Thank you for the great walkthrough! As usual! I love how the clipping sound on the original recording turns into a awesome texture on a quarter speed playback. I think it's worth mentioning, that this technique does not necessarily require Nagra (which is rather expensive mono r2r machine). You can use almost any cheapish working two speed machine. Sometimes the more beaten - the better as the bad motors may create interesting wobbly effects. Just make sure you machine has: - At least 2 speed (Nagra III is 3 speed, but 2 speed is fine); - 3-head machine with tape monitor; - Ideally 2-track or mono track machine (nagra is a single channel on a 1/4" which is very high quality, but obviously mono). 4 track machine is fine, but with 4 tracks on the 1/4" tape the noise (tape bias hiss) may be too high. So, more speeds the better, but at least two-speed, 3-head machine is what you need to get this kind of effect. You can also use very old tape (no need to waste good new tape for effects as it's pretty expensive). Use any old tape, just make sure it's not leaving any marks on the heads and rollers. You can even squeeze the tape in your arm a little while it runs through the reels to create marks and textures on playback / recording. Just make sure you don't damage your machine in the process. Mr. Heinbach, please correct me if I'm wrong, but based on my feeling you also run the signal onto the tape rather hot. That's the reason it sounds so saturated - it overdrives the tape and that's the compression we're hearing. I think a lot of people who will be trying to replicate this kind of effect might be disappointed if the outgoing level is "too reasonable". You can experiment with the level of outgoing signal by plugging your instrument into the machine and turn tape monitor on (you need a 3-head machine for that). This way you will be able to adjust the level of your outgoing signal to the taste and then sample your recording perfectly. Also higher speeds like 15 ips (38cm) can tolerate higher signal level (around +3dB) so it's a trial and error process, but you'll get there eventually. You can't trick physics. :-)
Ingredient X of Sgt. Pepper (and many Beatles recordings post 1966) was tape speed. Recording everything at different speeds (slower to sound faster, or faster to sound slower) gave their vocals, drums, guitars, etc, different textures as Hainbach mentions, that were subtle in themselves, but compounded with multiple track layers gave their records a very different sonic atmosphere.
I did this with a cassette tape deck a lot, definitely a great technique! sometimes even do it digitally, eg recording some piano parts higher and faster only to pitch them down, always gets an absolutely lovely ambient texture.
oh sorry that was misleading.the question regarding the tape deck was directed towards @Woolookologie.But thanks a lot for the tip with the marantz!!! I really can't afford a reel2reel machine at this point,that's why I'm looking for tape decks (kind of) able of doing what you did with the nagra.
here is a trick Monsieur Hainbach - try recording radio 'static' like from a shortwave radio - playback MUCH slower and get something that sounds like an electrical storm (gewitter)
Recording the "morning chorus" on VLF band might be interesting to play with too, After all, some of the early primitive VLF radios were called "spirit radios" for a reason Might try it out with my SDR (software deffined radio) setup now that I have the Ham-it-up modual to push the reception down that low
Wow... this was so inspiring... The track is beautiful, and this technique is so interesting, how much life it can give a somehow "cold" sound. I cannot say I didn't like the slow version, but the faster one fits the atmosphere a bit more, that's true. Thank you!
HAINBACH I liked slow version but I imagine not on its own but as a base for additional recording on top of that. And please ( 'not enough tape!' ) do more tape tech videos. Already incorporated some of your techniques with dictaphones and others and are very happy with it. Thanks, keep up good work!
Really awesome video. More like this please. I very much enjoyed your final price, but I liked the really slow one, and would like to hear mor of that too.
Reminds me a lot of how Murch would play back sounds in the largest room available at double tape speed, and at the other end of the room he'd have a recording tape also running at twice the speed. When it was done, he then played it back at normal speed. The result was that the source sound played back at normal speed but the room reverb was at half speed. So it sounded twice as large.
That's such a beautiful track. From watching your channel, I've become inspired to use tape to record with again lately. I used to have a four track way back in the day, at the very beginning of recording myself, and I loved it, so it didn't take much inspiration to convince myself to buy another. I picked up a Tascam 414MKII for 300$. Not too bad! Anyway. It sounds interesting to hear tape again. It seems rather dull at times, but then also definitely does have a character that pure digital realm does not. NOW, I'm beginning to wonder, would I use and enjoy using a Nagra machine? I feel I can slightly hear what you are talking about here, the warmth and the sort of saturation of tying the whole piece together in a more cohesive way...I guess you really do just have to sort of experiment with tape on your own and find out what you hear? I mean, I think the answer you'd give to that is obviously YES. (HA.) But, hm, I guess I'm wondering if you have any more thoughts to offer on this....From what I understand (so far), Nagra machines were designed to give the least noise possible on a recording? With the least noise, is it still a thing that tape gives the recording a quality that it didn't have in digital world? I guess what I'm getting at mostly here is that your track is so nice how you recorded it already! I mean, does the tape really help it THAT much? Or maybe all of this is just personal feeling and, that's totally ok too. For the record: I like that you decided that half speed was boring! I notice that often when I've tried that trick and wondered if you ever felt that way! Thanks for the great videos!
