Baking Reel to Reel Tape with Bruce Stacey
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มี.ค. 2021
- Unreleased original songs dating back to the 60's and 70's are uncovered as Bruce unpacks old boxes from his tape archive. Featuring original songs recorded at home when Bruce was was between 17 and 20 years of age, the recordings offer fascinating insights into his early days as a budding composer and musical artist. Plans are to release an album of restored songs from the archive in the fall of 2021. Bruce gives a baking (tape) lesson and begins the process of bringing the songs back to life and listener!
You’re lucky to still have your reel to reel archive. Priceless
I want to grow old and listen to my younger self, just like this.
Hey you are really good and you have captured that golden era ❤😊😊
Awesome. Look forward to hearing more
That song sounds pretty cool !
Thank you so very much for this....just got finished rebuilding my Tascam 38 and TEAC 3340....now the process begins....waiting for my dehydrator to come....working with the guys at Tele Tech and they are super helpful....Cheers....Don P. Amherst, NS....
Awww beautiful tape machine Quality!
Sounds great Bruce!
Thanks so much for this. We are going through 40 years of old radio interviews, many of which need to be baked. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this info. I have 5 NOS tapes in my dehydrator now. The first one had that stickiness right near the end of the tape. Bad enough that the take up reel slowed almost to a stop. I thought something was wrong with my machine. LOL
Thanks! You can check out a collection of the old, remastered songs on my recently released “Bruce Stacey 17-21” album. Available to stream on most music platforms.
I was just thinking to myself “Man, this guy sounds good! I’d love to hear more!” Any chance that your music is available on CD and not just digital download?
@@joshuacollins7639 Hi Joshua - Thx for listening. Currently my music is only available via streaming platforms or download. (I’ve been encouraged recently to make my albums available on CD and may do that next fall).
All the best, Bruce
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 now do compact cassettes, I've gotten back into listening to tapes on my Sony Walkman
¡Hermosa experiencia!
Wonderful stuff
Hey yo, thank you for the lesson on tape baking and to my surprise i bought the same baking machine the Nesco. Also the song you played at the is lit my man! Keep up the great work. Peace.
I bought a batch of railroad sound reels recorded in the 1950’s, scotch 100-series two track mono -one track forward and one reverse- ( with voice intro for each clip which gives them provenance) which had no SSS though they did break in spots. Nothing some scotch tape couldnt address( of course that’s not proper splicing) so I could direct-transfer to CD in real time.
Good to know info
Nice song!!!
That's pretty awesome
Yes, but I also have an AKAI 1/4 track I use for tapes requiring that format.
Wow. I haven't done this in at least 30 years!!
Bruce, Thank you for sharing. About 4 months ago I got a dehydrator and modified it for baking the tapes. Yet, I haven't taken the plunge yet and baked them. I was nervous about it actually. Although I have done a great deal of research and know it has to be done.
I am sure you are going to have a lot of fun memories (I guess at this point you already did), and a couple of cringe worthy moments too. I think we all do and go: God, did I do that? LOL. Anyway, thanks for sharing and giving me the incemtive to take the plunge and do all mine. Be safe!
Warning: not all tapes can be baked! check to see which ones...
@@Aristedes_Mr.Melody_TM actually you can see the tape stick in this video. Watch the tape before it goes onto the pick up real ;)
What a nostalgia trip😂
Congratulation for your singing I would say Your voice today stiil ha s quaity. And the Tascam is realy impressive. I actually use tapes to record myself and it presents for me some psychology comfort seeing and imaging in mind my recordings on tape. May be it's weird for some but it's my pleasure. Some of reel recordings I put also here in my channel but not many - always noticed in intro. Other I recorded with PC and my Korg digital recorder. Apparently I make such recordings with amateur R2R with 3,75 inch/s but after comaprisons I decided that tape has enough potential if it's for my personal use while operations are time saving.
I would address part of a "splicing layers" problem to transport of tape recorder in past . I met only 3 tapes with such splicing while having them about 40. and they had it around the end of spule - say some 10% left. The rest of spule no problem at all. That brought me to conclusion that probably in past tape was streached too much. Average quality machines were not perfect due to not perfect mechanic compensation when tape diameter decreased. I use now Uher with very sophisticated mechanic for vertical operation or Bang Olufsen with reliable and simple but in it's dedicated horizontal position. It is essential to control pulling forces in tapes
I've begun transferring all my tapes to DAW. Just finished transferring all my Alesis Adat Xt20 tapes and now it's time to transfer all my 10" reels. They were recorded on a Teac 3340s and a Tascam 32. I'll need to bake all the reel to reel tapes first, which is why I'm researching this task. Once the 10" reels are transferred then I'll move on to the 7 1/2" reels recorded on an Akai 4000DS sound on sound, the same way you did yours. I still have all the decks used but I may need to freshen them up with belts etc. The 7 1/2" tapes were done in the early 70's and around 75 I got the 3340S. The Adats began in the late 90's. Actually blown away at the quality of sound and compositions! Using Logic and Apollo x8. Truly is amazing listening to the first compositions on adat. Really looking forward to working my way back in time! Thanks for posting your video!
Hi Rick - Thanks for commenting. Yes, it was really magic for me as well, listening back to old recordings for the first time in so many years. All the best with your project!
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 Hey Bruce, It is magic! What I also find very interesting is the number of people who have gone through a similar evolution in recording their compositions. While it was a huge lead to move to multi-track recording, I find it even more interesting how we got along with the earlier sound on sound method. You had to really think ahead and plan in order to get a fairly balanced result. Can't remember for sure but I think I was getting 7+ tracks with SOS and around 11+ tracks with my Teac 4 track. Depends on how much noise buildup you were willing to tolerate. Would then take the 2 track mix downs and make cassettes for the car and other people. Used to love driving and listening to my stuff, or better yet, spring it on friends. My next goal is baking tapes and preparing the Teac 3340s, Tascam32 and the Akai 4000DS for playback. Big shout out to all who have taken a similar path!
