.
What will they think of next?
Love Klevgrand plugs and have several. The demo of this didn't wow me though, and someone at KVR mentioned VHS for Reaktor, which is free (if you already have Reaktor) and very, very good:
oooh nice! maybe they will make a ground loop hum plugin next. ooo! or how about one where it sounds like someone was vacuuming in the next room while you were recording?
"the sound color gives us chills down the spines" oh yes, I agree with that statement...in a way. This reminds me quite strongly how glad I was to switch from a cassette-tape-based system, to using a PC instead.
And who can forget the delight of the tape jamming up in your cassette machine, wrapping around the guide posts, with the tape crinkling up as you curse at it.
Ahhhh - such sweet memories.
We're doing nostalgia for damaged cassettes or malfunctioning or uncalibrated cassette decks now?
I remember being able to get a pretty decent recording with my Nak MR-1 with Maxell MX-S tapes. Pretty darn close to 1:1 with proper calibration and free of most of the common artifacts form malfunctioning or cheap equipment or tape stock.
So just like the faux "vinyl resurgence" which is also all about reproducing the sound of malfunctioning equipment. I suppose to be fair, there's an element of confusion in this one. Someone compares a CD that was mastered for 'portable devices' with the brick wall slamming and high end eq blast and finds some vinyl copy that is significantly better (and actually truer to the sound of the master). I find that the question: "Yeah but how does the 24 bit HD copy sound to you compared to that vinyl?" is usually met with "What's that?"
Great cassette sound...
We doing 8-track next?
Are there settings to mimic the different mutilations from high speed dubbing vs. proper too? What about the thing with a pre-recorded tape where the release was so cheap that they would fade out a song at the end of one side and fade it back in in progress on the other side? This was done to conserve tape (not leave a blank section at the end of one of the sides) and it faded back 'in progress' meaning you miss the bit during the fade out/in. It wasn't respooled and restarted for the fade back in. There were officially released pre-recorded cassettes like this, not bootlegs. You folks doing that too? For the nostalgia of your favorite song getting chopped in two? Does it have a dropout simulator? Are there settings for tape chewed up dropouts vs. set the headphones next to the tape dropouts? What about the different "clunk" sounds hitting stop/start made on the really shitty decks for home recorded tapes?
Know what else we need? A simulator for improperly setup sound systems! Simulate a stereo speaker array with the speakers too close together and aimed at your shins!
My favorite ever was Nasty VSD - the virtual analog summing device. People thought (think) that running out to analog before actually mixing things together made the mix better somehow, so they built a plugin to do analog summing in the box. I remember predicting it as a joke, and then finding out it's a real thing. That person has some big old stones swinging around!
I'm still waiting for someone to reproduce that sound from back in the 90's of 8 track minidisc systems. Kinda like all the weaknesses of old cheap analog systems combined with all the weaknesses of early digital systems at the same time.
Thanks for that Yamaha and Tascam.
I mean, it was a lot better than the old cassette tape analog multitrack home studio stuff, but after hearing all the hype about how digital was the way of the future, and then using some of that gear, it was very, well, meh...
Next time I hear someone bitch about the quality of modern converters or 44.1K 16 bit wave format audio, I'm going to slap them up-side the head with a 4 track Tascam portastudio. And then I'm going to keep slapping them with it until they get their drum machine to sync to the timecode track.
A copy of reaper, and on board sound, is a million times more capable than what I was working with when I started out.
Cassette wobble and tape imperfections, dropouts and malfunctions, not to mention tape shedding and magnetized heads. You can keep your great cassette sound.
This is awful on so many levels. I mean that DAW cassette plugin or whatever. Why? Why would I ever want tape hiss, needle crackles, tape wobbles... c'mon, we are talking about sound, not about Photoshop or After Effects visuals.
Eventually just for a slight effect for a couple of seconds is ok. WHole song, please no.
I'm still waiting for someone to reproduce that sound from back in the 90's of 8 track minidisc systems. Kinda like all the weaknesses of old cheap analog systems combined with all the weaknesses of early digital systems at the same time.
Thanks for that Yamaha and Tascam.
I mean, it was a lot better than the old cassette tape analog multitrack home studio stuff, but after hearing all the hype about how digital was the way of the future, and then using some of that gear, it was very, well, meh...
I recall, and it wasn't cheap either. I decided to hold out for PC recording software, and went in that direction a few years later. I had to get a good audio card, which was a bit difficult to find at the time, but it was worth it. The first mix I did was "super clean" but it sounded refreshing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drumphil
Next time I hear someone bitch about the quality of modern converters or 44.1K 16 bit wave format audio, I'm going to slap them up-side the head with a 4 track Tascam portastudio. And then I'm going to keep slapping them with it until they get their drum machine to sync to the timecode track.
A copy of reaper, and on board sound, is a million times more capable than what I was working with when I started out.
A decent Android phone with some small adapter and cheap app is probably better than any cassette-based system ever was, and most onboard sound on PC mainboards that cost ~$100 is easily worth using. It's a different world now.
(edit) lol memories of "sync stripe" to my drum machine! Aka "waste of one of your 4 audio tracks" plus "adding screeching sounds that faintly bleed to your other 3 tracks sometimes".
Last edited by JamesPeters; 05-24-2018 at 11:54 AM.
IDK. I started out with an 8 track hardware sequencer running a couple different synths which were multitimbral AND had multiple independent outputs AND a drum machine with 4 individual outs. That's a pretty large net gain in total individual tracks. And that's before I got Cakewalk!
The TCS-68 was made to pay homage to one of the most iconic cassette tape based 8-track recorders introduced in 1990, a little while before digital multitrack recording solutions forced their way through into the consumer market.
