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fat_fleet

fat_fleet

Swollen Member
Some of us have been at this for a long time. You know who you are.

Not the first thread like this, but I want to hear your early recordings...preferably 4-track and reel-to-reel. The more embarassing, the mo better. I'm just bought a cassette deck for ten bucks so, if this thread goes well, you will hear some serious stone-age stuff from me.
 
I have a few of my old 4-track recordings around somewhere. I've posted them in here before. I've got tons of stuff on tape with no way to get it into the digital world, which is probably for the best.
 
Yeah, I remember there was a thread like this a few years back. At the time all my old tapes were molding away in the basement, but I'm determined to wait no longer. I'm digitizing 'em before the damn things literally fall apart.

Something tells me this is not going to be a hugely popular thread.. :D
 
I have some early recordings of a two track reel to reel, does that count? (I mean, plugged the mic straight into the reel inputs) that is not recording like you mean.
 
OK - I'll play. Spoken word joint recorded on my Tascam 488 circa 1992. Mixed to my computer interface in early 2000s. Exported to 128kbps mp3. Added this to a Vegas project, added some vid from youtube and exported and uploaded to youtube. Pure fidelity all the way lol.

 
Holy crap chuck...this sounds waaaay better than my stuff from the early 90s. Now I'm reconsidering posting it. Shit. I like how it fades out at the end, like it could go on another 5 minutes.

Also I literally would have burned a busload of boyscouts for a Tascam 488 in 1992. I think most of my stuff before 1993 is into a Porta 03...y'know, 4 tracks but you could only actually track 2 at a time.
 
Greg_L said:
I have a few of my old 4-track recordings around somewhere. I've posted them in here before. I've got tons of stuff on tape with no way to get it into the digital world, which is probably for the best.
Click to expand...

What kind of tapes? Send 'em to me and I'll digitize 'em for you. And I'll send the files back to you without posting them!
 
fat_fleet said:
Holy crap chuck...this sounds waaaay better than my stuff from the early 90s. Now I'm reconsidering posting it. Shit. I like how it fades out at the end, like it could go on another 5 minutes.

Also I literally would have burned a busload of boyscouts for a Tascam 488 in 1992. I think most of my stuff before 1993 is into a Porta 03...y'know, 4 tracks but you could only actually track 2 at a time.
Click to expand...

I dreamed about that deck for years and it was a NIGHTMARE when I finally got it. I had to return it for 6 week repairs TWICE as soon as I got it for wobbly transport speed problems. Warrantee repairs are never speedy that is for sure. I had a peavey AMR 4 track for about 6 years before that deck. Awesome and built like a tank. Anyway - I swear somehow going to 128kbps mp3 makes my cassette stuff sound better :-) I've posted a couple of my 4tracks here. I will dig up the threads.

This particular track is my M1 for drums, a couple of guitars and vocals through a 58. The distortion box is my own homemade thing I made out of an old tape recorder lol.
 
chuckduffy said:
I dreamed about that deck for years and it was a NIGHTMARE when I finally got it. I had to return it for 6 week repairs TWICE as soon as I got it for wobbly transport speed problems. Warrantee repairs are never speedy that is for sure. I had a peavey AMR 4 track for about 6 years before that deck. Awesome and built like a tank. Anyway - I swear somehow going to 128kbps mp3 makes my cassette stuff sound better :-) I've posted a couple of my 4tracks here. I will dig up the threads.

This particular track is my M1 for drums, a couple of guitars and vocals through a 58. The distortion box is my own homemade thing I made out of an old tape recorder lol.
Click to expand...

PS - within about 1.5 years I had ditched this deck for one of the first 'affordable' PC daws. Digi Session 8 for $3500 + for a $1000 full height SCSI HD + a $1500 computer !!!!!
 
chuckduffy said:
OK - I'll play. Spoken word joint recorded on my Tascam 488 circa 1992. Mixed to my computer interface in early 2000s. Exported to 128kbps mp3. Added this to a Vegas project, added some vid from youtube and exported and uploaded to youtube. Pure fidelity all the way lol.

Click to expand...


It's cool how the things that piss bob off alternate between the truly horrible and the innocently mundane. Lol @ unsanctioned sporting events.

That's 12 Angry Men, right? This sounds good. I enjoyed it.

