That dictaphone thing -- my late grandfather had a few of those, he had used them to take recordings of me singing and reciting nursery rhymes as a toddler. I remember the sound quality being awful from him playing them for me over the years. He never threw them away. I'm sure there's still stashed somewhere in my grandparents house even though he passed away 7 years ago. I'd completely forgotten about them until now, and my heart just warmed right up the moment I saw you pull that out -- I suddenly see my granddad laughing while playing those childhood recordings of my voice for me :))) A visceral memory of a sight I've sorely missed. Miss you Dadun.
It’s great how you included the modded Walkman CV in not working as expected, part of the not so romanticized reality when working with old analog gear.
I used to use a dictaphone at work in the 1980s. It was to dictate stuff to be typed up by our typing pool. from what I remember of the time, the typical use was to do the same and also to leave instructions for a secretary.
You could basically solder a jack out to the speaker wires of the dictaphone and use it as an output! It should be ok from such a tiny machine Simon the Magpie does it all the time, so I'm suuuuure it's fiiiiiiine :D
yeah this is stupid easy, did it all the time with circuit bent keyboards before I had any idea what I was doing and it always sounded at least drastically better than the built in speakers.
Also, microcassettes will fit in any other microcassette recorder and they're super easy to find. Many have outputs. Or if you wanted to get real freaky, the tape itself is the same size as standard cassette and write you could meticulously put it in a cassette casing.
I wish I could sign up for your class!!! It's always open when I'm in school sigh. You would be a dream teacher. You've already taught me so much just with little tips in your videos - thank you so much!!!
Andrew you forgot to mention that the vocu vte 2000 also has a feature that no other tape echo I know of or can think of has. You can hook up an expression pedal to it and make the echo a slave to your expression. Which is the main reason why you should even want to own one. Not even the roland space echo has that feature...Which makes it probably the most unique tape echo in the world...Just my two cents to add to this amazing review of awesome gear...Have a magnificent day...
You could probably hack that dictaphone with a crude output by simply ripping the speaker out and connecting the leads to a jack. The Magpie has a video about doing that to toys and stuff.
For the dictaphone, you should look into getting an induction microphone. They used to be like $12 at RadioShack so I'm sure you can find a cheap one online. But that would be the next best thing to recording from a line out as it essentially records the magnetic frequencies of the speaker and translates that back into audio.
6:20 wayback when my father who is a medical specialist used a dictaphone to record letters.They'd speak the letter onto a tape and the secretary would then type them out and add them to the patients file or send them to the general doctor of a patient etc. These medical secretaries would have to know a lot about medical terms and medicine in general, quite a profession. To be able to listen back to those tapes while typing they used footcontrolled tape readers, some of which may have found their way onto a podium of a creative artist I guess.
When I worked in an office back in the 80's some guy came in and asked if he could use my dictaphone. I told him "no, use your finger like everyone else."
Love that Scott Campbell Marantz. I have a Marantz pmd222 modded so that the speed controls work during playback meaning it can be used as an echo provided you have an external mixer. Which i love love love. But all integrated like that is dope
Decades ago, early 80's, I was learning drums and I used to jam with a guitarist friend at his house. I used his entertainment system as a PA for my drums via the cassette deck, plugging in 2 microphones into the front of it. I placed the microphones in the general vicinity of the drums, pressed record/pause on the tape deck, creating a reverb effect. It made my drum kit sound really FAT !!! I loved it!
I think that at this point, with his capacity of experimentation and sound design plus his musical knowledge, Andrew should just start scoring movies or videogames.
