Post Your Analog Recordings Here...
- Thread starter jedblue
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jpmorris
Tape Wolf
"100 Years" aka 'The SAIA song' (take 1)
I meant to upload this before, but forgot. It's a piece of epic progressive rock based around the concept of a school for demon-like creatures. If anyone ever heard the song 'Born with Wings' which I posted here around 2012, this is kind of like a followup to it.
It started out as a short song but grew and grew until it was fully a quarter of an hour long. Though that is still shorter than things like In-a-gadda-da-vida or 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers'.
So, the full-length version is here:
(17MB!)
But there is also a 'single edit' which only contains the circus-like tour of the school, the segue into weirdness afterwards and then fades out during the subsequent instrumental.
(this one has been edited digitally, the full-length version was essentially straight off the tape)
The song was composed on Cakewalk SONAR, tracked using Rosegarden and the bass and vocals were recorded and rerecorded over the subsequent few weeks.
Instruments used included:
Roland MVS-1 - bass synth
Roland JV1010 - metronome
Korg Triton - Drums, electric pianos, clavinet
Hammond XM-1
Manikin Memotron - Choir, 3 Violins, tape organ, Genesis cello*, flute (which was dropped from the mix, I think)
Minimoog Voyager
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic bass (DI'd through a TL Audio 5051)
*Use the lower registers of the cello tape, add lots of echo and chorusing. See 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight' and the lawnmower effect on 'I know what I like'
Vocals were put through a Watkins tape echo and Small Clone chorus pedal. Four tracks were used for the vocals which I think is the most I've ever used.
The basic tracks were recorded on an MSR-24 1" 24-track machine using horrifically expensive ATR tape as an experiment. Vocals and bass were then recorded on a TSR-8 on SM900 and transferred to the 24-track using an ATS500 synchronizer.
The pitch bend effect on the 'Bela Santiago' part was done using a back-and-forth dub on an A807 1/4" machine and a lot of trial, error and patience. Worth it, though - it's something I wanted to do for quite some time but never had a song that I could readily drop it into.
The stereo mix was done on SM900 on the A807.
(And yes, I did like Karn Evil 9)
Things which I will look at improving for the final version include some of the vocals being off-key in places. Since the original vocals are all on the 8-track tape, I might cheat and use timecode offsets to dub one of the 'good' choruses over one of the bad ones on the 24-track. (If you listen carefully you may notice where I already did that...)
Things which I will NOT fix include the preparation sounds prior to the 'Bela Santiago' part. They were all accidental but I liked the effect and decided to leave them in.
I meant to upload this before, but forgot. It's a piece of epic progressive rock based around the concept of a school for demon-like creatures. If anyone ever heard the song 'Born with Wings' which I posted here around 2012, this is kind of like a followup to it.
It started out as a short song but grew and grew until it was fully a quarter of an hour long. Though that is still shorter than things like In-a-gadda-da-vida or 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers'.
So, the full-length version is here:
(17MB!)
But there is also a 'single edit' which only contains the circus-like tour of the school, the segue into weirdness afterwards and then fades out during the subsequent instrumental.
(this one has been edited digitally, the full-length version was essentially straight off the tape)
The song was composed on Cakewalk SONAR, tracked using Rosegarden and the bass and vocals were recorded and rerecorded over the subsequent few weeks.
Instruments used included:
Roland MVS-1 - bass synth
Roland JV1010 - metronome
Korg Triton - Drums, electric pianos, clavinet
Hammond XM-1
Manikin Memotron - Choir, 3 Violins, tape organ, Genesis cello*, flute (which was dropped from the mix, I think)
Minimoog Voyager
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic bass (DI'd through a TL Audio 5051)
*Use the lower registers of the cello tape, add lots of echo and chorusing. See 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight' and the lawnmower effect on 'I know what I like'
Vocals were put through a Watkins tape echo and Small Clone chorus pedal. Four tracks were used for the vocals which I think is the most I've ever used.
