I found this vintage reel to reel recorder at a thrift store and made a FREE DECENT SAMPLER LIBRARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- I found this battery-powered reel-to-reel tape recorder from 1968 at a thrift shop. In this video, I try it out for the very first time and then use it to make a "tape piano" sample library.
Download the free sample here: www.decentsamples.com/product...
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I find it FASCINATING that we spend YEARS improving technology to remove noise - hiss and other items only to reinsert them as a plugin effect...
Haha I think that every time a new lofi plugin comes out
It's an old classic - you don't know what you got until it's gone.
And then users of the plug-in bemoan the fact that it isn't as "good" as the real thing.
What you're mistaking for something silly is the generational divide in philosophy. Convenience and polish versus texture and substance. The older generations expect more polish for less work while younger generations prefer more texture.
@@samsanimationcorner3820 Makes sense.
This type of recorder does not operate at constant speed, as it has no capstan. The tape is pulled past the head by the speed of the take up spool which is driven directly from the rim of the take up spool. As the diameter of the tape increases, so does the speed. This means the recorded tape cannot be played on any other recorder. One of the reasons it has so much tape hiss is because it has DC bias and erase. Better recorders use AC bias & erase. Wow & flutter is also very high, because it has no fly wheel.
Still, it was very low cost in its day, more or less a toy.
This makes a lot of sense, and definitely tracks with what I've experienced. I noticed the lack of capstan too.
I also have a capstan-less deck. A Concord Sound Camera. It uses 2.5" reels, so the tape runs out extremely fast.
@@japhyriddle Quite right, most start at about 2/3 ips but end up at around 6/8ips. depending on the inner spool diameter.
Even your Panasonic cassette recorder has a capstan. That said, some of the 'better' rim-drive reel-recorders could play tapes from other rim-drives if they had a variable-speed adjustment like your North American. Your machine actually doesn't sound too bad playing music - sometimes. For Christmas of '69, I got a 3" rim-drive Aiwa, but soon became disappointed with it's music recording ability. However, for voice or TV-shows it was OK. I learned how to place the cheap crystal mike for best sound quality and the least buzz from a TV speaker. Eventually, I wired up a 4" PM speaker as a mic for even better quality, much less tinny recordings. After a couple years when I was 15, I'd earned enough mowing lawns, to go with my folks to a local GEM department store that had a leftover / floor-model shelf in their electronics dept. For $15, I got another battery 3" open-reel AiWA. But this time with the luxury of two-speed capstan-drive, an aux-input socket, and built-in AC power. That opened up a whole new world of tape-recording for me and I never looked back!
@@sunbeam8866 I had a AiWA reel to real, 5 inch reels, but it also had a radio in the unit too, both mono, but that was a neat idea. I look every now and then and never see one since I had that one back in the 1970, early 1980's. i think the motor died. I also moved to stereo equipment as well.
Even though the audio of the piano is a digital representation of a piano, the reel-to-reel adds an almost life-like quality to it. As if it were a recording of a real person sitting at a piano.
This recording will self destruct in 5 seconds... good luck Jim!
Analog.. Imperfect.. Organic.. Raw.. This is the character I love in music. You can fake it with plugins, but there is so much more joy working with the real stuff, that sometimes cost even less than the world of plug ins. The crystal clear computer sound lacks a feeling, it always sounds like a lifeless computer digital signal. There can be a lot of debate to be had, and it all comes down to individual preference.
Ok boomer
@@retrosb
Cringe millennial.
Well said!
I agree that true analog is a lot more enjoyable than adding in fake analog artifacts, but to be honest, using recording methods that just eliminate the artifacts altogether sounds so much better. Hissing, popping, skipping, crackling, it's all annoying and makes whatever you're listening to sound a lot worse.
The plug-ins are available for free, as Open Source.
Man I love distortions, hisses and speed fluctuations. Tape is a really cool medium. I’ve always found it interesting how widely it was used from old pc games, programming, audio and video. You got reel to reel, cassette tapes, vhs, Betamax, 8tracks, that weird video camera kids toy that used cassettes. Then with the same technology you got floppy disks, hard disks and Zip disks. The unreliability really tickles my love for chaos. And a simple magnet could mess everything up.
Now I recently discovered these speech learning machines as well…and some dude using a credit card reader to do scratching. The applications are apparently endless.
The cheapest rim-drive recorders, and a few of the capstan-drive machines as well, used a magnet as the erase head - mechanically flipped away from the tape during playback.