Seeing that dictaphone make me really want Teenage Engineering to make a Pocket Operator Tape which can turn either recorded in or pre set sounds into lofi sounds (even more than POs already do)
Can't believe you actually got a Dictaphone in there. I used to do clerical work, typing doctor reports post clinic. The doctors used Dictaphones to record their patient assessments. The old cassette ones were being used up until 8 years ago when I left that job. We had special cassette players (much larger than the Dictaphone itself) for those small cassettes that would play the audio back, and had a foot pedal attached so you could pause, fast-forward and rewind easily while your hands were free to type audio you listened to through headphones: one of the worst things I did was accidentally erase a cassette full of doctor reports, when I accidentally switched cassettes and thought I was erasing an already typed set of reports: doctor was far from happy: the good old days. Anyway It's probably all gone digital now so there are always at least two copies. The ones online and 'hopefully' the copy still on the digital Dictaphones. But, it's funny seeing one featured on your channel, the last place I would expect to see one of those.
The hand-crank one is cool, definitely some good scritchy-scratchy action, and I really dig the whole circuit board aesthetic, but there's something almost hypnotic about the VOCU with seeing the tape flail about yet never twist or fold on itself.
I had a dictaphone as a kid, and we had so much fun with it. The thing was that you could tweak the playback speed by sliding the knob past play, but not all the way to FFW. It is a feature on most dictaphones, so that if you are transcribing an interwiew for instance, you can fast track back and forth through the recording without ever stopping the tape. By wiggling the knob, recorded speech would turn into the most hilarious garbled mess. Well, hilarious to a 10-year old at least. Btw, the same kind of tapes were often used in answering machines in the 80's (that's a voice message machine that hooked up to your home telephone, to you kids out there)
Another one trick: cassette converter (for old car radiocassette) put this in walkman (or stereo deck with dolby) and use in realtime like a distortion box, lo-fi effect or Dolby NR reduction Out converter-->cassette converter-->Walkman or deck in Play--> return in converter
No idea how I missed this. Love the series! Some really cool stuff there, love tape. Btw, you and Hainbach should do a colab. THAT would be interesting! :)
I still have three microcassette recorders from back in the day (i.e., late 1970s - 1986). Sony had some very nice ones. I used them for recording class lessons when I was in France and I could replay them to make sure I got all the material in the lectures.
Andrew Hainbach! 3:46 - This is a pretty unique & entertaining device and if it had a few philip's screw heads you could drive it with an electric screwdriver.
I have one of those little mini tape dictaphones, they're great! Mine will play through as you fast-forward or rewind so you can kinda get that scratching effect.
Had a Sony dictaphone that used normal size cassettes, had a dial for changing the speed, and u could record half speed. Best £25 I ever had! Also picked up a Watkins copycat at a car boot sale, love that thing!!!
12:49 I like how he says "so now we have this nice tape progression going" and I'm just sitting here thinking "this is pure nightmare fuel, I'm not sleeping today"
4:13 this sound like something I would hear off of Sung Tongs or something. I really dig it. I just immediately thought of songs like Kids on Holiday and Who Could Win A Rabbit.
My online music production course is open again! Sign up by Oct 16: learnmonthly.com/andrew
Is there an age requirement?
Is first of October happening this year? I figure not.
no age requirement!
Travel between Canada and the US is restricted
I'm so disappointed that you did not use the cv out from the one tape loop to go into the marantz.
Watching your videos is so enjoyable and satisfying but dangerous because I start to want gear that I don't have much space or use for 🙈
For real! Samesies.
Never too late to get into music production 🤷🏻♂️ even if you’ve spent most of your life on a piano 😂
😄 can’t wait til we can play together again
or money
So true
That dictaphone thing -- my late grandfather had a few of those, he had used them to take recordings of me singing and reciting nursery rhymes as a toddler.
I remember the sound quality being awful from him playing them for me over the years. He never threw them away. I'm sure there's still stashed somewhere in my grandparents house even though he passed away 7 years ago. I'd completely forgotten about them until now, and my heart just warmed right up the moment I saw you pull that out -- I suddenly see my granddad laughing while playing those childhood recordings of my voice for me :))) A visceral memory of a sight I've sorely missed. Miss you Dadun.
Awww, that's such a sweet story. I bet he's in a good place now.
@@michaeljfan9720 yes :))) the atoms that made up his body are still around, after all
To the tune of Weird Gear: "Weird Year"
Coronavirus !