You do great videos man! Really starting to be a favourite show for me. I would love to see the same musicvideo, but with the slow version playing, and the video slowed down too - but the video should be VHS playing on an oldschool TV, filmed directly onto the screen, for some saturation 😃
@@Hainbach Sure! I'm just in the process of moving into my first house, so right now most time is reserved for that (and the soundstudio I'm building there), but the previous owners coincidentally left me a VHS-recorder, and I just got and old TV, so the setup is there. I wonder if I can adjust my Fuji X-1 to match the framerate of the TV properly 🤔 Either way, please send me the slow-mix on steven@stvn.net - then I'll see what I can do 🙂
I loved, loved the money joke. I was expecting a whole speech about how expensive a Kudelski Nagra could be, and then you just bring out a copper coin.
I liked the slower tempo a lot too, it had an even more "textural" with all the warbling and such, while the melodies became pretty undistinguishable. You could try making a version of mixing the slower and higher speed versions together, I think that could be very sweet!
Love this stuff. I have been on the lookout for a reel to reel tape deck for a while now, but to be honest I don't know how often I'd use it, given the hassle of dealing with all that tape and space it takes up. Still, though, I want to give it a try sometime. I still use film in cameras, so why not?
Curious to know how the Time Post module was effecting the output picked up from the microphone. What was it doing in relation to the ambient nature sound being directly recorded? so cool!
This is a really great tutorial. I want to get a Nagra soon! I thought I remember seeing them on ebay in the $600-800 range but now all of them are several thousand dollars. Any tips on finding deals? Or alternatives to the nagra?
@@Hainbach Oh word? I didn't know they had mono ones. If I ever wanted to run a full mix through it I imagine that doing Left then Right and trying to combine them later it would be a phase disaster correct?
Not that I need any more GAS but Id love it if you would show off your use of the Bastl Thyme. I want to get one myself and immediately thought of your workflow when I first saw and heard it used. BTW this is one of the first videos on youtube in which I actually can hear the result of tape processing. Nice and lovely track as well. Respect.
Thank you very much! I want to spent more time with the Bastl - I still have not dug into the sequencing. This machine is deep and rewards exploration. But I will do something, have it on my to do list.
Sehr inspirierend! Danke fürs Teilen! Kannst du was für E-Gitarre empfehlen? Wäre wunderbar, wenn das Echo zwischen ca. 100ms und ca. 800ms verzögern würde. Danke und lieber Gruß. Carsten
Can you get the same stuff with the Uher 4000? How do you get rid of the surounding noise when you Fieldrecord? Are you using Izotope RX8 to do that? How much time do you have to spend mixing mastering tracks after you record it or does it sound that way without mixing or anything when record with the Nagra or Uher? I hate mixing mastering.I search for a device to get rid of it as much as possible. After recording Analog how do you bring it back to Digital without loosing Quality? I Connect my MPC live 2 to a Denon DRM 710 and record Samples or Beats into the Denon, but its full of Hiss and quiet. On the MPC 1000 you can get Lofi sounds by adding a Filter to samples turning on Poly and pressing a Pad fast and repedingly. Those Sound good and relaxing almost everytime.
I agree on the tempo you've chosen, but I feel the even slower version would go very well with a beat. Would you be open to releasing it for sampling or remixes?
Do you recommend any reel to reel that isn’t too expensive? Any good bang for your buck reel to reel? Trying to use it for tape delay, feedback, saturation. Thank you.
I have an old cassette recorder. What is the jump in quality between my cassette recorder and a reel to reel? I'm thinking of buying a reel to reel but want to make sure it's the right buy.
Hey hainbach! Great Video! I'm just wondering if there's any extra mastering processing on the final version that wasn't on the original? It sounds to me like there's some more reverb? That can't be due to the tape compression surely?
What about a video with recorder recommendations? Depending on what you want it to achieve and budget? It would be really interesting to even only see your collection atleast!
Hey Hainbach, thank you so much for this video. I have an Otari MX5050 MkIII-8. Do you know what kind of tape I need/it is calibrated for? Thanks in advance! Sam.
You calibrate it to the tape you can get. So any good quality RMG or RTM or whatever that company is called will work, as long as you calibrate it to that.
@@Hainbach great, thanks so much for the advice. Is it complicated to calibrate this model of reel to reel? Are there any tutorials on this? I can't find many videos at all about this machine, so any advice you can give is really appreciated. Thanks again, Sam.
