The Teaching Tool That Makes LoFi Beats To Study To
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I focus on the beauty of an obsolete class room tool, magnetic card audio recorders. Made by many companies like Califone, Eiki and Bell & Howell, these are basically the Instagram of magnetic tape recorders. Originally meant for learning languages, these have since found use for LoFi, noise and experimental music, especially after being shown in the movie Baby Driver. Many of these come with line outs, mic ins and have variable speed and offer endless creative possibilities: scratching, looping, half-speed, reverse. All that with a very nice and rather deep sound, way more interesting than many cassette recorders. Shown are the Eiki Language Master, Califone Cardmaster and Bell & Howell Language Master.
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I commented on your previous short video on these readers but a quick mention again; Look up Andrew Barranca / Gaybomb, he has been using these since the early '00s and watching him live is mesmerizing. More info about him in the previous video comment.
Dude, screw the cards. Just glue some plastic guids into the machines and use any old 1/4" tape then add motor control knob for speed control and you can create all kinds of crazy loops with quality lofi sound.🤪😜😑😎
@@michaelshultz2540 but I have to say the cards are fun! Else it would just be normal recorder
It would have been fun if it had been used on mission impossible. The cards could have been made of flash paper. 😎
These cards will self destruct in 5 seconds....ssssssssss😎dum dum -da dum -da da dum dum - do do- doo do- do dooo - do da dooo -da dump ! 😎
This feels like it would be great for making an analogue horror short. The intro has an old school broadcast feel
Something like untold stories?
exactly what i was thinking lol
@@draliththeartist2084 the game?
Hipsters surely coom too this for sure
@@clearcontentment3695 Tis the whole purpose of the channel.
That machine helped me get rid of my lisp when I was in kindergarten. I would get pulled aside from regular class to see the therapist. I thought I was just having fun making funny voices, and wouldn’t find out until years later what was truly going on. Bless you Ms. Horowitz
Same here, I was in 1st grade though!
Wow!
I used one of these too, my language teacher was Mrs. Ducks!
@musicfreak
I see u improved well i saw almost no lisping
If you don't mind my asking, how was it used? It sounds so interesting.
That intro was some voodoo crazy. Blew my mind! How was hainbach talking without moving his mouth! He has transcended!
If you had one you would build a full modular granular synthesizer sampler with it. Just an idea...😏
You need one for the museum. Ask Techmoan if he's looking to offload his or loan you his for a while, or tell you where he got his to grab one.
hey l. m. n. C.!
haha, I sent you a comment in the last video asking you to experiment with something like this video and now I'll see you in the comments... :DD
Ah! Famous people talking to each other!!!
The fact it’s a Lofi walkthrough and the length of the video is 808 is pretty mind blowing
Nice catch!
What’s the significance of 808?
@@uhlexseeuh idk but I have a Nokia 808 so to me that's how it's relevant lol. I'm sure there's some other reason here though
@@uhlexseeuhwhat 808 is a drum machine made in the 1980s made by the Roland corporation that would let you program rhythms with analog synthesis rather than playing samples. They're characterized by a punchy low-end subby-ness that is easily tunable to different pitches.
@@uhlexseeuh the commonly used beat pattern in hip-hop/lofi genre
That tape wobble is literally PERFECT amount of Lo-Fi beats to study to
💀
Lowkey hate when every mf talks about lofi
@@YWLZ video literally has “lofi” in the title dude lmao
@@YWLZ I thought the fad would've died off by now... Most LoFi tracks are just loops thrown through a cheesy lofi filter. It's been boring as fuck unless the producer takes it a step further like in this video. I see why it's good for studying, but there's so much more. Psybient... Berlin School... Ambient... IDM... LoFi is just so over-saturated and generic now.
@@YWLZ lmaoo, they talk like "lo-fi" means hip hop and it annoys me sm.
This sounds like a piece of equipment that was used to make Everywhere at the End of Time.