Equipment: NESCO FD-60
A food and fruit dehydrator was used here. Good job. Now we can do DIY baking tapes at home! Thank you so much!
I wish I had been able to do this with my 1981 tape. I transferred it to ADAT in the 90s and it shed so bad it slowed down the tape at the end of one song. I was able to fix it in digital later but it would have been nice to bake it before doing the transfer. It was AMPEX Grand Master tape made on a Tascam 38. I felt bad able gumming up the guys machine. I paid him for the transfer but he had a lot of cleaning to do after just two songs.
I'm with you on the song writing in high school sort of. I only wrote the lyrics. I also took guitar lessons in high school. Sadly, nothing ever came of it .
I've got close to 1000 open reel tapes and all the older ones work fine! It's those shitty brand new ones I bought from Radio Shuck that screwed me over the very first time I tried to play them back about a year after I recorded them!! They'd play fine for the first 15 to 20 minutes and then they'd start to melt onto the tape heads until the machine could no longer pull them because they were STUCK to the heads!!
Splicing tape dries up after a good while and becomes useless except as confetti. Seems to me that's pretty much all plastic-backed tape. Cloth-backed tape sticks FOREVER!! But, as it ages, it bleeds like a bitch!! I wonder if nylon-backed tape would work? It IS plastic, but it's also cloth.
That's a reel of leader tape, not splicing tape.
Sounds like a damn good recording for a two track that got bounced several times!
Having bad memories with the blade!!!lol
Not enough people are mentioning how good that song is.
Thanks Cameron! I just released a collection of those vintage, dubbed songs on an album, “Bruce Stacey 17-21”. You can stream the full song “Pretty Lady” on most streaming platforms. Cheers!
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 thanks, been listening on Spotify like crazy . Almost everyone I showed it to couldn’t believe they’ve never heard you before.
The sound of tapes well cared for and played on good cleaned demagnetized,, lubed and head aligned decks is the closest to live music.
Fantastic. If you have a video of your analog to digital audio connection I'd love to see it.
Hi Adrian - I’ve been planning to create a video detailing the digital clean-up and mastering of vintage files, but I’m in transition through this fall building a new studio. Will likely post in the first quarter of 2024 when I’m back up and running. Cheers, Bruce
First, thank you for sharing the know how and for taking us down on your own memory lane. I must have the same amount of silver hair and know the passion
I am also hoping you will continue to be generous in sharing your compositions and perhaps you can revive all and perhaps make all of them available on some medium of your choice
No intention to teach you here but the moisture (water vapor) pick up is a dynamic equilibrium of absorption and desorption that is dependent on the environment % RH (relative humidity). The tape therefore will pick up and lose water consequently and that creates the hydrolysis of the binding layer. Therefore best to keep the tapes around 20-30% moisture level. So how to do that? Either purchase a Cabinet with RH control or ( cheaper) to purchase a hand electric sealer, aluminum foils sealable bags, polyethylene bags ( 2 or 3 mil thick), desiccant small sachets, RH paper strips. after baking the tapes place in the polyethylene bag with two desiccant sachets and RH paper strip, seal the bag, place in aluminum foil bag and seal it.
I have done this to many tapes and 3-4 years later so far, the %RH indicator still shows the same value I documented at the date I placed the reel at time zero.
If you were wondering I am in pharmaceuticals and learning water absorption and desorption isotherms is critical as you can imagine. Be well
Thanks for sharing. That’s great advice regarding maintaining the moisture level for tape in storage. I’m currently in the process of preparing for a new home studio build in Atlantic Canada. Will document the process this fall and hope to be operational in the first quarter of 2024. All the best!
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 please keep in touch would love to hear about your experience
Baking part starts at 4:00
Bruce, I am about to do exactly what you're doing, which is making analog-to-digital transfers of music I wrote and/or played in bands from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. At least one of my reel-to-reel tapes will require baking, which is how I found your TH-cam video. I've gotten two Teac recorders rejuvenated so I can use them, and I've had to re-learn tape splicing skills I haven't used in decades. I'm acquiring hardware (audio interface, etc.) and software (Audacity, Izotope) that I'll need to transfer and improve the audio signals. I'm in the early stage--still pulling together the equipment, haven't begun to transfer yet. I'll get in touch via your web site to share other details about my project.
Great. Happy dubbing!
Warning: not all tapes can be baked! check to see which ones...
@@Aristedes_Mr.Melody_TM Which ones cannot be baked?
And did you jean purchase from KJJ? Is that a radio station or a store? I too am looking at a restored unit that does 7.5 and 15 ips thanks
Good afternoon. Excellent video. I have a question. what is the brand of the machine you have to cook the tapes. .thanks Ed
Nesco American Harvest Snackmaster Dehydrator
Cool. I wish I did that a few years ago before I lost all the high end on them. Is the transfer mono?
are you looking for 7" of 70' and 80' music on tapes ? I have more than 70 tapes sleeping at my home (BASF DP 26 LH)
Just attempting to start "baking"! I have many 1/2" reels to do. Do you need to remove the metal reel before placing the tape in the dehydrator? It does fit with the reel on. Thanks!!
Baking with tape on metal reels is fine and recommended from what I have researched. I baked on both plastic and metal reels with no issues.
I, may have some, of your cuts, on a
90, minute music cassette.
Great to share an invitation to go down on your memory lane . This must be a very satisfying moment for you. I am curious about the Tascam model you use since you mentioned it reads 15 ips. We’re your recording made in 15 ips?
Some were 15 ips, but the majority were 7 1/2 ips. The Tascam will play at that speed as well. I also have a 1/4 track AKAI deck that I used for some tapes.