The basic tracks were recorded on an MSR-24 1" 24-track machine using horrifically expensive ATR tape as an experiment. Vocals and bass were then recorded on a TSR-8 on SM900 and transferred to the 24-track using an ATS500 synchronizer.
The pitch bend effect on the 'Bela Santiago' part was done using a back-and-forth dub on an A807 1/4" machine and a lot of trial, error and patience. Worth it, though - it's something I wanted to do for quite some time but never had a song that I could readily drop it into.
The stereo mix was done on SM900 on the A807.
(And yes, I did like Karn Evil 9)
Things which I will look at improving for the final version include some of the vocals being off-key in places. Since the original vocals are all on the 8-track tape, I might cheat and use timecode offsets to dub one of the 'good' choruses over one of the bad ones on the 24-track. (If you listen carefully you may notice where I already did that...)
Things which I will NOT fix include the preparation sounds prior to the 'Bela Santiago' part. They were all accidental but I liked the effect and decided to leave them in.
altruistica
Member
Really enjoyed listening to these tunes guys.....
JP....sounds like you picked a good tune to cover there....I've never heard it before. Only criticism I could make is that I wanted it to sound harder /darker /nastier overall. I wanted the synth sounds to bite more. The treatment on your vocal seemed about right, but for me the synths were too gentle. I also though you might look into make the drums bigger /harder.....more cutting.
Dr Spring........you've got a real good ear for a catchy riff. Always nice ear candy!
Jason......the best thing I've heard from you yet and I did peruse quite a bit of your stuff about 6 months ago. The vocals definitely sound great....they had that 'new' vibe that's always hard to re-create after the first few takes.
Allen......I was really interested to hear these recordings as I've got two MS-16 machines awaiting setup and install. I really liked the sound of 'We poured our hearts out'....had a real Van Morrison feel both in sound and song-writing....f***ing excellent. What were the various instruments? Any sampled instruments / VST?
'Singing her a love song' had a smoother sound than 'Poured' but on my amp & speakers the kick drum had a real low resonant sound that could be emphasised by my room which for my liking was too prominent.
Just listened to 'Poured' for the third time....also has a feel of 'Cat Stevens'....great stuff.
Al
JP....sounds like you picked a good tune to cover there....I've never heard it before. Only criticism I could make is that I wanted it to sound harder /darker /nastier overall. I wanted the synth sounds to bite more. The treatment on your vocal seemed about right, but for me the synths were too gentle. I also though you might look into make the drums bigger /harder.....more cutting.
Dr Spring........you've got a real good ear for a catchy riff. Always nice ear candy!
Jason......the best thing I've heard from you yet and I did peruse quite a bit of your stuff about 6 months ago. The vocals definitely sound great....they had that 'new' vibe that's always hard to re-create after the first few takes.
Allen......I was really interested to hear these recordings as I've got two MS-16 machines awaiting setup and install. I really liked the sound of 'We poured our hearts out'....had a real Van Morrison feel both in sound and song-writing....f***ing excellent. What were the various instruments? Any sampled instruments / VST?
'Singing her a love song' had a smoother sound than 'Poured' but on my amp & speakers the kick drum had a real low resonant sound that could be emphasised by my room which for my liking was too prominent.
Just listened to 'Poured' for the third time....also has a feel of 'Cat Stevens'....great stuff.
Al
Dr.SpringReverb
Dieser Hund
Thanks @ altruistica
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
Yeah - I had to back out on the harsher minimoog sounds on 'Granny' because they were causing problems in the mix, which I wasn't able to resolve in the deadline I'd set myself. I was really shooting for something like 'Cars' by Gary Numan, and didn't quite get there.