Decent cassette multitrackers were wicked expensive back in the day. It was kind of an elitist hobby as opposed to now where it's much more affordable to at least get started. $800 for a 488 sounds crazy now, but my 688 was around $3k new around 1989 (I got it for $275 in 2006). Most people I knew couldn't afford it.

I started with layering takes with a boombox, then got a fostex x-15 for $100 bucks used in terrible condition in like 1990. That thing sucked, but I was so broke I didn't replace it until it broke - 2006. Then I got the 688 which was great. I have tons of tapes of old stuff, but most of the worthwhile (not many) cassette recordings already got shared with the clinic at the time.
 
chuckduffy said:
I dreamed about that deck for years and it was a NIGHTMARE when I finally got it. I had to return it for 6 week repairs TWICE as soon as I got it for wobbly transport speed problems. Warrantee repairs are never speedy that is for sure. I had a peavey AMR 4 track for about 6 years before that deck. Awesome and built like a tank. Anyway - I swear somehow going to 128kbps mp3 makes my cassette stuff sound better :-) I've posted a couple of my 4tracks here. I will dig up the threads.
Click to expand...

Cool. I started on a Tascam 234...the rackmount one. Always had a deep respect for that machine, but the one I started on was a friend of mine's. She had a permanent home studio set up and was pretty meticulous. When I ventured out on my own, we used the Porta 03 and it was way more anarchistic, taking it back and forth between houses, constantly changing setups on the fly, not putting much thought into mic positions. Each recording is radically different from the others...vocals that lurch out crazily...lots of crazy stoner jams. I actually ended up getting a 234 again in the late 90s and made some much more meticulous recordings, but the Porta 03 stuff is total sonic anarchy. Point me to yoour 4-tracks if you find 'em..
 
heatmiser said:
It's cool how the things that piss bob off alternate between the truly horrible and the innocently mundane. Lol @ unsanctioned sporting events.

That's 12 Angry Men, right? This sounds good. I enjoyed it.

Decent cassette multitrackers were wicked expensive back in the day. It was kind of an elitist hobby as opposed to now where it's much more affordable to at least get started. $800 for a 488 sounds crazy now, but my 688 was around $3k new around 1989 (I got it for $275 in 2006). Most people I knew couldn't afford it.

I started with layering takes with a boombox, then got a fostex x-15 for $100 bucks used in terrible condition in like 1990. That thing sucked, but I was so broke I didn't replace it until it broke - 2006. Then I got the 688 which was great. I have tons of tapes of old stuff, but most of the worthwhile (not many) cassette recordings already got shared with the clinic at the time.
Click to expand...

Yeah - 12 Angry men :-) Bob was mentally unbalanced. Flatfeet was on to something about the fade out. It went on for about 10 more minutes lol.

Yeah that shit was pricey - I think the 488 was about 1200 or 1300 new. I too started with overdubbing with boomboxes, then got the peavey/AMR 4track (never met another soul who had one), then the 488, then my first DAW in 93 I think. Between 98 and 2000 I transferred hundreds of old 2, 4, 8 track cassettes over to my computer. Outside of posterity CRAZY waste of time. Used to drive my buddy NUTS. He always said - now that you have a state of the art DAW, plugins, pres, good mics - why don't you just re-record the shit lol.
 
ps - heat - did I ever play you any of the stuff I did with my then 4year old? CRAZY stuff - he got it from somewhere lol. Used to just walk up to the mic and rant and adlib for 10 minutes at a stretch, then wander out of the room.
 
Yeah my buddy had a Porta 02 and it was even more limited from what I remember. We used to run the guitar through a midiverb then swamp the input until it distorted. I would set up a 1 measure beat on my old korg drum machine and we would jam with that for hours lol
 
allrite ..... this is the earliest thing of mine I could find with a quick search.
These would be live gigs around 1974 recorded on a Teac 3340.
I was playing bass and singing one of the parts .... and on the Buzzard Song where it sounds like there's two girls singing, I'm one of those babes! :D

The mix would be what I did back then ..... probably using something like A7's to monitor with! :laughings:
 

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Lt. Bob said:
allrite ..... this is the earliest thing of mine I could find with a quick search.
These would be live gigs around 1974 recorded on a Teac 3340.
I was playing bass and singing one of the parts .... and on the Buzzard Song where it sounds like there's two girls singing, I'm one of those babes! :D

The mix would be what I did back then ..... probably using something like A7's to monitor with! :laughings:
Click to expand...

both songs are really nice sounding. you also sound convincing as a babe. :thumbs up:
 
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