Sticky-shed syndrome is something only applicable to backcoated studio grade tapes of the time - if you’re doing it to commercial grade stuff like your “Shamrock” tape or what have you then not only is it ineffective, you’re probably doing more harm than good. Never bake acetate tape either, in which case you’re definitely doing more harm than good.
Noted. Although all the tapes I baked played back fine. So no problems to report at my end.
Backcoated and some of the normal tapes made after 1973. I have recently found that my Philips LGH2050 tapes have started to squeak. As far as I know the problem started when they began replacing oil based chemicals in the tape formulation after the oil crisis in 1973. I have lots of tapes from the 60s that still runs perfectly.
Thx for the info!
When my Dad was in the army in late 60s he would send tapes back home about whats going on to my grandparents. They look like cassette size. Could those get turned to digital so i could hear my grandparents voice?
Yes, you can digitize cassette tapes. You should be able to find a company offering this service on line. You'd require a quality cassette deck as well as hardware and software to convert the analog recordings to a digital file if attempting on your own.
You said you recorded the original songs on 1/4 track. But isn't the Tascam 52 a half track machine?
I used both the AKAI (7.5 ips deck) and the Tascam (for 15 ips 1/2 track) transfers.
I wonder if you or any of the folks commenting on here have had problems with 90s ampex/quantegy sold under the 478 branding.... I have a ton of the stuff, & it has a slightly different issue. the oxide surface is solid & intact, but the antistatic/low-print back-coating (carbon) has come unbound, meaning that there are chunks of soot, basically, on the oxide surface, along with the still-sticky binder. baking the tapes in this condition would make things worse, since it doesn't deal with the occlusions caused by the back-coating on the oxide surface.
what I have to do is spool them back & forth through a cotton-wool pad soaked in naphtha (white spirit); takes about an hour to clean each 2400' reel.
Hi Duncan - I’ve never come across an issue with the “back coating”, so cannot help you there. Perhaps another enthusiast can offer some advice. All the best, Bruce
Thanks for the info! ... BTW what's the song at the end. Cool vibe! Did you put it online anywhere?
Yes! The collection of restored demos is available on my album titled, "Bruce Stacey - 17-23". It's available now on the majority of streaming platforms. You can also find links and more information at chelsearoadmusic.com Thx for connecting!
Le travail de montage avec une machine horizontale est quand meme beaucoup plus facile !
Good video, good original music. Some tapes , especially before back-coating, don’t need baking. Google “ tapes that need baking” , or whatever , and you’ll find sites by archival professionals on that topic. Don’t bake nitrocellulose 1950’s ones, or fire may result.
Helpful info. Thx!
What devise are u using to bake tapes
I used the “Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator” which has temperature controls.
Think i would be nervous of baking my tapes, as Murphy's Law dictates it would go wrong. Still very interesting though.
Wow. Sounded really good, Bruce. I too have some R2R 7" tapes I need to convert to digital before they are worthless. They contain really priceless music performances by my band in 1971. Still researching the best way to do it.
Where did you find that beautiful R2R deck?
I conducted an on-line search a couple of years ago and after a couple of months, found a former television-studio tech who had collected and maintained several vintage r-r machines. He had them set up in his living room for years and his wife had had enough of the intrusion, so he was motivated to sell the unit. It was in mint condition, so I jumped at the opportunity! Cheers, Bruce
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 What a great stroke of luck. I’ve been doing the same thing but am wary of ppl wanting to sell me a broken POS. I’m heavy into “buyer beware”. Best to you. Keep baking those tapes, brother.
Until the 70's tape used magnetic particle binders that used whale oil in the formula. The race to find an alternative led to the SSS disaster. Some like BASF and Agfa got it right whilst Ampex and Scotch got it very wrong. By the time they found the right formula their reputation was also shed and they had to relaunch under new brand names.
Fascinating fact! Thanks for sharing.
You should store your tapes vertically.
Yes, thanks for the advice. Will do that.
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 I guess they've lasted this long, so not a huge deal, but still would be a good idea. I listened to some of your early stuff on your playlist earlier and enjoyed it, especially the track Pretty Lady that you included here.
This is a very long video, but you might enjoy it. It's Michael Fremer, the vinyl guru from The Absolute Sound, formerly Stereophile, and he does a tour of the UMG tape vault at Iron Mountain. The sheer number of multitrack and master tapes held in this vault is mindboggling, and so much of it is stuff we've listened to for decades. th-cam.com/video/vxZPFNpB6yY/w-d-xo.html
I had over 700 reels of audio tape from the 40s & 50s. I have also been involved with 2" quad video tape since it was invented. 3m made the best tape and surprisingly Ampex was awful! Shamrock was the absolute worst and thank god they never made video tape!
The binder was the best on 3m tapes.
Its always best to bake tapes BEFORE playback or the particles WILL separate from the backing causing dropouts. Not so bad for audio tapes recorded at fast speed (15ips) but it can be a death sentence for video tapes causing servos to go out of lock.
I have restored many audio tape machines and now volunteering my time to restore Ampex broadcast 2" quad video tape machines. These machine weigh 1 ton and require and air compressor to operate, many servo systems as well
Yes, agree. Thanks for your comment!
Shamrock tapes were budget tapes made by Ampex. So those being extra terrible is no surprise!
@@Dan-TechAndMusic my cousin used them on his machine and they sounded awful! I have been recording since the 50s
In the video tape arena, Fuji tape made the best 2" video tape. Well at least for the first 7 passes, then u threw it out. I once played back a TV show on air, mastered on Fuji tape. The machine went out of lock during a portion of the show. I marked the tape so I could go back to the spot to physically inspect the tape. After the show was over, I rewound the tape to that point and about 1" of oxide came completely off the backing!!! 3m NEVER did that and I have used thousands of reels of tape
sounds like you can make a alex song which i never heard it
Yeah Bruce, all you really needed to purchase.. Instead of those 2 machines. Would have been a TEAC, 3340S. With that, 1/4 inch, 4 track, 7.5/15 IPS, recorder. You can playback all home, 1/4 track, 7.5 IPS and Recording Studio 1/2 Track, 15 IPS, Master Tapes.
