Muff's Modules & More

[themanthatwasused]

I have been interested in using tape collage for a while now, and I will slowly be getting a few equipment (4 track, portable recorder, et al) for this purpose. I have been obsessing Geoff Mullen's music this past few days and was wondering if I can integrate a cassette set-up to my small modular.

I did see a few people showing cassette tapes with they're set-up in the Euro forum. I was wondering how do you interface or integrate tapes with your set-up.


Edit: Did a search and a few good ones popped out:
+lo-fi tape recorder for wobble?
+analog synth modern psych cassette scene
+Mastering To Cassette

[CJ Miller]

I have used tape a bit, but not for a long time. This was at the first stages of my modular work in the 90s, using DIY single chip oscillators, bandpass filters, and such. Tape recorders were readily given away then, and were some of my first and easiest gadgets for messing around with. Also, people were dumping tapes, so there was a great assortment of weird found sound to play with. Looped answering machine tapes were my first looper and delay units, and hacking into the amplifier circuits frequently added feedback. Even in the 90s, Radio Shack still sold splicing blocks and tape for cassette joins, edits, and weirdness. Really, cassette machines and tapes made me lust for open reel - but it was much harder to come by in my area.

My first real modular integration I think was after I had made some simple preamps. These allowed me to play tape through my bandpass units, which were 741-based things with a sludgey, harsh "wah" to them. Then I got all my stuff stolen (again) and started more projects the next year, and built my first preamp/envelope follower/comparator circuits. Input circuits like this are so fun. Then I was easily able to use the amplitude of anything in a modular context. But when I then left for NYC a lot of my stuff got left behind, including my stereo and tape gear.

Even now I am in another not-quite-stable situation, but when I can I do want to do more tape work. One of my first things to try will probably be building a tape echo, or several. Also I want to try making a decent voltage-controlled tape transport. And I have a fascination with tape and moving heads, which probably gets quite complicated. I scored a small box of assorted tape heads a few months back, and I definitely intend to play with them.

[stk]

I just bought a nice hi-fi cassette deck to play with.
Spent years recording noise/music on cassette four tracks. Still have a nostalgic appreciation of that innocent world of hiss and warble.
Learnt to cut/splice/manipulate tape at uni, make loops and the like.

Would love to get an open reel machine again, to interface with the modular. There's something about tape loops that "feel" so much more than just a (digital) loop.

It's worth paying a visit to the Buchla section of the forum and check out Tobor's Buchla & Nagra videos. Some awesome stuff there.

[ndkent]

I have mixed feelings. I started before audio workstations, remebered when they were crazy priced and complex and cut and paste digital digital din't exist and I used cassettes. Started with 2 cassette decks. Got a multitrack cassette. Nothing wrong if you are after degredation. The one in the jpg has rare speed features though would need a line in to be great. Higer end stuff gives you more fidelity though probably is more the poor mans substitute for pro audio tape than a substitute for what makes that special,

Anyway I've done things like edit 16mm mag for films, tape collage, splicing etc. Personally I don't think the results realize my complex ideas or that the techniques open you to creating something you couldn't by other means, but nothing wrong with exploring, your results may vary

[matttech]

i made a nice tape delay out of my marantz cassette field recorder

[matttech]

here you go:

http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72931&highlight=tape+ delay

[strettara]

I was really into the idea of tape (had a reel to reel at university) for delays, looping, etc., until, frankly, I compared the bulk and expense of setting myself up with four independent loops and a delay using tape and just getting an El Capistan and a Boomerang. Of course there are limits there too, but problem solved, for me anyway.

[pas]

I've been using that library of congress deck for years, my father had one for some odd reason & it's always been in my life, I now have 4 haha...I adore tape, I use it in everything. I find that tape can be easily emulated for the most part, but the technique & time is something special. I still use a shitty fostex 4-track, had it since I was 15, I just never grew out of using cassettes & I swear it's nothing romantic or nostalgic for me, it's just how I prefer or am used to working & nothing comes close to the fidelity achieved w/ tape.

[CJ Miller]

[huron]

This is right up my alley! I had my friend record some guitar chords for me, and I dumped the "performance" to cassette tape. Using a shitty little portable tape recorder with vari-speed I sampled the guitar parts randomly into my casio sk-1, into some pedals, then into my modular to filter and further destroy the sound. Video and audio soon once I perfect the tech!

[jonah]

I recently found out about the bang and olufsen beocord 8000, which has controls to program in start and end times and advance the tape to a certain point. It's nice that it appears to use standard time measurements.

Why it's interesting to me is that I'm thinking it's probably not a big deal to use CV instead of the buttons to program it. Throw in an endless tape and it potentially opens up some interesting possibilities for time based effects and sequencing, especially if it's also easy to mod the speed.

[lightworks]

With the help of an envelope follower you can use a tape recorder/player to write CV scores.
Record amplitude variations with a static sound to a tape and then feed it to the envelope follower.

Found some cheap tape loops, might add some fun to the process:
http://www.deltamedia.com/ENDLESS-LOOP-1MIN.html
http://www.deltamedia.com/ENDLESS-LOOP-3MIN.html
http://www.deltamedia.com/ENDLESS-LOOP-6MIN.html

regards,
ruben

[Sinewaves]

New Geoff Mullen record is great - just arrived through the letter box.

I've been wanting to integrate looping into my setup, and the endless cassettes could be ideal - are there shorter times available i.e. 15-30 seconds?

[lightworks]

A quick google search came up with this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-Announcement-Outgoing-duration-cassett e/dp/B004JOLFUW
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Commtel-outgoing-message-endless-cassette/dp/B 007KKZ1IY/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1367024467&sr=1-1-catcorr&ke ywords=Endless+tape+loop

you can allways cook your own:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Audio-Cassette-Loop/

[themanthatwasused]

[ndkent]

Clearly the advantage of cassettes are that they are common and generally cheap. For better or worse one must realize that generally you get the "consumer" version of whatever interesting result you are after with cassettes rather than 1/4".

For example - delay, a 3 head deck does do delay, but it's a fixed time. Loops, yes there are endless cassettes, but they are generally low fidelity for better or worse and generally without the sound on sound options and possibly a bad splice, though that could be redone in theory. Yes you can get results recording hot but I'd say you can't get quite the range of pleasing saturation a larger format gives you.

But mind you, you do get something, I don't want to discourage anyone who might get inspiration, just pointing out your results will vary.

[Sinewaves]

[raulsworldofsynths]

Not sure if this model was mentioned but this thread got me thinking.

http://www.soundbytes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Cod e=SB&Product_Code=910708W&Category_Code=portable-cassette-players

It does appear to have a mono input, but after digging up the manual elsewhere t it says something about a mic that uses a dual cable with one jack for remote operation, not sure if standard mono.

[themanthatwasused]

Anybody using them in a live set up?
Video at least...

[Sinewaves]

Does anyone have any experience with cassette loops i.e. answering machine cassettes and 4-tracks?