Do you ever process just the effects only to tape and then blend that back in with the dry signal? I've tried to do this but cant figure out how to sync it back up afterwards due to the tape speed fluctuations! If this is something you have experience with I'd love to see a tutorial!
The wow and flutter on my Telefunken M15 and Nagra at high speeds is very low, almost not noticeable. But depending on what you are trying to do with the blend you might run into phasing issues. Have you had your machine calibrated? That helps with too much fluctuations usually.
Beautiful track man, really good taste on ambient! Do you know if there's any way to get this sound pausing, cuts and sort of glitchy effect with any software?
Nice work! I really like the textures that gives the Nagra or similar machines, but to my regret it's almost impossible to find them at a reasonable price in Russia (where I live) . But there is a huge number of old soviet reel-to-reel tape recorders, perhaps i should experiment with them, they super noisy, but also can give unpredictable textures :)
I have a "Комета-212 Стерео", and it's very lo-fi machine, which I bought many years ago for about 5 bucks. I had to find adapters from old soviet 5-pin connectors to TRS. After a while the motor of one reel stopped working, but I can still use it for tape-loops.
Do you have some tips for buying used tape machines? I'm looking for one with 3 heads. Shouldn't be too clean or too dirty sounding (The one you're using here sounds great) and shouldn't be one too hard to get new tape for :)
This was a truly fantastic tutorial, however I can't help but wonder 1) when the obsession with mimicking BoC will end (not specifically for you, but in general)- BoC is largely the *sound*, but also so much more... their compositions, their layering, etc. Everyone focuses too heavily on recreating the sound, relying on that detuned/lo-fi sound to cover up sub-par compositions 2) why not make the process easier by using any number of cheaper/easier options like a Cooper FX Generation Loss, Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl, Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water, ZVex Instant Lo-Fi Junky etc., etc- and those are just pedals; there are options in modular as well. So many pieces designed to emulate the degraded tape sound these days, and they do it very well. Of course I can appreciate wanting the "original experience" and dig big boxes with temperamental parts as much as anyone, but ultimately I personally would rather that ease of use and immediacy of one of the aforementioned pedals/units. Cheers.
I thought your comment was really interesting, and it made me go back and listen to Boards of Canada for the first time in years. And: it's great stuff, but I prefer Hainbach's music. I think it has some of the same ideas but it goes a lot further with them. It's a deeper dive into the history of sound technology, and it lovingly portrays that history by really getting to know these historical artifacts, and using them to make music (tape, test equipment, antique acoustic instruments, etc). As for using tape imitations instead of the real thing, I've been learning my way through tape effects lately and it's so much fun! You discover things from working with the tape and seeing how it behaves. For me as well, it isn't just about the sound at the end: part of the art, and the joy, is the interaction between you and these old machines that have lived long and varied lives before you had them. It feels like a communion with the past. And it's not necessarily more expensive. A Nagra 4.2 is crazy money, but I got a couple of walkmans and a beautiful-sounding broken Marantz that I repaired myself, for about £100 total (though I admit, I'm the kind of person who enjoys fixing old machines, so that wasn't part of the cost). By comparison, I can't afford any of those pedals you named.
It's like every rock band playing on guitars and drums would be mimicking The Beatles! Of course that statement would be funny :D So why does people compare lo-fi sounds to BoC so often? Synthesizers, analog or digital, are not instruments in a classic meaning - they can recreate a lot of natural sounds but aso can go way, way further defining their own. And seeking a certain sound or tone is just part of creative process - similar to selecting a certain amp or pedal for guitar or a certain mic configuration for drums recording. I would risk a statement that in electronic music the tone and sound sometimes do a lot more to a track than composition and melody, which is not to say they are not important, especially ambient.
Philips Four el3578. I know it's a reel to reel tape recorder, 4 tracks. Would this be useful to learn and practice some techniques? I'm a newbie, so I don't know what kind of specifics that tape recorder has.
I wonder how you record with the nagra, mine seem to saturate a lot when i record with the mix table branched in the xlr input but you don't seem to use this xlr input or ? is there another way to record?
Great video and very nice composition. All versions were good, I liked the version on the train a lot. Is the Nagra mono? You need to transfer your video footage of the park onto the Nagra as well - it was too crisp!
i like yr style honestly this track only stood out at super high pitch to me. the normal version wasn't quite "there". love the mbira too, need to get one.
Depends on your budget or luck. Revox B77 is nice and not that expensive, Nagra is great but expensive, Uher is good and affordable, or just start with cassette tape and a three head machine.
@@Hainbach Thanks. What price should I be looking at paying for a revox B77 or Uher? I've seen a reconditioned serviced one for £600. Some studer models cost similar. Akai ones seem to be going cheap. How much are the Nagra models? I have no idea of the market value of these machines.