This joke is so good it deserves a Weird Cheer
@@electron8262 im slightly afraid of where this might be going. its a weird fear
That's it. Off to the local craft brewery for a Weird Beer.
Woah, I wasn't expecting it to get so Weird Here.
The editing and B roll shots on these videos is truly next level, and I haven't even mentioned the music yet!
Duh. It's Andrew. Always been pro with videos.
would you like to the mention the music then
@@connormars3473 remove the first the
It’s great how you included the modded Walkman CV in not working as expected, part of the not so romanticized reality when working with old analog gear.
I used to use a dictaphone at work in the 1980s. It was to dictate stuff to be typed up by our typing pool. from what I remember of the time, the typical use was to do the same and also to leave instructions for a secretary.
baby tape
You could basically solder a jack out to the speaker wires of the dictaphone and use it as an output! It should be ok from such a tiny machine
Simon the Magpie does it all the time, so I'm suuuuure it's fiiiiiiine :D
Eh, it can get a little impeded, but for a quick fix it’s completely fine.
8-bit keys says that'll work, but it may come off as a hot signal,
yeah this is stupid easy, did it all the time with circuit bent keyboards before I had any idea what I was doing and it always sounded at least drastically better than the built in speakers.
Also, microcassettes will fit in any other microcassette recorder and they're super easy to find. Many have outputs. Or if you wanted to get real freaky, the tape itself is the same size as standard cassette and write you could meticulously put it in a cassette casing.
@@ubergamer0198 Just add a resistor to drop the signal.
a year without weird gear is like a decade without food, water, and social interaction.
So like the 2020's?
Hey lets call this year The Year that never Was
@@NSMITH8516 any time someone asks we can just say "never mind all that!"
Is that basically just the life of a music producer
@@obamagaming4166 eeh you say 2020's? Let's hope we can solve it soon tho, I'm getting bored
7:17 I imagine that lofi guitar part exploding into a math rock song
That would be sick.
Kero Kero shit
Boards of canada!
I could see ichika nito doing something like that
some elephant gym
"oh dear, it's been a whole year
since we did an episode of weird gear"
andrew i knew you were a rapper but i didn't know you had such BARS
Yes! Nice to see you work some magic on the Cassette Echo and put the CV to good use
I wish I could sign up for your class!!! It's always open when I'm in school sigh. You would be a dream teacher. You've already taught me so much just with little tips in your videos - thank you so much!!!
3:00 I love literally everything about this sound
Currently taking a level music, absolutely loving it Thank you Andrew for inspiring me to pursue music!
ANDREW PLEASE DROP SKIN CARE ROUTINE
Drink water, wash face with water
#820hydrate
#820hydrate
#820hydrate
#820hydrate
YES with the tape stuff, todays sounds on tape is like a whole new experience 💙
Andrew you forgot to mention that the vocu vte 2000 also has a feature that no other tape echo I know of or can think of has.
You can hook up an expression pedal to it and make the echo a slave to your expression. Which is the main reason why you should even want to own one. Not even the roland space echo has that feature...Which makes it probably the most unique tape echo in the world...Just my two cents to add to this amazing review of awesome gear...Have a magnificent day...
You could probably hack that dictaphone with a crude output by simply ripping the speaker out and connecting the leads to a jack. The Magpie has a video about doing that to toys and stuff.
Would be nice to know the output level and impedance for attenuation and loading
Your first Marantz creation deserves to be in the next big budget horror film. Truly unnerving and beautifully frightening.
The video production on this one is really ace. Some really impressive shots at 10:48
Tape machines have some of the best distortion I've heard, I started using tape machine effects and loving the sound.
For the dictaphone, you should look into getting an induction microphone. They used to be like $12 at RadioShack so I'm sure you can find a cheap one online.
But that would be the next best thing to recording from a line out as it essentially records the magnetic frequencies of the speaker and translates that back into audio.
Drummer 45+ years infatuated with Mr.Huang, thank you for helping me get through the last 6 months ! Much love from Detroit MI.