And for those 1/4 track, 3.75 IPS tapes. You just play the back of 7.5 IPS into your computer. In software, you 1/2, the speed, in software. And Voilà! You have captured and archived everything to digital. With a single TEAC 3340-S. Or the 3440. Or the TASCAM 40-4. Or an, Otori, MX-5050-4 track. And that will do all 3 speeds.
These machines are all over eBay. And a single machine takes up less space. Provides for you a consistency of quality sound. Without going from one manufacturer's sound to the other manufacturers, sound. Consistency! Is the key to great archiving. You have to have your own, Standards.
Yeah baking tapes. Before we knew to bake tapes. I tried numerous other, techniques, means and ways. Some actually worked pretty good. Without baking. Because, after all… Highly precise temperature controlled ovens. No consumer really old. And they were very costly, scientific, industrial, ovens. That could hold a precise temperature to within 1°F. Because your oven at home doesn't work like that. It will melt your tapes and POOF. They are now but a memory.
So since I worked for one of the most Legendary Studio Recorder Manufacturers, in the world. By the name of Scully. After declining offers from, Ampex Corp. and MC Inc. They did not offer me a Managerial, position. Even though I liked Fort Lauderdale better than Philadelphia. Oh well. I made that sacrifice.
And so my method was a bit, involved and could get messy. With all of that oxide coming off the tape and gluing itself. To the tape guides, the heads, the pinch roller, the capstan shaft. It was like tar. With black dirt added. It was atrocious. But… I wanted to attempt a transfer. Before melting the tape. And making it unrecoverable. I was relatively successful. As demonstrated here:
soundcloud.com/remyrad/remygolnickjinglesotdemomb2
Retrieved from, already very sticky tape from 1979. In this transfer from 1996. Where I used additional, pure silicone lubrication, WD-40, Freon and 91% isopropyl alcohol. And I would say my technique worked well.
I then realized there was a difference in sound. From the recovery of sticky tape. Before baking. Until after baking. The baked recording sound different. They physically sound, dryer, acoustically. As if they knew they had been baked. And all that fluidic sounding warmth is gone. It is now a very crisp and dry sounding recording. It has been air fried. At just below melting point. For many many hours until it is thoroughly dead and re-vulcanized. Vulcan as in burning hot. As in Fried. Add the recording sound that way after baking.
They do not have or exhibit the warmth. My recovery, exhibits. When the oxide particles were still basking in their, warmly hydrated environment. And it sounds very warm.
Baked tape, sound. Just sounds very dry, to me. It lacks a certain warmth that has evaporated. Has been revoking eyes. WITH POWER FROM THE DEVIL! And is the easiest way. To recover your sticky tapes. Without having to go through what I put myself through. To see if I could recover without baking. And obviously… I was successful. Back in 1996. Before I wanted to risk, baking precious tapes.
Yes I know a Food Dehydrator, is the way to go. But I also have now. My new, 22-year-old, white trash, motorhome. And it has a Convection Microwave Oven. So I can bake my tapes without the Microwaves! Under, internal computer control.. Of the convection process. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Now I can go from, one city to the next. Using my Convection Microwave. To bake everybody's tapes into Cookies! As it will also do that.
Just that it has a convection microwave oven under computer control. Does not mean. You cannot bake your tapes. While also heating up your hotdog, simultaneously. Saving time. And any serious effort, whatsoever. And just the way to go. And you want to melt your tapes, accidentally. It'll happen. We will never hear about it. We won't remember those recordings, either. Unless we are drunk at a party. Then we will all get pissed-off. What do you mean it's gone forever? Did they have a fire? Well? No not exactly. They put it in their convection microwave. But had left the temperature on, Cookies.
It's really easy, carefully baking your tapes. With no need to use any extra, power, gas, energy of any sort. Whatsoever. But you must have a Motorhome.
Now, with that Motorhome. On those excruciatingly hot days. You merely put your tapes. In a can. Designed for reels. And you put them in the shade. Under your Motorhome. And leave them there. For the next day or so. But do not forget to retrieve them. Before you leave. Since you will crush them. After they have been passively baked. For the Jewish holiday of Passover. Under the Motorhome. Now don't Bogart that grape wine! Gimme it! God dammit! So I must drink it and save everybody's lives! Where's my recording tape?
I was in charge at Scully so I know what I'm doing! I'm,, retired' ed' ed… '''''ed, now. But I didn't used to be! Before I went senile. Hi my name is Remy. What's yours? Oh right. Mr. Taper. Nice to know you Mr. Taper. My name is Remy. What's yours.
Are we there yet? Is it soup, yet? Can you hear me now? Mommy?
RemyRAD
Where do we buy the reel to reel ?
@Abiye Abebe: I joined a reel-to-reel-group on Facebook, made a post on what I wanted and got an offer from another member of the group, who sold me a serviced AKAI. Maybe try that. :)
Nice job but you should record in stereo
Hi James - If your referring to the earliest ‘sound on sound’ recordings I made, the process involved bouncing mono tracks back and forth on the reel to reel, so true stereo was not an option in the process. When re-mastering stereo imaging was simulated using my DAW.
@@chelsearoadmusic6562 oh I see congratulations on capturing these wonderful memories
..if I knew you were comin I'd u baked a Tape.. ?