The original unit comprised a powerful 10-channel mixer that included a simple 3-band EQ, mic and line inputs as well as insert loops for each channel, an 8-track recorder with an advanced noise reduction system and a clearly arranged meter bridge. Given that it used compact cassettes as a recording medium it's obvious that it was far from high fidelity sounding and thus aimed at semiprofessional users and smaller studios.
The goal when creating the TCS-68 was to do justice to the original sound. So the preamp, the tape system and the EQ have been faithfully recreated.
imo all the good bits of casettes were the physical act of having them, using them, what you could do with them (record radio, make mixtapes or record your own 8 bit amiga tunes in my case) and operating the tape deck itself..
slot- clunk - physical button push, mechanical whirring... time passes... clunk.. hit play... wait - here's some hiss, then half a second of a previous recording then.. your stuff.
regards the sound - the aim was usually the cleanest noise free sound, tho saturating by recording too hot was sort of fun in a rebellious way, whilst also a way to ruin a recording accidentally... e.g oh i recorded that nirvana live at reading one off too hot and its a crunchy mess.. ( and later finding your deck ran too fast so recordings all wrong speed)
seem to recall my decent tape of choice was AR-90, reminds me my nice aiwa tape deck with digital display and gap finding tech is still at my folks...
I think the nostalgia factor can be legit, to me it's like some 110% artificial blue raspberry slush you had as kid from the convenience store compared to some state of the art small batch superfood smoothie lovingly hand crafted from the finest free range honey and raspberrys picked by vestal virgins. One is objectively better, but one brings back memories.
To be fair, a good, glitch free playrate change in realtime isn't exactly the easiest thing to code. Filters, non-linearities, and noise are relatively easy, but wow and flutter is a bit different.
I still use my Tascam Portastudio 488 from time to time to transfer songs into Reaper recorded many years ago.
The quality is quite good.
What will they think of next?
Anyone thinks the demo isn't even very convincing? Doesn't sound like tapes I remember or even tape rips I still listen to. Lacks that fucky dull high end and the overdrive doesn't convince me either.
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I loved my Tascam 244 back in the day, but I can't say that I'm missing the cassette sound much. But if I do need to go all Boards of Canada, then I prefer ToneBoosters Reelbus v4 - https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_reelbus_v4.html - It even has a BoC preset
People always talked about analog being better, of course the equipment and source material plays a huge part in that. Not sure I could get a superior result with the kind of mixing system I could afford ; )
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashcat_lt
My favorite ever was Nasty VSD - the virtual analog summing device. People thought (think) that running out to analog before actually mixing things together made the mix better somehow, so they built a plugin to do analog summing in the box. I remember predicting it as a joke, and then finding out it's a real thing. That person has some big old stones swinging around!
There are times when I wish I could have a plugin that actually ran the audio out on to an actual cassette tape with all the artifacts. It's a degradation that is unique and appealing under very certain circumstances IMO. That being said, the struggle I went through during my days as a recordist working under those same circumstances will never be missed and not so easily forgotten. What a pain in the ass it was trying to achieve superior fidelity on cassette tape. I rigged every multitracker I had to move the tape a fast as I could get it to run. Thinking back, I laugh when I remember the time I rigged one of them (can't remember which, maybe a Tascam porta 1) with such a large pulley and belt that a 60-minute tape lasted only a few minutes! I do not and will not ever miss the magnetic tape struggle. But yes, this plug looks pretty cool for what it does.
I loved my Tascam 244 back in the day, but I can't say that I'm missing the cassette sound much
Still got mine! New rec/play head and it still does a good job. Just about all transistors inside. Devilish wiring looms! But ... it's still 4 tracks on 1/8" tape! Tracks recorded on it don't sound awful - but we are huge steps forward now with our digital toys!
Ashcat- I guess I shoulda been more detailed. I wish there was a plugin that could truly model the trillions of variables that are in play when actually putting music to cassette and playing it back into the daw. Reainsert is perfect for this, but I'm too busy (or lazy) to bust out my old cassette deck and go through all of that. Especially on a whim when it may not be the right treatment for the track. But nonetheless, reainsert rocks for sure.
Using this for folly in a Pink Floyd esque cinematic mix is certainly a reasonable use. (And the only reasonable use.) The writeup suggested someone pining after the sound of the generation loss much like the faux "vinyl resurgence" though, hence reading it the riot act.
Using this for folly in a Pink Floyd esque cinematic mix is certainly a reasonable use. (And the only reasonable use.) The writeup suggested someone pining after the sound of the generation loss much like the faux "vinyl resurgence" though, hence reading it the riot act.
Obviously, this sort of thing would usually be best served as a spice and not as a main course. But you can't legitimately impose limitations in the arts by saying - ever - that x is the only reasonable use for something, because there can always be a different use you haven't thought of yet. There was no "Pink Floyd-esque" anything before Pink Floyd.
Anyone thinks the demo isn't even very convincing? Doesn't sound like tapes I remember or even tape rips I still listen to. Lacks that fucky dull high end and the overdrive doesn't convince me either.
Yeah, I thought the same.
Only a few years ago people were joking about cassette sim plugins. Vintage mp3 codecs will be next!
Why not a plugin that emulates bad tape splices, coffee spills on tape reels, a random de-magnetizer, and a vsti of the infamous Clamadone? And where would we be without the De-Versifier plugin, which emulates accidental deletions of whole or partial sections of songs(also known as "deversity", supposedly a highly desirable result)?
Or the Untuner for singers (formerly known as "Gackisitty")? What about a "de-consonanter" that removes or stresses certain consonants at specific times from vocals, and adding vowels - an example would be "didn't" becoming "diddent".
And, I would certainly rely heavily on a "bumper" plugin, for adding footstomps, and accidental whacks and smacks on mic stands during recording - it would really add to the energy and urgency of vocals!!!