In a way! Though ironically, "Modernity has made the consumer crave the past" could almost have been written by William Morris in the 1850s. I think we're always in some combination of yearning for the future and yearning for the past. I think I see this kind of process as a way of not forgetting the past. Practicing the daily rituals of people who came before helps us to imagine their lives more clearly, and contextualise our own lives within history. Even if in this case it's only very recent history!
I miss this kinda Hainbach content
Thank you for the great walkthrough! As usual! I love how the clipping sound on the original recording turns into a awesome texture on a quarter speed playback.
I think it's worth mentioning, that this technique does not necessarily require Nagra (which is rather expensive mono r2r machine). You can use almost any cheapish working two speed machine. Sometimes the more beaten - the better as the bad motors may create interesting wobbly effects.
Just make sure you machine has:
- At least 2 speed (Nagra III is 3 speed, but 2 speed is fine);
- 3-head machine with tape monitor;
- Ideally 2-track or mono track machine (nagra is a single channel on a 1/4" which is very high quality, but obviously mono). 4 track machine is fine, but with 4 tracks on the 1/4" tape the noise (tape bias hiss) may be too high.
So, more speeds the better, but at least two-speed, 3-head machine is what you need to get this kind of effect.
You can also use very old tape (no need to waste good new tape for effects as it's pretty expensive). Use any old tape, just make sure it's not leaving any marks on the heads and rollers. You can even squeeze the tape in your arm a little while it runs through the reels to create marks and textures on playback / recording. Just make sure you don't damage your machine in the process.
Mr. Heinbach, please correct me if I'm wrong, but based on my feeling you also run the signal onto the tape rather hot. That's the reason it sounds so saturated - it overdrives the tape and that's the compression we're hearing. I think a lot of people who will be trying to replicate this kind of effect might be disappointed if the outgoing level is "too reasonable". You can experiment with the level of outgoing signal by plugging your instrument into the machine and turn tape monitor on (you need a 3-head machine for that). This way you will be able to adjust the level of your outgoing signal to the taste and then sample your recording perfectly. Also higher speeds like 15 ips (38cm) can tolerate higher signal level (around +3dB) so it's a trial and error process, but you'll get there eventually. You can't trick physics. :-)
Awesome annotations, spot on! I love the Nagra for it's little wow and flutter, at least at higher speeds.
Great machine indeed! We want more tape tricks!
just dropped a nagra iii off at the shop. picked one up off of ebay because of you, good work!
love what it does to the transients, beautiful
Ingredient X of Sgt. Pepper (and many Beatles recordings post 1966) was tape speed. Recording everything at different speeds (slower to sound faster, or faster to sound slower) gave their vocals, drums, guitars, etc, different textures as Hainbach mentions, that were subtle in themselves, but compounded with multiple track layers gave their records a very different sonic atmosphere.
I enjoy these procedural videos. It's not even the odd gear, but that adds to it as well.
I did this with a cassette tape deck a lot, definitely a great technique! sometimes even do it digitally, eg recording some piano parts higher and faster only to pitch them down, always gets an absolutely lovely ambient texture.
The magic of time distortion ❤️
which tape deck did you use,if I may ask?
Here? A Nagra III. With cassette, Marantz PMD 222
oh sorry that was misleading.the question regarding the tape deck was directed towards @Woolookologie.But thanks a lot for the tip with the marantz!!! I really can't afford a reel2reel machine at this point,that's why I'm looking for tape decks (kind of) able of doing what you did with the nagra.
Which cassette deck lets you change speeds?
Love those incredible Nagra recorders. Love the mbira. The end result is wonderful !
468 is the loveliest tape out there! i use it on my tape machines too
Great work, the analog and digital colliding in a very compelling manner.
I love the sound quality that magnetic tape produces
here is a trick Monsieur Hainbach - try recording radio 'static' like from a shortwave radio - playback MUCH slower and get something that sounds like an electrical storm (gewitter)
Recording the "morning chorus" on VLF band might be interesting to play with too, After all, some of the early primitive VLF radios were called "spirit radios" for a reason
Might try it out with my SDR (software deffined radio) setup now that I have the Ham-it-up modual to push the reception down that low
Herr Hainbach rather :P
I mess with SW and have a Uher with 4 speeds. Thanks for that tip.
Wow... this was so inspiring... The track is beautiful, and this technique is so interesting, how much life it can give a somehow "cold" sound. I cannot say I didn't like the slow version, but the faster one fits the atmosphere a bit more, that's true. Thank you!
Thank you! Glad you heard it the same way. Its not always that slowing down makes everything sound better, sometimes its too much.
HAINBACH I liked slow version but I imagine not on its own but as a base for additional recording on top of that. And please ( 'not enough tape!' ) do more tape tech videos. Already incorporated some of your techniques with dictaphones and others and are very happy with it. Thanks, keep up good work!