The way your tape twangs as its wound up by the take up reel tells me something is not right. Either in your baking process or your alignment of your tape reels on the machine. Perhaps its just a bad take up reel. I can say over the past 3 months I have acquired about 200 used tapes from at least three different sources and shedding tape is pretty easy to spot and discard of right off the bat. Now that being said most of the tape I have bought had horrible Perry Como mono recordings on them using questionable machines so it was easy for me to throw shed tape in the garbage. Different story if these tapes hold your precious recordings. But I would still never trust and moldy or shed tape anywhere near my restored Akai machine.
I have only had to discard 4 shed tapes and one mold tape out of 200…..
Yeah you know.. Teams did not get sticky. Until the late 1970s. Most of those of the early 1970s. Still, just fine.
Though… When they moved into the flat black back coded tapes. That's where the trouble started. After the EPA forced a change. In the oxide binders a.k.a. glue. They went to a more environmentally friendly, urethane based, binder/glue.
Before doing so. This new hot Studio Mastering Tape. Was put through, rigorous, torturous, humid rain forest like, conditions. So well-made was this magnetic recording tape. We were told… It would last, 100 years. And we couldn't get enough of the stuff! We used it like, water. By the 10.5 inch Pancakes. By the carton. We had nothing to worry about!
Until we found out 10 years later. It did not last 10 years. Of the 100, we were told. What the hell? What is this, black tarry GOOP? Ugh! And the tape glues itself to a stop on your tape recorder. While it is running.
And so everybody freaks out! It's a terrible hullabaloo. Everyone's master tapes, destroyed! How will we recover these precious Masters? Everybody was trying everything.
When I think it was the guys at 3M Scotch. That figured out the baking thing at 125°F. To be a safe temperature. And to re-vulcanize the binder. Re-cure, the binder. But it's temporary.
Yes after baking the tape. You had approximately a couple of days to about a week.. Before it would start reverting back to a sticky tarry mess.
Today I'm seeing. A lot of home enthusiasts. Baking and remaking their tapes. To keep using them. I can't imagine what this is doing to the performance thereof? These are very stressed and sticky oxides. Oxides that have been put through, wacky brutal conditions. And you expect them to function like new? How much of the oxide is still left? What magnetic properties are left? How is the tape now performing?
Many people I think are running, Standard Oxide Tape. At elevated Studio Mastering Tape, levels. With standard bias tape. And they don't know it? They think it's the Mastering Tape. When it's not. And they are getting lots and lots of Saturation. But that's what they wanted. They wanted Saturation. Now saturation happens, 9 DB lower Than your peak, recording level. So you get that, good saturation. Good vibrations. As, that's what you wanted.
I did a fun saturation recording for some rock bands. Some 32 years ago. When all I still had was, 2 inch, 24 Track, Analog, Recorders. Tape had gotten very expensive. $350. For a 10 inch reel. 30 years ago. And so…… Plenty of garage bands. Have no, actual, budget for recording tape. And so… I created a couple of Work reels. And I would record bands. Over and over again on these work reels.
But to get an entire album. On a single, 10.5 inch, 2 inch wide real tape. You would only get, 30 minutes of record time. And that's not enough for an entire album. You need at least 40 or more minutes. But a single reel of tape only holds 30. Unless?
Unless you do not roll at 15 IPS. Instead. The DC servo capstan motor is switchable. To, any 2 speeds, you want. So?
The 2 speeds my machine would go at were, 15 IPS and 7.5 IPS. On a machine. Originally designed for 30 IPS and 15 IPS. And so at 7.5 IPS. You get an entire hour recording. On a single reel of tape. But most people don't record, 2 inch, 24 Track at 7.5 IPS. That's a consumer speed. Your daddy has on his Sony reel to reel.. Not on a 24 track Studio Recorder? Well yes it does. It's switchable. Internally, switchable. Change 2 little jumpers. And I could have, 3.75 IPS and 30 IPS. If I had wanted it. Then I could get 2 hours on a Reel, of tape. Or just 15 minutes. At 30 IPS. And of course that sounds a bit different. Like Wide Open Ballsy! And not the same Saturation.
Yeah… When you want the really deep luscious, Saturation Sound. 7.5 IPS provides the best! Everything saturates up really quickly. You get deep saturation. It's pretty wild sounding. The man said they thought it sounded Awesome. I think it was actually too much saturation. But if you like saturation? It was rich, in saturated sound. On, 2 inch-wide, 24 Track, Analog Tape. About 32 years ago. Before we got, Multitrack Digital Recorders. I didn't get until, 1993. When I took the plunge. 31 years ago. And went 24 Track Digital. 31 years ago. Before we had decent working, personal, computers. When they were good for balancing your checkbook. At not much more. 31 years ago. Windows 95 hadn't yet happened. Macintosh taking its first steps. Digital audio not yet fully born. In computer form. The only plug-ins we had. Made babies. It certainly had nothing to do with a computer nor software. But definite responsibilities.
So not all tapes get sticky. Acetate tapes. Never get sticky. Standard oxide mylar tapes, never get sticky. Early, 3M Scotch, 202/203 Dyna Range, gray shiny back tape, didn't get sticky. Only the back coated ones. That have the flat carbon black,, back coatings. Got sticky. Starting with 3M Scotch 206 and Ampex equivalent 406 and their 207 and 407, 1.0 Mil, thinner extended play versions.
Though the,, 3M Scotch, 150 Series Standard Oxide, Standard, 185 Nana Weber per meter, 0-VU operating level tape. Still in widespread use and availability. At that time. Used for all the, Duplicated to programming. From commercials to, Syndicated Rock Shows. American Top-40 with Casey case him. For instance. Was distributed on 3M Scotch 150. Equivalent to the 111 formulation. But on mylar/polyester-based thin film tape. Same oxide. Standard bias level.
(More Deeper Things in following post)
Warning: not all tapes can be baked!
