Recording with a reel to reel

[AnImageApart]

I have a Pioneer RT707 I bought and have been recording onto it.
I am pretty new to production in general, and I've just been making tape loops and running them around my room, just having fun with it.

I've heard it's best to convert to digital at the last possible point, but I was wondering about EQing and Mixing with tape.
I've been using Reaper to EQ out some noise from my amps and some muddy low end sounds.

It seems the more proper way to do this would be to use a mixer and get the sound / levels I want before it's recorded to the tape, is this correct?
I'm just a big confused on the proper way to do things.

Here are some loops I've recorded and arranged, no reverb was used on anything as I don't have a decent reverb pedal at the moment, just a terrible, noisy multipedal.
Not sure if everything sounds fine, I feel like it's pretty muddy.

https://soundcloud.com/metavir/demo

Any general advice for a tape newcomer would be much appreciated

 

[miroslav]

I don't know about that tape deck or what it sounds like (how many tracks does it have?)...but I don't ever run anything through a mixer before going to tape. It's usually mic/preamp or DI straight to the tape deck.
I might on occasion use a comp or EQ in the signal chain, but not that often. All the tones are set at the source...like at the guitar amp, or by finding the right mic position (and using the right mic).

After that, it goes into the DAW and I'll do some stuff in there to tweak.

If you want to mix from the tape, and you are using a multitrack tape deck, then you would need a mixer to handle all the tracks.

 

[AnImageApart]

Thanks for the reply!

It's a 4-track, 2-channel consumer deck.
I don't really record more than one track at a time. I usually use my ditto looper x2 to jam out ideas and come up with a simple loop, record that and then I'll work out other ideas to go along with it and record the parts individually then spend a long time moving everything around until I like the arrangement of things.

Been making a lot of tape loops recently as well for fun, layering a few of those or just trying out random things.
I have a piano loop and I loop the tape around my guitar (tuned to dadgad to match the piano parts) so it bows the strings creating some nice violin-esque drones to go along with it. Kind of stupid but it's fun.

Would love to get a frippertronics setup going

 

[miroslav]

OK...well...if you're planning to record one track at a time, and then dump to DAW, track after track....you'll run into synchronization issues with the tracks.

You could run a click on on track or drop some sort of cure at the start of each track in the same spot...and then try to align them that way, but there will still be drift between them without some solid sync control between them.
You could even run SMPTE to one track, let the deck be your master, let the DAW chase to the deck...
...but, it may be too overwhelming when just starting out.

So...experiment with it, see what feels comfortable...find out on your own, what won't work..etc.