Experimentation is the greatest thing........

[jjones1700]

Okay, so I'm a newb at all of this and the old timers are going to go "So what".

I've been playing around with a Tascam 424 mkII and an acoustic guitar with various results. I have been more or less narrating what I have been doing so later on, if I forget something, I can listen to it and pick it up. Pretty much everyone knows the portastudio records on all 4 tracks of a cassette in one direction. Okay, cool. I've been learning how to overdub, punch in/out, bounce, etc. I knew that if I flipped the tape that it would play backwards.

What I didn't know was that how freakin' cool some of this stuff sounded on the flip side, playing backwards!! I have been using two to three mics for the acoustic (2 in the "Y" and a third about 15 ft away to pick up the acoustics of the room.......large room with tile floor) and the "ambience" is pretty wicked when played backwards. Now I will be doing different stuff with the acoustic to see what it sounds like backwards and then roll the good stuff onto the reel. Who needs digital for effects?? LOL

Perhaps if I had just used the two mics on the guitar alone this wouldn't have been so inspiring. Dunno, but it will keep me busy for a while. Hehe.

I know, I'm easily amused and I need to seek counseling. I'll be the guy in the corner with the headphones on playing with a mixer........

 

[Track Rat]

I know I didn't invent it either, but when I stumbled into the backwards "trick" about 20 years ago it was like an epiphany. You go boy.

 

[Beck]

Some of my most "hauntingly beautiful" melodies and riffs were discovered by playing my music backwards. Been doing that since I had access to mulit-track in the late '70s. A great source of inspiration I’ve still not grown tired of to this day.

 

[ofajen]

You're in good company. Time reversal is a standard motivic technique in the classical world, too.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[jjones1700]

Sweet. After posting this and reading some of the other threads on this board, I was wondering if I was going to get flamed for posting the obvious (to the veterans at least). Good to know that I'm not the only one fascinated with this.

 

[ofajen]

A firm grasp of the obvious is a good thing, but not as common as one would wish.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[bloomboy]

Backwards sound can be amazing- just don't overdo it!

I am working on a song right now with a foreward piano part panned L and the same piano part backwards R (learned it backwards so the melody is the same, just backwards) and it sounds bitchin'. (talkin' about the actual recorded sound, that's not meant as a boast )

Breaking glass, or any sort of clinking sound, really, sounds just incredible reversed. You should give it a try if you haven't. Crowd noise is incredible, too. Very eerie (for instance, at the end of "exit music (for a film)" by Radiohead

 

[jjones1700]

Backwards sound can be amazing- just don't overdo it!

I am working on a song right now with a foreward piano part panned L and the same piano part backwards R (learned it backwards so the melody is the same, just backwards) and it sounds bitchin'. (talkin' about the actual recorded sound, that's not meant as a boast )

Breaking glass, or any sort of clinking sound, really, sounds just incredible reversed. You should give it a try if you haven't. Crowd noise is incredible, too. Very eerie (for instance, at the end of "exit music (for a film)" by Radiohead

I plan on capturing anything and everything to see how it does in reverse. If I had a 414 it make things a little easier, as far as portability. Is there a 4 track recorder that is truly "portable"? i.e: runs off a battery/batteries

 

[cjacek]

Is there a 4 track recorder that is truly "portable"? i.e: runs off a battery/batteries

I think the now long discontinued porta one and porta two run off of batteries.