It's still a fine sounding tape. It's going to be hissy. Much more hissy. Unbelievably, hissy. Compared to the elevated level studio mastering tapes. That were up to 9 DB quieter. Without any type of aftermarket tape noise reduction system. Like Dolby-A & SR, DBX Type-1 & II. Encode, decode, systems. Which all sounded wonky.. So many of us never used, Tape Noise Reduction Systems. We had other methods. To keep it clean, noise free and still brilliant, sounding. Without mud. Without loss of, definition. Without wonky dynamic artifacting. Without, surprises.
Here's an example of, a couple of demos. I produced. For an advertising agency. Back in 1979. The Masters were between 6 and 9, analog generation copies down. And you know what that's going to sound like. Like a torrential downpour of hissing. Like a pit full of angry venomous snakes. And recovered in 1996 from very sticky tape. Without any baking. A process I developed. To do a single recovery pass. Before baking is attempted. With possible destructive catastrophe. And recovering, nothing.
So before I subject, an old real tape. To a lot of heat. For hours on end. I'm going to try my process of recovery. Before baking is attempted.
After approximately 9 analog generations down and no tape noise reduction system used. And a barefoot transfer from, a consumer reel to reel recorder. Playing back these 7.5 IPS, 1/4 track, Dummied down, 7.5 IPS. 1/2 track, professional stereo demo. From the 15 IPS copy of the, 15 IPS reduction. Of the 30 IPS, 2 track Master. From the 1 inch 8 track, 30 IPS, Virtual Track Composite Master. And what does this all mean?
It means the process I went through to record these, simple advertising jingles. With the Miami Wrecking Crew. And the Miami Symphony Orchestra musicians. In a small dead box, Voiceover Announcer, Studio. Designed for up to 4 simultaneous announcers. I would have up to 13 musicians in there with a grand piano. It was a very tight squeeze. There were no acoustics. That was just 1/2 broken spring thingy I had to use.
The virtual composite 8 track Master. Had up to 64 overdubs. On one single, 60, second, jingle. And I only had a 8 track machine to use. And eight 2 track machine to use. It was done that way. All overdubs on separate reels of 8 track tape. Everything flown in and synchronized by fingertip. Up to 64 overdubs tracks. With no tape noise reduction system, used. So you know that can't possibly sound good. Especially in 1996 from, sticky tape I was trying to recover this stuff from. Like this:
soundcloud.com/remyrad/remygolnickjinglesotdemomb2
I like it so much still to this day from 1979. I completely produce. I completely engineered. I'm completely created. Brand-new recording techniques. No one had ever used nor attempted, before. And it all had to work, absolutely, perfectly. Or this would have never sounded like this. This is about 9 analog generations down. Coming off of a consumer tape. From a professional demo tape. From a copy of the master tape. From another copy of the faster master tape. From another copy of yet still a faster master tape. And that master tape had dozens of overdubs audit. Coming off of separate reels of tape. I was truly goofed out at 22. But if I had failed? I would have resigned, the next day. So I could not, fail. Failure was not an option.
This was not that many years after Apollo 13. You have no idea. How this was all accomplished. It's absolutely psycho. I must've been, psycho. I was so young and optimistic. And somehow? I pulled it off.
Millions of dollars were riding upon these, Jingles. But as you can hear. These weren't just any Jingles. These were actually the people you've heard. In countless hit records. By the Bee Gees, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, KC & the Sunshine Band, Joe Walsh and on and on… And on. Whom I shall refer to as the Miami Wrecking Crew.. Mostly out of Criteria/ Hit Factory, Studios, Miami.
The Miami Symphony Orchestra was an interesting challenge. The room was designed to accommodate, 4 announcers. We got a grand piano in there. I got 8 musicians in there. The conductor, the arranger app reset the Contractor. And I only had 4 headphones. So the musicians never had any Headphones. None. I just blared the rock 'n' roll rhythm tracks out the Studio Speakers. Which were picked up much better by the violin/string microphones. The woodwind microphones. The brass microphones. The solo instrument, microphones. It was in everything. It sounded horrible. It was unusable that way. So?
I had to create a completely new recording technique. To make it all work. It's a wacky technique. And if not done precisely right. It won't work at all. Bumping into a single microphone. Can destroy the entire effect. I had to, Edgumacate. All the musicians beforehand. If they bump into a microphone. They have to tell me. Otherwise the session will be a total loss. So that was some heavy shit. To pour onto, stupid clumsy musicians. But it worked. Everybody loved what I was doing. They didn't have to wear any headphones!
It is well known. Symphony Musicians. Do not like wearing headphones. And if you don't make them wear headphones. They will love you forever. And they will know. You are one of the finest engineers they have ever worked with. Because they really enjoyed the experience. The enjoyed the sound. They really got into it. They love hearing the rhythm tracks. Blaring out the studio speakers. They really got into it they told me.
And how do you get rid of that? You run a double set of overdubbed tracks. Where nobody has to be playing anything. It just has to be another pass of the empty room. With the blaring speakers. With everything identically the same. And you flip the phase of that track. Combine it with the other. And the entire room. Magically Disappears! Along with all the crappy acoustics that don't exist. The Room is literally, Cancel Out and made to sound, Infinite. With no reverb, whatsoever.
The reverb is all artificial. From 1/2 busted, Austrian Spring Thingy the AKG, BX-20 E. With a clunk. In one of the springs that was damaged. I sent it away for repair. It came back. With that spring repaired. And the other spring damaged. I left it that way. It was kind of strange sounding. So all of the low frequency response is rolled off. It had a non-rhythmic clunk in the low-end. Don't feed it any low-end. You get no clunk. So it's only high-frequency reverb. Of a spring. That really passes no high frequencies. So I had to boost the crap. Out of the high frequencies going into it. Until it sounded all crispy. And I knew I was onto something. The sound of the Plate Reverb. I did not have. Could not yet.