Lovely track
danke heinbach dank dir bin ich jetzt süchtig nach tapemaschinen
Thanks! This was great. I really enjoyed the slow speed track as well. Got a great droney sound to it.
great ambient and nice tape experiment... yes please more tape videos
Honestly dude bless your videos, you're helping me get into this beautiful world of analog music production
Also, yes please please make more videos about tape techniques.
Lovely sounds and texture. All speeds have their unique qualities. Have a nice weekend!
You too Ralph!
what a difference in texture ! I like the track best in the original tempo
That’s awesome! I like the slower version but also the original tempo too, I think both have a different and unique vibe to them
That was brilliant, Hainbach! 👏🏻
Sehr schönes Stück, transportiert für mich etwas Melancholisches
Fantastic work. Why on earth would anyone give this a thumbs down?!?
Definitely want to hear the slower version! :) great work as always!
Very informative. Thank you! :-)
love all your instructional videos. i've learned so much from your tape techniques and ciat lonbarde stuff in particular. so good. thanks!
I like every speed shown, but I must admit the slowest one had me transfixed.
Dammit Hainbach I’m trying to eat!
I guess food can wait though.... 😁
I ate way to little today, too :-) .I will upload the slowest speed to my Patreon. It has gotten so much good feedback, it wants to be out there. :-)
Late to the party here, but great video! I hope to find more analog tests like it on your channel.
A weeks worth at least!
All the various versions of the recording sound great to me :)
Even the cold and non textured element can find it's place as part of a whole. But of course the warm texture is always magnetic to the ear and soul
I uploaded the train version to soundclound and the slowest to www.patreon.com/hainbach :-)
I liked it best in the slowest version. Rythmically I find it more hypnotic and relaxing ;)
daMN great job sounds amazing nice texture
Always inspiring!! Danke!
Beautiful music
Loved this and these technique videos. Just signed up for your patreon. Thanks for the all the great work.
Thank you very much! It truly means the world to me.
beautiful work Stefan. Vivarium-core!
Thank you Stephen! This and the old Graveyard are my favorite places in Göttingen. And Vinyl Reservat, really good record shop.
That video is gold! Amazing work my friend.. And yeah I think that the pitched down version was even better..
Pitched down is lovely indeed, I got convinced after working on it. It's on my Patreon 😉
love it!!
... a good kick to get my uher vario sg 520 cleaned and repaired... wish me luck because i am doing it myself
Awesome! I'd be scared.
Really awesome video. More like this please. I very much enjoyed your final price, but I liked the really slow one, and would like to hear mor of that too.
Reminds me a lot of how Murch would play back sounds in the largest room available at double tape speed, and at the other end of the room he'd have a recording tape also running at twice the speed. When it was done, he then played it back at normal speed. The result was that the source sound played back at normal speed but the room reverb was at half speed. So it sounded twice as large.
Excellent and has given me some ideas too, so thank you.
Yeah good call! The faster version keeps that crystalline sound... but warms the crystals up. :)
That's such a beautiful track.
From watching your channel, I've become inspired to use tape to record with again lately. I used to have a four track way back in the day, at the very beginning of recording myself, and I loved it, so it didn't take much inspiration to convince myself to buy another. I picked up a Tascam 414MKII for 300$. Not too bad! Anyway. It sounds interesting to hear tape again. It seems rather dull at times, but then also definitely does have a character that pure digital realm does not.
NOW, I'm beginning to wonder, would I use and enjoy using a Nagra machine? I feel I can slightly hear what you are talking about here, the warmth and the sort of saturation of tying the whole piece together in a more cohesive way...I guess you really do just have to sort of experiment with tape on your own and find out what you hear? I mean, I think the answer you'd give to that is obviously YES. (HA.) But, hm, I guess I'm wondering if you have any more thoughts to offer on this....From what I understand (so far), Nagra machines were designed to give the least noise possible on a recording? With the least noise, is it still a thing that tape gives the recording a quality that it didn't have in digital world? I guess what I'm getting at mostly here is that your track is so nice how you recorded it already! I mean, does the tape really help it THAT much? Or maybe all of this is just personal feeling and, that's totally ok too.
For the record: I like that you decided that half speed was boring! I notice that often when I've tried that trick and wondered if you ever felt that way!
Thanks for the great videos!
You do great videos man! Really starting to be a favourite show for me.
I would love to see the same musicvideo, but with the slow version playing, and the video slowed down too - but the video should be VHS playing on an oldschool TV, filmed directly onto the screen, for some saturation 😃
If you have a VHS and tube TV I can sent you the slowest track and video so you could film that. ☺️
@@Hainbach Sure! I'm just in the process of moving into my first house, so right now most time is reserved for that (and the soundstudio I'm building there), but the previous owners coincidentally left me a VHS-recorder, and I just got and old TV, so the setup is there. I wonder if I can adjust my Fuji X-1 to match the framerate of the TV properly 🤔
Either way, please send me the slow-mix on steven@stvn.net - then I'll see what I can do 🙂
this is wonderful! I think it'd be great if you made a video on your mastering process - the final recording came out awesome.