That was the first thing I thought. I felt the cold down my spine hearing that machine… it’s horrifying
yea it suits really well to make creepy music for like in video games ig
I thought of u m a m i because it sounds very similar to the music of Interface.
Airwindows totape6 does this for software producers too.
So true! I went scrolling down the comments to see if anyone had also related it to EATEOT. I mean it must’ve been used in the album right?
You can use the magnetic disk from inside old floppy disks for looping, they'll just spin in place
Now that is cool. Gonna grab a few 3.5“
That’s very cool!
That is some interesting advice.
Tried it out - works great! I removed the bottom portion of the casing on the 3.5" floppy and held it in place: th-cam.com/video/P-4E75hVifA/w-d-xo.html
@@select_input Says video is private
Well I think it makes sense that this machine would have fairly high quality sound recording and reproduction capacity considering how important that would be for its original purpose of speech therapy.
@@browniecinco ??? like what
@@browniecinco lord save us, we goin illiterate
@@ansharyan710 Lmao I shouldn't laugh because it's a tragedy.
@@ansharyan710 We do bi guing to reeding gud. *to nut* redding gud.
@@browniecinco just the words that occurred to me to express my thoughts.
Fun fact: the Baby Driver track was by Kid Koala, who has been using tape cards for sampling and scratching for years
Interesting. I’m a fan of his work. I can see that. I saw Kid Koala live once. He probably use it at the show and forgot.
This fact was indeed fun. Thank you for sharing
Baby Driver and Kid Koala sounds like a good duo
I didn't know that, cool! I think they pay an image to him in the movie then, baby uses a magnetic tape recorder to make his custom songs if I remember correctly
My mom who had been blinded after a stroke at a young age used these for grocery lists when microcassettes were not yet a thing. I remember the eraser just being a giant electromagnet although there was an erasing side to the machine they were in it to play with and speed up and slow down play backwards etc I noticed you could record music quite well with him playing with older models
I was obsessed with these machines ever since I saw an experimental musician playing with one almost a decade ago. I was like, "What the hell is this crazy contraption that this guy is feeding a stack of cards through????". I've read about them since, but this is the first time I've seen one operate in a clear, non-grainy, video.
Had one of these in the classroom in Kindergarten. 5 year old me figured out the hip hop DJ scratch trick (A is for app-app-apple) as well as speeding it up and slowing it down. Never imagined the crazy stuff you can actually do with this. Of course I think the Kindergarten one was play-only.
Are you THE Jason Lescalleet? Funny seeing you here
@@my-spinning-wheel Not the musician. I am instead merely the software engineer, i.e. the *OTHER* Jason Lescalleet.
@@jasonlescalleet5611 Haha I see, was just surprised to see the name
The bar is high, but I think this my favourite video you've done. Just such a wonderfully instant process of something goes in, something comes back. Obviously more problematic with the looping, but that's something you get skilled at doing I assume.
The Sonic Six + drums + card loop was so damn good. I actually swore out loud. Yeah!
Look forward to the magic roundabout video in the future. Or should that be magnetic roundabout?
PS - If you don't already know it, watch Eddie Izzard's "Language Lab" from the 90s about similar devices. Classic stuff.
PPS - 8 minutes and 08 seconds for the video length - smooth. ;)
Yeah I was so happy about that, not even planned.
And thank you buddy, can’t wait to hang!
This thing is insane! Crazy to think that these tools have been around for ages, and only now we are giving them praise. To store actual data for sound reproduction is amazing.
may I suggest.. when making them loop cards, cutting your cards diagonally so you have more surface to stick together and makes for a more solid joint..and yes this sounds absolutely amazing
Also adds a nice cross fade instead of just cutting it straight
2:08 Sounds like something from the beginning of a Mac Miller song. Love it. That sound alone flooded me with memories. Thank you for the video. Think I gotta sub now.
Makes me so happy to see other people referencing Mac Miller in things like this! I think the song that sound reminds you of is the very beginning of Best Day Ever.