(More Deeper Things in following post)
What was funny. They didn't have to pay him much. He had never played with the band. Especially fine studio musicians before. And could we cut him a demo? Of like 6 songs he chooses? Why? Sure!
So our Arranger. Took the list of songs he wanted. Quickly drew up some lead sheet tracks for the musicians. And I rolled the 8 track machine. With these Miami studio guys.
The tracks went down. One after the other. These guys were so hot. They did not falter. And now it's Skip's turn to do his vocal track. He didn't even have to play the piano.
So I set up his microphone. Stuck him in the Focal Booth. And his tracks went down, flawlessly. One after the other. All quite flat. And so?
In less than 10 minutes time. And while everybody was socializing the studio together. I made a quick track bounce. And a few little tweaks here and there. While playing back the track for everybody to listen to. And I'm just winging it. On the pitch shifter by hand. They are hearing the un-shifted version in the studio. I am hearing the shifted version in the control room. As I lay down the Mix on the 2 track machine.
And when we are finished. I hand Skip. A copy of his demo. But he did not get the pitch corrected one. He got the flat one. I kept the pitch corrected one. And my Commercial Producer asked me… Why did you do that?
I said while laughing… I do not want to perpetuate a fraud. I presented him. To himself. The way he is. To use as his demo. As he cannot tell. He is singing everything flat. And I don't want a perspective client of his. To be dismayed. When he shows up. Singing everything flat. So he got his copy. And I got mine..
My producer agreed with me. I'm sure Skip, loved his performance. Never knew the difference. And it got him work. At other, Holiday Inn, Motel Bars.. Where all of the 75-year-old, blue haired ladies will love him.
He actually sounds really good on the pitch corrected version. He is very listenable that way. He has a nice delivery. A nice sound. But that is not how he appears in person. He's flat. He's always, flat. Pitch correcting him is relatively easy. Pitch it up about 1/4 pitch. And you are golden. Somebody would think he's from an Islamic church? Maybe a Jewish synagogue? But no! He's singing pop hits from the 1970s. None of which should be sung flat. So I made certain of that. For myself. I thought that was very funny.
Today. Every one of those,, Pseudo-Performers are pitch corrected. None of them can sing on pitch. They are flat, they are sharp. Some hardly near the note. Producers with Software know exactly what to do. As they have practiced a lot with their videogames. Using sophisticated audio software. To make a no talent sound like they have some semblance of talent. A total fraud indeed.
I mean if you like looking at a nice body. I would definitely go to a Taylor Swift concert. Hands down. But I am not interested in. I want to hear somebody with some talent. Like Frank Zappa playing a bicycle. He had a lot of talent. Not many people know how to play a bicycle. Certainly not Taylor Swift. So she's not all that Swift. Only her fashions are. And they are good looking. On her. Of what little she wears.
You can also reverse the connections. On both your left and right channel speakers. Do it at the speakers. Do it, to both. You'll thank me later. I promise. You'll like it. Engineers that designed it. Made a simple beginner mistake. This is how you fix it.
If you have those powered computer speakers? I'm sorry… You're going to have to take them apart and open them up. You will have to take a soldering iron. You will have to reverse the connection. On each speaker in each box. Then screw it all back together again. And hope to God it works. It should. You'll like it. They made the mistake there also. I know why they made the mistake. They'll think, they made a mistake. They don't think. And that's why they made this together mistake. They didn't make any other mistakes. They did everything else absolutely right. But they all made the mistake.. There. Every one of them. Except for one company. The JBL speaker Co. of Los Angeles. They figured this out like I did. I figured it out. Back in 1978. When I was only 22. And I was like,… Wha…? What the hell? What's going on here? I wondered?
You see… When you've been tasked. With completely Designing, Fabricating and Building. Baltimore's 2nd Largest and Newest, Music Recording and Commercial Production Facility Recording Studio. You better get everything absolutely right! You better make everything sound Spectacular! And better than the, biggest competitor, in town. Baltimore was not shabby. And I discovered this Pro Audio Anomaly.
It's easy to fix your passive, speakers. By simply flipping the connections on the back of both speakers. For those that have those powered speakers. You have to disassemble them. With a screwdriver. Unplugged. Then take a soldering iron. And reverse the connections. On both speakers. That must be done at the speakers. It can be done nowhere else. It must be done from the output of the audio power amplifier directly into the speakers. Nowhere else. And you will hear the effect for yourselves.
I call this Timing your speakers, correctly. Getting them in sync. With your brain and hearing apparatus. Your hearing apparatus. Wants to hear it this way. Not the other way, wrong way. It doesn't work right in our brains. You'll see. As the sound is not exactly coming at you. It's sucking away from you in front of you. Your speakers are moving in the wrong direction. They are sucking inwards. Inward into the box. Not outward out of the box toward you. Reversing these connections does that. Everybody thinks it's already doing that. It is not. It is backwards.
I am one of those really deep, circuit troubleshooters. Everybody gets this simple goofy concept thing, wrong. They all get it, backwards. It's almost like a Religious Cult. If everybody gets it backwards? Then they must be right. As a group. As a whole. They cannot possibly be wrong. That's a religious Cult. Belief, system. But audio does not work like that. It does not follow Religious Cult Doctrine. Does not. LOL.
And so I am one of those, old, 1970s, Retired, Hippie, Studio Fixers. This is usually the problem. It's a very simple problem. That ELECTRICAL Engineers and Acoustic Engineers. Get wrong for reasons unknown? Likely out of ignorance and stupidity. But who's counting? LMAO.
Yes when you are considered to be one of the finest pair of ears. In the Pro Audio Industry. And they owned one of the most famous audio console manufacturing companies in the world. I figured. This must mean something?Ya think? I know I can. Lots of engineers can't. They don't even know what the hell they are hearing. Though they think they do. They do not. I do. I have to fix expensive studios.