Thank you, will do!
I loved, loved the money joke. I was expecting a whole speech about how expensive a Kudelski Nagra could be, and then you just bring out a copper coin.
Love this series. I'd like to get a reel to reel type recorder but it seems a bit daunting.
If this video is well received I am planning on doing an intro video. Listing some options and talking about maintenance, aquiring tape etc.
HAINBACH please do!
HAINBACH I'd bloody love that
That would be great!
hainbach rocks
I liked the slower tempo a lot too, it had an even more "textural" with all the warbling and such, while the melodies became pretty undistinguishable.
You could try making a version of mixing the slower and higher speed versions together, I think that could be very sweet!
Beautiful! I *need* to get my Tascam 32 fixed soon. How are pinch rollers so expensive?! :cry:
Listen to for a long while, your an inspiration!! Whats you fav module
Cwejman RES-4. It's unstoppable for Sounddesign.
@@Hainbach thanks man, cwejman is on my list :)
Folktek alter 2 👍
yo this is sick
Love this stuff. I have been on the lookout for a reel to reel tape deck for a while now, but to be honest I don't know how often I'd use it, given the hassle of dealing with all that tape and space it takes up. Still, though, I want to give it a try sometime. I still use film in cameras, so why not?
If you start using good tape you will want to use it always.
Curious to know how the Time Post module was effecting the output picked up from the microphone. What was it doing in relation to the ambient nature sound being directly recorded? so cool!
Awesome stuff
This is a really great tutorial. I want to get a Nagra soon! I thought I remember seeing them on ebay in the $600-800 range but now all of them are several thousand dollars. Any tips on finding deals? Or alternatives to the nagra?
I still see them for that price. You are looking at stereo ones. Get a mono.
@@Hainbach Oh word? I didn't know they had mono ones. If I ever wanted to run a full mix through it I imagine that doing Left then Right and trying to combine them later it would be a phase disaster correct?
Yes. Nagras are not full mix machines, unless you go for creative processing. Get a Studer or Telefunken M15 for that.
Dope🌿🎧🎶
Not that I need any more GAS but Id love it if you would show off your use of the Bastl Thyme. I want to get one myself and immediately thought of your workflow when I first saw and heard it used. BTW this is one of the first videos on youtube in which I actually can hear the result of tape processing. Nice and lovely track as well. Respect.
Thank you very much! I want to spent more time with the Bastl - I still have not dug into the sequencing. This machine is deep and rewards exploration. But I will do something, have it on my to do list.
ooouh YES i love the 3.75 version so much !!! but i feel that it needs some snappy percussion on-top imo
Ok, going to upload it to my patreon ASAP so you can snappy perc. 😋
Its now up on www.patreon.com/hainbach. Train version is on Soundcloud.
oooh ! ill tryn go grab it today !
Sehr inspirierend! Danke fürs Teilen! Kannst du was für E-Gitarre empfehlen? Wäre wunderbar, wenn das Echo zwischen ca. 100ms und ca. 800ms verzögern würde. Danke und lieber Gruß. Carsten
Can you get the same stuff with the Uher 4000? How do you get rid of the surounding noise when you Fieldrecord? Are you using Izotope RX8 to do that? How much time do you have to spend mixing mastering tracks after you record it or does it sound that way without mixing or anything when record with the Nagra or Uher? I hate mixing mastering.I search for a device to get rid of it as much as possible. After recording Analog how do you bring it back to Digital without loosing Quality? I Connect my MPC live 2 to a Denon DRM 710 and record Samples or Beats into the Denon, but its full of Hiss and quiet. On the MPC 1000 you can get Lofi sounds by adding a Filter to samples turning on Poly and pressing a Pad fast and repedingly. Those Sound good and relaxing almost everytime.
Very nice Hainbach .. what’s the difference in the III and the IV-L ? Thanks
wow. that's really nice
I agree on the tempo you've chosen, but I feel the even slower version would go very well with a beat. Would you be open to releasing it for sampling or remixes?
I uploaded the final version to my patreon.com/Hainbach. I could upload the slowest version there, too.
That's great! Thank you. I recently purchased a 1950s Körting reel to reel. I'll use it for the remix and make a video.
Will try to get it up tomorrow then!
Its up on Patreon now!
Do you recommend any reel to reel that isn’t too expensive? Any good bang for your buck reel to reel? Trying to use it for tape delay, feedback, saturation. Thank you.
Uher Report Monitor 4000 or Revox B77.
Definitely more.... 😎
beautiful piece ;)
I have an old cassette recorder. What is the jump in quality between my cassette recorder and a reel to reel? I'm thinking of buying a reel to reel but want to make sure it's the right buy.