Distortions and hissing are so fucking annoying when listening to music. Analog recording is awesome, but the artifacts it creates do a lot to ruin the advantages of having a continuous wave in the first place.
tbh i really like the extra noise that the recorder adds on, it may be annoying for some people but for certain recording i personally think it adds a ton of character
I spent my childhood with these imperfect devices and do enjoy the idea of using them now from a creative standpoint.
The sheer joy on your face when you hear your voice from the recorder is grand!
I swear the quality of this content is gorgeous. Please continue to experiment with these retro recording utilities. Absolute breathtaking!!!!
You essentially made a digital mellotron! That’s so cool! I am amazed at the ingenuity and creativity. Fantastic!
if you remove the head and puot a 1/4" jack in its place, these work really great as guitar distortion pedals. very simple to do, and they sound better than a lot of boutique transistor distortions.
I found your videos last night. I used to think that making my own music would be hard without understanding how to play a piano, but the samples you are making sound so unique I really want to give it a try! Thanks for showing your whole process, it's really motivating me
My grandmother had a similar sized reel to reel machine with a little mic like that - mains operated, with a handle like a small suitcase. She used to record herself talking about her news from Ireland and then post the tape to her cousin in S Africa in the 60s or 70s. I found it knocking around our house when I was barely a teenager and I used to record myself telling jokes into it in the 80s. By the time I was doing music in my late teens it had been thrown out, as my mother used to do regular clear-outs of the house, which was a pity.
beautiful sounds! Thanks for this. And I think you’re right - having so many choices does make something like a 4-track tape recorder very appealing
I love these videos!
It feels like NPR for music production nerds and I am so here for it!
this video is so much full of love! your face expression and voice when you have found the device be working is priceless :)
Bless you for making music production fun, all while using equipment from the past... AND sharing these wonderful sounds for FREE!
**You, Sir, RULE!**
*EDIT:* _The philosophical commentary speaks volumes (heh), as to how much you appreciate life, and enjoy sharing these unique experiences that make one smile :)
7:39 that's the perfect collective noun for the modern menu of choices.
Thank you for the walk through of your process and for the piano!
Your channel is absolutely mesmerizing. I'm happy to have found it
Time to make my own sample library!!!
Love this instrument so much! Thank you.
Incredible. Every video is educational and amazing!
Love this video. Brings back fond memories of my childhood as I had both types of these records and loved recording everything with them. Man, what fun that was.
Yep, love this, great video.
This plugin is amazing! Truly love it
Thank you. That was lovely.
Keep up the great work, your work means a lot..
I feel a very warm feelings. Thank you!
THANK YOU for keeping all of this free
Beautiful hiss and warmth
This was fascinating to watch! Thank you for sharing knowledge + doing what you do.
Very interesting. Reminds me of the tape recorder that we had back in 1964. A Philips four track. Wasn’t too much hiss on that machine. This is certainly, educational.
great video! I love the way you document your process, it's very engaging and relaxing
Incredible video. Such a pleasure to watch. Awesome to see the recording process. Thanks David!
Sounds awesome!
Very nice. Thanks for your generosity. That entailed a grade deal of work!
I enjoyed this from beginning to end, for all the same reasons you described. Thanks for these videos, and for Decent Sampler!
I really love these videos of old tech. I don't know but they feel so nostalgic and they calm me down.
I'm using library this for a documentary and I just gotta say, WOW IS THIS GOOD FOR DOCUMENTARIES.
I was playing a basic arpeggio that started right when a new chapter for the video came along and it sounded like it was National Geographic lol.
Great stuff as always man. I love the creative libraries you make out of seemingly nothing. I can't believe a 1968 reel-to-reel tape recorder from a thrift store made something so useful.
The narrative structuring of this video is genius, very entertaining.
You always make exceptional content, but this one has something extra in the script that pulls my own memories out of my head word for word.
I wish I could be so lucky to find something like this!
Really cool sound. Well done!
I love your new video style. You have really stepped up the awesomeness of your content! It's so cool to see these products and the way you are capturing them is just brilliant!
Fantastic story telling
great! what a good sampler you did. kudos
I'm so happy i stumbled into your channel, this is beautiful stuff and i'm so grateful that you are giving us these free resources!
This is my favorite video of yours to date.
This is next level.
Keep it up! Thanks again
huge appreciation for you putting up these sounds for free. downloading decent sampler right now :)
Tape warmth. Awesome!