So that's the way it really goes in the land of Pro Audio. I'm now retired from. I think completely?
RemyRAD
I told the boss. He had to spring. For one digital effect gizmo I needed in, 1979. And there really weren't, any. At that time. This one was made by Eventide Clock Works and was called the H-910, Harmonizer. The original. A digital delay. With mono input. And 2 outputs. For quasi-stereo effects. And. AND. Now wait……
The World's First, real-time, Pitch Shifter. Capable of up and down, one full octave. One octave up. One octave down. That's 2 full octaves. And what can you do with that?
You can make some groovy sounding, dreamy, sounds. And. If you have a singer. That can't sing on pitch, properly? You can fix them after the fact. Without a computer. Without software. By fingertip and your ear. Then you bounce their track. To another track. While tweaking their pitch. To get them on the note. They are singing flat.
And so I guess in 1979. I was one of the first in the world. To use Digital Pitch Correction. With a digital box. All produced in the Analog Domain. And out of the jingle Sayers you, hear. You can't tell the guy that was singing consistently flat. You also can't tell. He only has a 12 kHz high-frequency passband. While all the others are clean out to 20 kHz. Can you tell which one? No you cannot. No one can. Only I know. It's Skip Oldham. Just so you know. He was about 20 years older than I was. He was a piano bar crooner. That always saying everything flat. I did not audition him. The bosses son. Hired him. At a piano bar. Ugh!
And these jingle recordings are actually quite trashed. This is a recovery effort. And it came out like this:
soundcloud.com/remyrad/remygolnickjinglesotdemomb2
And I think it's pretty goofy. This sticky tape transfer came up as good without Baking. Add it was terribly sticky. You don't know what I went through to get this. I transferred from my trashed mid-1960s Sony TC-630, real real recorder. I knew how to tweak, Playback really well. I have my MRL Calibration Tape. And I aligned the Azimuth. To the jingle demo tape. But phase accuracy is still all over the place. As No,, Hold back tension could be used. And I couldn't hold phase accuracy that way. I could barely hold it together. To make this Pre-Baked, transfer, possible.
My Favorite Jingle is strictly, and instrumental at 5:00. It's very upbeat. It's very dynamic. It never got any lyrics. They were Taken by the Instrumental. For, a 1979 Jingle. It was overly contemporary. It was ahead of its time. In 1979 jingle weren't normally, presented like that. I think it's really cool. The saxophone solo is killer!
We, at the advertising agency. Never referred to these as Jingles. No. We refer to them as 60 Second Musics. They were a full 62nd song. With solos of multiple instruments. Great solo singer leads. The Miami Symphony Orchestra and Miami's hottest studio rock musicians. I had so much fun. Creating new recording techniques was a real Rush. It was all on the rush. I had to do it all on the fly. All on my feet. All spontaneous. All free-form. All had to be Technically Precise.
Some of these are my Stereo Concept Mixes. Never used that way in our commercials. In Mono,, Only. And some of these are my, Mono Commercial Mixes. They may still sound stereo but they are not. They are just the kind of good. Your brain makes the stereo, for you. As whether they are Stereo or Mono. They still sound the same. Great. That's the whole idea.
But considering this Jingle Demo is a destroyed Recovery. Think what my Original Masters sounded like. Running,, 3 times faster. Tracks, twice as wide. 3 Les analog generations down. Think how they sounded. And the National Advertising Agency used them for the next 20+ years. Making millions of dollars for themselves and others.. All through my goofy Jingles. My first try! though this represents. My first 2 tries. I had never attempted anything like this before. I was only 22 and I was nuts. I had to be. I can still remember producing these sessions. I produced the whole damn thing. Along with my Physical Writer/Conductor. Who I hired. I interviewed. He wrote all the Jingles. It was really good. And what's really funny?
When he came to, heathen, Me. I was interviewing for Jingle Writers. And he brought a record album with him.. He had fundamentally been involved in the production thereof. He wanted to play for me. Okey-dokey.. What kind of album? Oh? Born-again Christian music.
I was not interested in born-again Christian music. It's always so contrived and sappy. But I wanted to hear what was his best effort. That's what we were both there, for.
And I put the needle on the record. I thought to myself… Good thing I blew a joint. Before this guy got here. To listen to some sappy Christian music. And the music begins to play.
I listened for a few minutes. Scanned through a couple of songs. And then asked him? Where did you produce this? And on what? He told me he produced it with his group. The Living Sound in Johannesburg, South Africa. With a Neve console and a, Studer, 16 track recorder.
Well let me tell you. This was not what I expected. This just about took my breath away. These were great rock 'n' roll songs. Very well performed and produced. Very impressive. Not sappy. Not beginner. Accomplished Professionals. I was duly impressed. Holy crap!
I asked him what his name was again? Donald Moen call me Don. I said that sounds really good Don. And you want to write commercial jingles for an advertising agency? These are religious songs. We don't do religion. We do commercials. He said yes I know. I've never done this before. I would like to try. I said groovy. I'll let the big boss no. That I've found the right person.
And I most certainly did. But what I think was funny. Years later. He became very famous. He also became a Minister. And my listened to his later songs and work. Deep within many of them. I'm hearing, car dealers, banks, Savings and Loan associations, home-improvement companies, tire dealers and the like. In his famous Christian songs.
And so I've always wondered… What came first? The Christian or the egg? I think this honed his already incredible talents. For much greater later things to come. And they did. Of course it was his great faith in his Lord God Jesus. All three of those guys. Maybe he's on to something? I don't believe in any of them. Though one might be watching my back? Though I think not. I have been attacked too many times back there herein, Texan Ville, Texas. It's filled with Texans. Nasty awful horrible, disgusting, hate filled, Texans.
All natively fertilized and hatched, Texans are scumbags. How do you spell Alex Jones?
(More Deeper Things in following post)