Hey hainbach! Great Video! I'm just wondering if there's any extra mastering processing on the final version that wasn't on the original? It sounds to me like there's some more reverb? That can't be due to the tape compression surely?
Hi HAINBACH, where do you recommend to buy blank reel tapes for the Nagra III? Great video, Thanks
Darklab Magnetics in Germany might sort you out. Else it's eBay now that Richmond film sound is no more.
Really interesting stuff. Can the nagra also be used to perform the tape delay feedback trick?
Yes!
@@Hainbach Amazing! I gotta get one :)
What about a video with recorder recommendations? Depending on what you want it to achieve and budget? It would be really interesting to even only see your collection atleast!
I have that planned! Its kind of long video so I need some time for that, but I am confident to have it out in Juli.
Sweet! Love the tape-related videos, especially when a OP-1 is involved, it's interesting seeing it's generally metallic character get so warm.
Hello Hainbach, can i please ask you wich cable are you using for the nagra?
Hey Hainbach, thank you so much for this video. I have an Otari MX5050 MkIII-8. Do you know what kind of tape I need/it is calibrated for? Thanks in advance! Sam.
You calibrate it to the tape you can get. So any good quality RMG or RTM or whatever that company is called will work, as long as you calibrate it to that.
@@Hainbach great, thanks so much for the advice. Is it complicated to calibrate this model of reel to reel? Are there any tutorials on this? I can't find many videos at all about this machine, so any advice you can give is really appreciated. Thanks again, Sam.
I would call an expert in your area that services studios and learn from him.
@@Hainbach vielen dank Hainbach. Have a great day
Dear Hainbach, what tape do you use for the Uher 4000? I've got one, but maybe I'm using the wrong tape (RTM from thomann). Dank.
PER 36 type is usually good, but I run it with whatever is around at the studio, 468 mostly
Do you ever process just the effects only to tape and then blend that back in with the dry signal? I've tried to do this but cant figure out how to sync it back up afterwards due to the tape speed fluctuations! If this is something you have experience with I'd love to see a tutorial!
The wow and flutter on my Telefunken M15 and Nagra at high speeds is very low, almost not noticeable. But depending on what you are trying to do with the blend you might run into phasing issues. Have you had your machine calibrated? That helps with too much fluctuations usually.
What do you think about the Nagra E model? Thank you!!
No varispeed makes me sad, but I have one and it is decent.
@@Hainbach same quality preamps of other models? I think It is possible to mod that model with speed control
@@inanesilence any idea how ?
@@Hainbach do you mean it’s just one speed and can’t be slowed down or speed it up ?
Beautiful track man, really good taste on ambient! Do you know if there's any way to get this sound pausing, cuts and sort of glitchy effect with any software?
I think there are a lot of cut up fx around, I used Transverb and Glitch a lot back in early 2000s.
Nice work! I really like the textures that gives the Nagra or similar machines, but to my regret it's almost impossible to find them at a reasonable price in Russia (where I live) . But there is a huge number of old soviet reel-to-reel tape recorders, perhaps i should experiment with them, they super noisy, but also can give unpredictable textures :)
You sent me on a google hole on russian tape machines. Not easy to get info :-)
I have a "Комета-212 Стерео", and it's very lo-fi machine, which I bought many years ago for about 5 bucks. I had to find adapters from old soviet 5-pin connectors to TRS. After a while the motor of one reel stopped working, but I can still use it for tape-loops.
Do you have some tips for buying used tape machines? I'm looking for one with 3 heads. Shouldn't be too clean or too dirty sounding (The one you're using here sounds great) and shouldn't be one too hard to get new tape for :)
Set aside money for a qualified tech to service and measure in whatever you buy. Buy pro machines, not consumer stuff.
@@Hainbach Okay, thanks a lot :)
This was a truly fantastic tutorial, however I can't help but wonder 1) when the obsession with mimicking BoC will end (not specifically for you, but in general)- BoC is largely the *sound*, but also so much more... their compositions, their layering, etc. Everyone focuses too heavily on recreating the sound, relying on that detuned/lo-fi sound to cover up sub-par compositions 2) why not make the process easier by using any number of cheaper/easier options like a Cooper FX Generation Loss, Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl, Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water, ZVex Instant Lo-Fi Junky etc., etc- and those are just pedals; there are options in modular as well. So many pieces designed to emulate the degraded tape sound these days, and they do it very well. Of course I can appreciate wanting the "original experience" and dig big boxes with temperamental parts as much as anyone, but ultimately I personally would rather that ease of use and immediacy of one of the aforementioned pedals/units. Cheers.