Thanks a lot for your library. This sound is really good!
This was inspiring.... Reminiscent of that feeling.... Ahhhhh.... So good. Cheers.
so glad to have found this video........Looking forward to checking out the samples (although I so rarely use samples created by others) This whole video is so well produced, shot, edited, etc..................nice to see someone setting the bar so high.....................
I downloaded this from pianobook a few days and have been loving it! I also coincidentally found your TH-cam videos around the same time and had no idea you were the creator of this sample! This is so cool thank you man
This is one of the greatest videos and channels I've ever seen. Truly fascinating the feeling you seem to put into making these videos. I love the final part, with the piano music and you talking about the trend, very pleasing to watch. Thx for this video.
Excellent sounding character piano. Haunting sounds.
That is awesome, gonna grab that download.
I enjoyed the exploration of the process to get some unique sound out of an old Reel to Reel tape player. It is fun to goof around with old equipment to see what one can glean from it.
Wow, the fact that the thing even works is astonishing enough, but to get it with the original box in that condition is beyond belief. Great find! Also, very eerie sounding piano library, definitely inspiring, thanks for this.
Hi David, Thanks again for this great Video! Just one hint: Try to stay away from Contact Cleaner as long as you can. Typically, it contains petroleum, which sticks to the surface and starts collecting all sorts of dirt. Potentiometers are ruined by this after a short time. A better means would be to use q-tips wet with Isopropyl-Alcohol. This also can be used to cleansweep AFTER you had to use Contact cleaner. Thumbs up for work!!!
beautiful stuff. I always loved tape as a child
Amazing stuff David. Thanks for this - now in my Decent Sampler library 🎹👍🏻🍻
love the way you make your videos ✨
Just stumbled upon your video!! Seeing the analog merged with digital effects is amazing!!
I have the same Panasonic wow. Thank you for sharing. It’s my favorite !
Wow - that piano sound was beautiful.
This is beautiful
Beautiful sound 🎶
Awesome!!! Thank you for the samples!
What a killer find. I rememer finding similar gear like and old school 8 track recorder unit and cartridge tapes to go with it, also an old portable suitcase record player with many audio port functionality! Love these kinds of finds. Thanks for sharing!!! ✌😍👍
There's something so charming about the reels spinning, so peaceful
Just brilliant
Unbelievably fascinating.
Hi ! I just discovered your work, i find it really fascinating.
Thank you so much for producing this and for giving us access to so many samples. 🤝
Fantastic Video! I loved the production. Love me some good tape sounds, thanks!
A lovely video. Thank you!
It's beautiful, thank you.
You're welcome.
Commenting for the algorithm, this sounds... so mellow and pleasant. thank you!
Wow. What great videos !
I love this library David! I haven't used it in a project yet but I'm having a lot of fun just playing it.
Amazing piano sound😊
That is the most amazingly simple tape deck I have ever seen. And it still works! Incredible! I love your little machine, what a great find.
It really is _very_ basic. I was almost surprise that it had a REWIND button at all. (The first portable tape deck I had as a kid didn't have a rewind button. You had to flip the cassette over and fast-forward if you wanted to rewind.)
Terrific keep it up. Great vitage device .Thank you v much indeed, Sir.
these videos feel so good to watch, like they had no right to be so well written with such background music while "on paper" being just review videos. they're my breakfast companion now and I love starting my days with them
so yeah thanks
Nostalgic for sure. My big brother and I had one of these. By 1970, we wore it out. You are very lucky to find one in working condition...at all.
Sounds so rad
A great find!
This came out really good! Nice work! I've been using it for the last few days.
Beautifully done. 👍
I made a song with this over the weekend, love the sounds you made !
as a child of the 60s, this is a blast from the past
Beautifully created sample set.
Man, I had that same model cassette deck, or one very similar. I kept it by my bed so that I could record any musical ideas or sounds that popped into my prepubescent mind. I also had a cassette for recording my favorite songs off the radio. When the daily top 10 came on after school I'd be waiting with the tape deck mic positioned over the radio speaker, my finger on the pause button, ready to send the transport into record. It was pure magic.
The tape machine breeds life into the synthetic rhythm of machines.
Love what you do David. Really enjoy the videos! :)
I'm using it on a track sounds great! Thanks!!!
Many thanks for this David, best wishes from Devon UK.
wow man ive watched 3 videos of yours and truly am inspired by your passion subscribed!