Drums I always seem to have a problem with anyway.
altruistica
Member
Could that be because you use V-drums /sampled drums most of the time? I suffer with the same thing. The success or failure of all sampled solutions to drum tracks seem to hinge on how successful the ambience or reverb setting of the whole kit is. This doesn't mean to say the whole kit has to have the same ambience, but it does need to sound authentic. That's just the sound sources, never mind the actual groove of the drummer /programming. I have a good kit that I'll start to mic up more.
Having said that though, I listened to this newcomer the other day and thought the drummer (who was playing a V-Drum setup) was spot on for the style of track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3x2MF802fM
Al
altruistica
Member
MESSAGE FOR JP........I've found your solution to your drum problem:
Aerodrums | Carry the beat at any time
Al
Aerodrums | Carry the beat at any time
Al
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
Yeah, that won't help. Getting a better drum set would be better and I have contemplated getting a V-drum brain rather than relying on the Triton so much, but I think ultimately it's more that I suck at actually writing the drum parts.
As for Aerodrums, that's very clever, and it would be worth investigating if it was compatible with my setup. Sadly, the spare mac is older than the minimum spec, and was also downgraded to 10.4 so that Photoshop would work. I doubt the windows stuff will run reliably under WINE
Rikard
......
Hey all, these are my last two songs I recorded on my Tascam 388. It's a Seattle band that I'm producing a record for, Lonely Mountain Lovers, in my house, and we did these two as a little pre-full length project that they will release on a 7". They are not completely done, as the organ player is out of town for the next two months, but we will track his part, and I will do some more work on the mixes, and they will get it mastered.
I tracked drums/bass/rythm guitar live on the 388, dumped to PT, dumped a rough mix back on the 388 and tracked Vox, tambo and lead guitar on tape, then dumped back over to Protools, and synced up. I mixed half in/half out of the box. Only used a few high pass filter plugins, and few light limiter plugins. Reverb and compression are all out of the box, some tracked with, and some added after. I just got a AKG BX-5 on ebay (turns out the seller was Chris Walla, of Death Cab for Cutie, who is a fantastic producer, and he used it a ton on many of his earlier records, so that was pretty cool). Very cool, dark spring. I used a Boss Space Echo pedal(not the real one, for the delay's on the vox, but will be using a real one for the record). Vox were recorded with a Sm-7B, through a UA Solo 610, and Golden Age Comp 54. Anyway, hope you guys dig. Not totally done, but getting close. I just sold the 388, and bought a M-308b, and soon to buy a tsr-8. I want a wider format for the full length, as they want to go all analog, so I really needed something better for bouncing tracks. (Super nervous about doing all on 8 track, will dump to pro tools as a safety net/backup prior to bouncing tracks) I've never done a full record this way, so hopefully it turns out good. Anyway, let me know what yall think. Cheers!
https://soundcloud.com/richard-meade/be-kind-final-mix-4-ref
(the bass was through an amp live in the same room as drums, so I'm having some phase issues with bass guitar, in case you heard some weird stuff happening there, driving my crazy)
https://soundcloud.com/richard-meade/friendly-ghost-mix2-0-ref
I tracked drums/bass/rythm guitar live on the 388, dumped to PT, dumped a rough mix back on the 388 and tracked Vox, tambo and lead guitar on tape, then dumped back over to Protools, and synced up. I mixed half in/half out of the box. Only used a few high pass filter plugins, and few light limiter plugins. Reverb and compression are all out of the box, some tracked with, and some added after. I just got a AKG BX-5 on ebay (turns out the seller was Chris Walla, of Death Cab for Cutie, who is a fantastic producer, and he used it a ton on many of his earlier records, so that was pretty cool). Very cool, dark spring. I used a Boss Space Echo pedal(not the real one, for the delay's on the vox, but will be using a real one for the record). Vox were recorded with a Sm-7B, through a UA Solo 610, and Golden Age Comp 54. Anyway, hope you guys dig. Not totally done, but getting close. I just sold the 388, and bought a M-308b, and soon to buy a tsr-8. I want a wider format for the full length, as they want to go all analog, so I really needed something better for bouncing tracks. (Super nervous about doing all on 8 track, will dump to pro tools as a safety net/backup prior to bouncing tracks) I've never done a full record this way, so hopefully it turns out good. Anyway, let me know what yall think. Cheers!