I thought your comment was really interesting, and it made me go back and listen to Boards of Canada for the first time in years. And: it's great stuff, but I prefer Hainbach's music. I think it has some of the same ideas but it goes a lot further with them. It's a deeper dive into the history of sound technology, and it lovingly portrays that history by really getting to know these historical artifacts, and using them to make music (tape, test equipment, antique acoustic instruments, etc).
As for using tape imitations instead of the real thing, I've been learning my way through tape effects lately and it's so much fun! You discover things from working with the tape and seeing how it behaves. For me as well, it isn't just about the sound at the end: part of the art, and the joy, is the interaction between you and these old machines that have lived long and varied lives before you had them. It feels like a communion with the past.
And it's not necessarily more expensive. A Nagra 4.2 is crazy money, but I got a couple of walkmans and a beautiful-sounding broken Marantz that I repaired myself, for about £100 total (though I admit, I'm the kind of person who enjoys fixing old machines, so that wasn't part of the cost). By comparison, I can't afford any of those pedals you named.
It's like every rock band playing on guitars and drums would be mimicking The Beatles! Of course that statement would be funny :D So why does people compare lo-fi sounds to BoC so often? Synthesizers, analog or digital, are not instruments in a classic meaning - they can recreate a lot of natural sounds but aso can go way, way further defining their own. And seeking a certain sound or tone is just part of creative process - similar to selecting a certain amp or pedal for guitar or a certain mic configuration for drums recording. I would risk a statement that in electronic music the tone and sound sometimes do a lot more to a track than composition and melody, which is not to say they are not important, especially ambient.
what kind of output cable is it there on the nagra?
Banana
@@Hainbach thanks
ortiecuisante.bandcamp.com/
The tape adds such a nice texture. Makes me feel nostalgic :~) Does the Nagra record in mono?
Yeah, it's mono full track.
Hey. Loved this video so much that I decided to purchase a Nagra. I wonder where you buy your tapes?
I bought a lot at Richmond film supplies
Thanks I'll give them a try
Is this extremely dreamy track available on bandcamp?
Not yet! I plan to put it on an album next year. But on my Patreon you can download it and all the music from my videos.
Philips Four el3578. I know it's a reel to reel tape recorder, 4 tracks. Would this be useful to learn and practice some techniques? I'm a newbie, so I don't know what kind of specifics that tape recorder has.
Any will be good to start if it’s cheap!
Are any of the soft analog texture lost when it gets digital again on RUclips?
It gets a little lost as soon as it's recorded from the tape to digital. But the upload to RUclips is harmless compared to that step.
@@Hainbach thanks! 🙏
Need advice ..How good is Nagra E to record Acoustic Indian Classical Music ?
Runs only at 7.5 ips, I would prefer the 4.2. But it still sounds good, though it was meant more as dialogue/atmosphere recorder than for music.
I wonder how you record with the nagra, mine seem to saturate a lot when i record with the mix table branched in the xlr input but you don't seem to use this xlr input or ? is there another way to record?
There is a line in, but I also use the XLR. Use manual gain, not automatic, and experiment with what works
Also, XLR is mic I , so a mixer signal might be too much
Great video and very nice composition. All versions were good, I liked the version on the train a lot. Is the Nagra mono? You need to transfer your video footage of the park onto the Nagra as well - it was too crisp!
Ha, if I started going into Super8 too that would be lovely.
i like yr style
honestly this track only stood out at super high pitch to me. the normal version wasn't quite "there". love the mbira too, need to get one.
Thanks for the honest feedback! The mbira is from Juma Drums in Johannesburg, they have a very good online store.
Where can I buy the tracks in this video on 180g vinyl please?
I am looking into it....
Do you think any vst or pedal/rack emulations are capable of recreating this?
Honestly, no.
@@Hainbach Fair enough. What would you recommend to get started with tape recording experimenting?
Depends on your budget or luck. Revox B77 is nice and not that expensive, Nagra is great but expensive, Uher is good and affordable, or just start with cassette tape and a three head machine.
@@Hainbach Thanks. What price should I be looking at paying for a revox B77 or Uher? I've seen a reconditioned serviced one for £600. Some studer models cost similar. Akai ones seem to be going cheap. How much are the Nagra models? I have no idea of the market value of these machines.
Can you still buy that quarter inch tape new¿?
Yes, you can!
:)
make a tutorial for the basics about tape machines please
its like the 'pre-aging' thing they do with some products, jeans, cymbals. Modernity has made the consumer crave the past.
In a way! Though ironically, "Modernity has made the consumer crave the past" could almost have been written by William Morris in the 1850s. I think we're always in some combination of yearning for the future and yearning for the past.
I think I see this kind of process as a way of not forgetting the past. Practicing the daily rituals of people who came before helps us to imagine their lives more clearly, and contextualise our own lives within history. Even if in this case it's only very recent history!
what kind of nagra is THAT?? a Nagra III?? I have a 4.2 and a IV S but they look nothing like that
It's the lovely old three