Edit: I guess it was the beginning of Best Day Ever Bonus. Didn’t realize there was a difference until now
bc it is its the intro/background to Donald Trump
IT DOES I WAS GONNA SAY THAT
I know Boards if Canada use all sorts of tape formats to mangle sounds, but this sounds exactly like half of the sounds from Geogaddi. Your examples are also very musical for something so extremely lofi, more than I’m used to hearing.
You've nailled it. I too was thinking of BoC
When lava pours out near the sea surface
Tremendous volcanic explosions sometimes occur
That's exactly what I was thinking. There's no way boards of Canada didn't use one of these
Oh yes! I just said the exact same thing
Omg ur so right, i knew it sounded familiar
3:48 I definitely love to study to a nice and warm ambient horror soundscape :D
I use 3M spray adhesive on the back of 1/4 inch real to reel tape then line it up to my roll of paper. The paper I use is "Solid Joint Tape" used for spackling the corners of walls. Works well with all five of my Califone Card Master 2000 ... Hope this helps someone.
You could double the length of each loop by twisting the strip and making it into a *Mobius strip* it would also complete the loop on its own without flipping, because it would only have *one side*
Ah nice.
Now I know why all those Eiki language masters disappeared from eBay so quickly, Hainbach bought five of them! 😂 Well, I’ll continue to look. Haven’t seen any anywhere for a while now. They really do sound great.
I post reviews ahead of my video on patreon.com/hainbach, that might be a reason.
@@Hainbach did you buy all 17 from ebay recently? lol
I waited a while but i just picked one up for $30 shipped as the only bidder. It's possible!
Ended up finding a 'parts only' Califone unit on Ebay for $30 shipped. Turned out it just needed some lubrication and a good cleaning. The volume pot also needed some tuner cleaner but it works almost as good as new now. I probably only put in about an hour of my time to it it all straightened out. Now I just need to cannibalize a VHS tape to make some cards. Thanks for the inspiration, Hainbach!
It’s crazy and exciting to think there are still things to be discovered.
Also insane how a Hainbach video can throw the prices through the roof 😂
What did he discover? Pretty much any magnetic tape reader can do this. It's just unorthodox and the _"cheapness"_ of the device plays into the aesthetic.
@@urphakeandgey6308 That’s like saying this is the same thing as a floppy drive. Yes, tape loops exist, but you can’t scratch a tape through the transport like this card, nor can you easily do precisely defined start points…and you sure as heck can’t do repeatable one-shots.
Go outside. Take a deep breath. Reconnect with wonder.
@@urphakeandgey6308 the viewer is the one discovering it
I just bought a home real to reel recorder with like 3 inch reels from the early 60s. If you want Lofi, just use one of them because you can get like 15 minutes of recording time on one reel. It sounds just like this
3:47 someone could tell me this is an unreleased track from LORN's album The Maze To Nowhere and I would believe them
amazing work!!
I instantly thought of Lorn when I heard that!
When making music for games, sometimes a good ambience soundtrack is needed to help set the mood. Considering how you can use the same tune in multiple ways, it's such a creative and cost effective way to produce music.
Ah I love that warm lofi sound! Also quick question, anyone know what instrument is being played at 3:02? It sounds soooo good like an Omni-chord
I think it's a Suzuki Portachord
it's actually the Tronichord, also by suzuki
I think it’s still the piano
@@BlinkOnWheels yes it definitley is
We used to use those in our special ed classroom to give extra practice to students who were having trouble learning to read. Some hard working kids made great progress using those machines.
I actually grew up using this in one of my Elementary classes. Occasionally there would be some kids that would accidentally press the record button and overwrite the cards with silence. That must've been real annoying to deal with as a teacher. Lol
Same here. Teacher had me use these to learn English in 5th grade. I was out of ESL by end of the school year so they worked.