https://soundcloud.com/richard-meade/be-kind-final-mix-4-ref
(the bass was through an amp live in the same room as drums, so I'm having some phase issues with bass guitar, in case you heard some weird stuff happening there, driving my crazy)
https://soundcloud.com/richard-meade/friendly-ghost-mix2-0-ref
altruistica
Member
Hey Rikard,
Really nice song, beautifully performed, reminded me of Ron Sexsmith....this band really deserves to be recorded on 2" tape or at the very minimum 1" (like the MS16 machines I have). The problem with the smaller formats is that they do lack something....they kind of mush everything around 500hz to me. The bass sounds as if it wants to sound fuller, rounder and the tops want to sizzle a bit more.....but having sad all that the material is F#**ING BRILLIANT so maybe that's just the icing on the cake.......can't wait to hear more.
Al
Really nice song, beautifully performed, reminded me of Ron Sexsmith....this band really deserves to be recorded on 2" tape or at the very minimum 1" (like the MS16 machines I have). The problem with the smaller formats is that they do lack something....they kind of mush everything around 500hz to me. The bass sounds as if it wants to sound fuller, rounder and the tops want to sizzle a bit more.....but having sad all that the material is F#**ING BRILLIANT so maybe that's just the icing on the cake.......can't wait to hear more.
Al
Hammerstone
Out of style
Hear, hear. Great-sounding songs!
Rikard
......
Thanks yall! They are a good young band, just getting going, and the singer/songwriter is crazy talented. He did his vox in one take, on each song (at midnight after several PBR's), I didn't have to do any punching, or create a comp track, very little need for compression, and in between each line, SILENCE. No breathing, snortn, farting. nothing. It was great. We did the whole thing in one day, so I'm really excited to put some real time into them. They would sound great on 2", but it's not in the budget. But I think 1/2" 8 track compared to 1/4" is going to make a pretty good difference. If I had just a little more space, I would be looking into a MS-16, I've done some tracking on them, and they sound pretty darn good(not 2" good though). Too big though! Anyway, thanks for kind words and feedback!
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
1/2" 8-track and 1" 16-track both have the same track width as 2" 24-track. The guard bands are narrower, and the electronics are going to be better on a pro machine, but the actual recording area per track is the same...
Rikard
......
I meant to say (not 2" studer/otari/sony good). Although I have heard some pretty wonderful sound recordings on the Tascam 1/2" 8 track machines. Would really love to have 16 for flexibility, but hey, work with what you got! Looking forward to picking up a tsr-8.
jpmorris
Tape Wolf
They are nice machines. I still use mine for tracking vocals and bass, though it gets dumped to a 1" 24-track for mixing afterwards.
The Ghost of FM
Banned
Good tune, Jason! 
Nicely mixed too and also loved the vocal layering! You've got a great voice!
My only niggle with the tune was wanting to hear it at a slightly faster tempo...maybe consider pitching it up about 5 to 10 % and see how it sounds to you? Or not.
Cheers!
Nicely mixed too and also loved the vocal layering! You've got a great voice!
My only niggle with the tune was wanting to hear it at a slightly faster tempo...maybe consider pitching it up about 5 to 10 % and see how it sounds to you? Or not.
Cheers!
j.harv
@#$%
Good tune, Jason!
Nicely mixed too and also loved the vocal layering! You've got a great voice!
My only niggle with the tune was wanting to hear it at a slightly faster tempo...maybe consider pitching it up about 5 to 10 % and see how it sounds to you? Or not.
Cheers!
Thanks Jeff.
I thought it could have been quicker myself too...It sounded ok when I recorded the guitar,but when I heard it after the drum track was down, it almost sounds as if it's dragging a little....