I had to use one of these in speech therapy. They used it for kids with all speech impediments. They didn’t explain it to me unfortunately, but I think it was so we could hear what we sounded like when trying to read things. I didn’t stutter 100% percent of the time so I was basically talking normally and hearing myself normally. I don’t think it works well for stuttering, we know what it sounds like.. On an interesting note though, some people who stutter don’t always know when they’re stuttering. Perhaps it could be used to help them associate the fact that they stuttered to any particular physical feelings they might have had at the time, to help them notice when they do it.
Okay, I just discovered your channel. The intro was cool. But when you played those few piano notes and then played them back through the machine, that just instantly put giant smile on my face
I remember hearing LoFi Beats, as if they were very old, in different music videos on TH-cam.
This is awesome! Honestly, it's really cool.
Thank you for sharing, HAINBACH.
Beautiful. Reminds me of William Basinski, although I believe he's taken it to the next level by gradually destroying the cards, tape, or whatever he's using.
Thx! His recordings came apart due to the decay of the adhesive on the reel to reel recordings.
Favourite thing about this was the surprise of listening to parking tickets haha
Can't wait for this! I have some of these card readers. I take apart video tapes to get the 1/4 tape to make loops. I am excited to see what someone who knows what they are doing does with these! I have been using card stock with the tape glued on. Then I make them long enough to go through the machine. At each side I use soda cans that act as guides and keep the loop on track. They are really cool and can do two track (one for student, one for the teacher.) recordings, but you can only hear one track at a time. So you can switch between tracks.
Imagine if you were successfully able to make a large loop, and then have both units play the strip at the same time. Like, putting them back-to-back so that it continues the circle. If you put one of them on the teacher setting and the other on the student setting (if I interpreted what was happening right) then it could be like an echo.
Great stuff as always, would love to see you make a VHS loop as noted in the video. 🤞🏻🙏🏻
I just picked up some at my mothers house. There is more to experiment here for sure
@@Hainbach I used to run video backwards since the tape will pick up the other side - you have to use an old top loader / manual tracking device. It glitches in really interesting ways but works. This is what I used to do on my art degree ;-)
You can splice VHS tape with the same tape as you use for Super 8/audio tape, but of course you break the helical scan which is diagonal so you might want to splice diagonally.
6:40 the haunting sounds of bureaucracy
Oh my goodness! I used one of those when I was a kid (around 1976). I've tried describing it to people and they thought I was nuts 🤣
This is amazing. That music at 04:15 is so damn good.
Man, that music starting to beat at 4:10 was so good.
FINALLY SOMETHING I OWN THAT HAINBACH HASN'T COVERED YET 🅿️
As a long term subscriber, this feels so so so so so so validating to have something that you just got around to covering! 💚
Me too! I instagrammed him about one aaaagees ago. Knew he'd love it ;-)
I watched this the day it came out and looked for one of these immediately after seeing the video to no avail. I checked everyday on eBay for a couple weeks and didn’t find a single active listing for any kind of magnetic card reader. Now a few months later this video popped up on my recommended and I decided to check eBay again to see if I could find any. And now there are tons of listings, just all of them have the card readers priced in the hundreds.
just seems to be the way everything goes now a days. it's kinda frustrating like nothing can be a cool cheap find for more than a week it seems. as soon as people get wind that something is popular the price just skyrockets.
@@jodyb1095 seriously. it’s extremely frustrating
This device was used in the film Baby Driver!
Neat, I saw one of these devices in that movie "Baby Driver" (2017) and I wondered what it was, thanks for explaining it!
woah
hi
This was such a wonderful video to watch, thank you for making it! I was bummed to find that after reasonable research I couldn’t locate any magnetic card readers for under 100$, but such is life- when such an engaging and impressive display of use (as seen in your video) is broadcast, demand will obviously increase. While I may never own one in this lifetime, I truly appreciated this video. Thanks!
There's a band called Califone, I've always wondered if they're named after this machine. They've always made beautiful, warm, weird recordings.
Califone is also a headphone brand that makes cheap things that last for stuff like schools, i have a pair of red cailfone 2800-RDs
3:50 "I don't know man, sounds a little rough..."
4:10 *Good music stank face achieved.*
That is some dystopian sounds I didn't even expect. Made me feel uncomfortable in a good way. Scared even. Geez, magnetic card readers.
I really want to hear a loop with several in a row. Machine A records a sound which machine B plays then machine C plays that same sound but sent though the echoplex then machine D plays the sound through a different device. A sort of lofi delay signal chain.
This is exactly why I ordered a bunch more. That should be so fun!
I just saw a 1960s electronic keyboard on FB marketplace in my area. Sadly I am in the process of moving so I could not justify the $200 USD. When I saw the listing I instantly thought of Hainbach. Now I will have to keep an eye out for these card readers.
Yes.
Please tell me you'll be releasing a full version of that deliciously dark lo-fi at 4:10 and where I could get it. 🤩
I believe reverb, extreme chorus and some distortion gets you a similar wrecked sound for any guitar players :)
Okay. So, these machines have a lot of potential. You could hypothetically record simple information on a magnetic strip like a hotel room key, use this to translate them I to sound, and then find a pattern in the audio wave form and decode it.
As far as music goes, however, rather than a loop you would get more mileage out of a Mobius strip. However, you would need to custom make the strip and probably get a wheel on a bent coat hanger or some other prop to keep the strip from jumping out or crumpling as it goes through. If you treat a strip or loop like a belt on a rotor, you may experience less breaking.
Awesome video Hainbach! Definitely know the pain of trying to make loops for these. I ended up using the VHS tape and card stock method. That's how I recorded the sample I sent you for Old Suns 🙃
Okay... this is the first time I've seen your channel... and I'm INSTANT subbing. You have fantastic energy, and your art is lovely. Sometimes you just have to thank the algorithm. (or maybe the simulation hehe).
я просто сидел и слушал голос, думал, что будет тихая успокаивающая искажённая музыка, а потом началось то, что началось на 4:10
получилось круто, черт возьми! можно где целиком послушать?
Возможно на патреоне есть.
my boy is such a legend so he even made a video lasting 8:08.
What a nice, warm sound! Always cool to discover things I never knew existed repurposed to make music.
As a dyslexic kid, I remember these very well. I figured out very quickly that I could manipulate the cards to “scratch” the the recording kinda like a turntablist. Damn, those memories really explain why I got into sound design and love recording to tape so much. Now I’m gonna have to find some of these machines. Maybe the special school I attended hasn’t thrown them out. 🤔
That title is perfect aha
Love the machine and love your sweater. Its a work of art.
I feel a shifting of prices coming soon🔮 Yes! It's hitting reverb first-then eBay 🧙♂️😋
The Techmoan Effect applied to Hainbach.
This is so cool! I love how practical this approach is with this machine. And as always, you put this stuff to an awesome use!
Thank you! I just received mine in the mail and I use folders I cut and VHS tape to make my cards. I think poster board and VHS tape would work also, but I haven't tried it yet.
I think if manufacturer made a proper LoFi machine based on this device, it will sell like crazy.. the sound is unmatched LoFi.. just have proper output, easier usage for production.. maybe next quad cortex update?
I want one!
This thing gives you a physical sample library! One could even write on the cards what the samples are for easy finding. This is amazing! One thing I would want to add to it though is varispeed, if possible!
you could probably add a speed mod pretty easily if you got inside and played with the circuit board
Ive been trying to buy one of these and I can't find them anywhere.
I think this might be my new favorite video of yours?
Hard to say, give where the bar is, but this was an awesome showcase of an interesting piece of machinery for sure
thanks TH-cam for recommending me this and thank you Hainbach for uploading this amazing video! :)
Putting a few in a row would make a really cool tape echo!
If you make Black Metal with this I'd call it "Double Blackened/Washed Black Metal"
Man, this seems like a very cool thing for making music with!
4:09 This could be a song for an intro of Dystopian suburbs like in the style of Metro. I really want to have this song in a full version on Spotify, TH-cam or etc.
I want this now
This remind me of the fnaf vhs tapes where the music give weird, creepy, and old vide. I always wonder how they did sound like that until I found this video.
I think I had a speech teacher in kindergarten that used one of these. It's taking me back to a memory I haven't thought about since 1992. Crazy.
there is technically no limit to how much analogue data that would fit on that tape. if songs was stored in gamma wavelenghts and then recorded on the tape you only have to slow it down enough and it chould sound like real sound for a long time. you would need a doppler converter to play it of.
Technology has evolved, but this produces a unique sound that can’t easily be replicated with modern software
There's plenty of digital software that emulates it very closely. You probably wouldn't be able to tell in a mix. Tired of analogue-heads just wanking anything analogue.
I really love the reverse effect of the card reader. Anyone know any tracks or genres that utilize this effect?
I absolutely love the fact that the room you were recording in looks like a normal computer from the 1960's. I couldn't rap my head around either, but that also means I don't have as much of a strong passion for art such as LoFi creating as many others do. I love you, and the rest of the music making community!
4:06 heard this and instantly subscribed, anyone know any music similar to this style?
the pain of wanting something vintage from a viral YT video but knowing you can’t get it because they’re already sold out 😣 very cool video, looking forward to more with the additional readers!
They arrived! I am stuck editing the next video but I can’t wait to try
Does anyone know how is this genre of music called? I love how unusual it sounds
This sounds truly magical.
Great work, as always!
this room setting remind me of my uncle. wish I spent more time with him.. he was musical genius he would of love this. man i miss him... rip uncle Mike
Oh man! I used to use one of these early in my teaching career! I wonder where the thing is now... It was quite a lot of fun to use!
krass. Ich brauch dazu ein schritt für schritt tutorial für komplette Anfäger haha
So much of this reminds me of the music that plays when discovering more about the Nomai history in "Outer Wilds", this is astonishingly beautiful.
Hey, how did you get vibrato on that song?
Him: it's complicated
I have a couple of these, and I agree that old vhs cassette innards do work. You can get thin double sided adhesive tape to fix them to card stock. That music demo you did was awesome btw. I hope you try circuit bending these. Insert a knob on the motor speed 😂
Pro-Tip: This costs 500 dollars on Ebay now :)
i dont really care about lo fi but this looks like a really impractical dj device and it sounds like a mellotron which is pretty cool
in the early 80s i was one of the first to have a cassette walkman for recording - i found out that i got kind of crooked piano sounds, almost exactly like the ones you produce here, when i recorded with low battery power - my friends took me for crazy and couldn´t believe, thst i really liked that but nowadays these sounds are en vogue in the lofi scene - btw. i also called some of my stuff lofi back then already... :-)
i like your channel, keep going...
Is VHS tape going to be sensitive enough to hold a recording from a head like that? I thought you needed a much more energetic head to record to vhs tape and that's why it was bad for turning into RtR tape. I bet you could use some cheap RtR 1/4 tape though
I wonder if you could wire it up so you could hear both tracks at the same time, so you can do genuine stereo recordings.
The cut one around 2:25 sounds a lot like Best Day Ever by Mac Miller
I remember playing with one of these as a kid. My friend had one and the cards usually had a square hole punched in them as a sort of a pause so the card would ask you a question and it would pause for you to answer and then press the play button again to hear the answer. My very young and childlike brain immediately realized that it works on some kind of tape technology so I actually cut a strip of tape from one of my sister's music cassettes and pasted it on a card for the device to play but obviously the speed and maybe the head wasn't exactly the same so it sounded super demonic and I was convinced I would probably summon the devil or something because I remembered bits of a story about demonic things happening when you play a record or tape backwards. I was smart enough to figure out the mechanism and technology behind it but still naive enough that I thought you could summon demons by playing audio backwards
Need to tag this "unintentional ASMR" for those few of us that look for it!
I might use this to make the sort of discordant and unsettling sounds I want to make for some music
We had those at school, I recorded over the words with jibberish and my teacher got pissed off.