6:20 wayback when my father who is a medical specialist used a dictaphone to record letters.They'd speak the letter onto a tape and the secretary would then type them out and add them to the patients file or send them to the general doctor of a patient etc. These medical secretaries would have to know a lot about medical terms and medicine in general, quite a profession.
To be able to listen back to those tapes while typing they used footcontrolled tape readers, some of which may have found their way onto a podium of a creative artist I guess.
The last tape delay sounds so good. I love the character it adds to the sound.
I had a dictaphone as a kid and I pretended I was a detective with it
hahaha me too, but an investigative journalist
When I worked in an office back in the 80's some guy came in and asked if he could use my dictaphone. I told him "no, use your finger like everyone else."
@@Queer_Nerd_For_Human_Justice maybe thats your dream job?
Love that Scott Campbell Marantz. I have a Marantz pmd222 modded so that the speed controls work during playback meaning it can be used as an echo provided you have an external mixer. Which i love love love. But all integrated like that is dope
You sir have just shown me how some of my favorite tracks are made. I thank you.
Decades ago, early 80's, I was learning drums and I used to jam with a guitarist friend at his house. I used his entertainment system as a PA for my drums via the cassette deck, plugging in 2 microphones into the front of it. I placed the microphones in the general vicinity of the drums, pressed record/pause on the tape deck, creating a reverb effect. It made my drum kit sound really FAT !!! I loved it!
I think that at this point, with his capacity of experimentation and sound design plus his musical knowledge, Andrew should just start scoring movies or videogames.
7:55 Why not delve into the world of modding and give it an output :) I’d definitely watch that.
This is Heinbach's specialty!!!
Yeah that's what I thought too
@@JuHoCH they should collab, they have different approach to using this technique.
It would be interesting to see them do something together
You were so close to losing your synthological credentials. 😲 Got in just in time, whew.
@@Monkeyshaman I don't know what you mean, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask
@Walter B he's amazing!
Seeing that dictaphone make me really want Teenage Engineering to make a Pocket Operator Tape which can turn either recorded in or pre set sounds into lofi sounds (even more than POs already do)
6:15 the Aesthetics on this are soo pleasing
00:00 Intro
00:23 VOCU VTE-2000
03:43 LANDSCAPE HC-TT
05:53 Dictaphone
07:55 Modified Walkman
10:06 Scott Campbell, Marantz Tape Echo
When can we get “Weird Gear” as a ring tone, I like it so much.
Audacity, my friend. Wouldn't be surprised if Andrew has a video on how to use it haha.
Imagine having all of Andrew's gear.. a dream come true.
I miss this series, amazing
Maaaaaan that gritty lofi beat at the end with the Marantz was killer. Could've listened to that a bit longer. Keep it up!
Appreciate how much effort that took 2:06
Can't believe you actually got a Dictaphone in there. I used to do clerical work, typing doctor reports post clinic. The doctors used Dictaphones to record their patient assessments. The old cassette ones were being used up until 8 years ago when I left that job. We had special cassette players (much larger than the Dictaphone itself) for those small cassettes that would play the audio back, and had a foot pedal attached so you could pause, fast-forward and rewind easily while your hands were free to type audio you listened to through headphones: one of the worst things I did was accidentally erase a cassette full of doctor reports, when I accidentally switched cassettes and thought I was erasing an already typed set of reports: doctor was far from happy: the good old days.
Anyway It's probably all gone digital now so there are always at least two copies. The ones online and 'hopefully' the copy still on the digital Dictaphones. But, it's funny seeing one featured on your channel, the last place I would expect to see one of those.
The hand-crank one is cool, definitely some good scritchy-scratchy action, and I really dig the whole circuit board aesthetic, but there's something almost hypnotic about the VOCU with seeing the tape flail about yet never twist or fold on itself.
This was truly weird Gear for a even weirder time in human history.
The audio quality of your videos is miles above most albums I listen to so.... Well done.
I love you videos Andrew. I want to take your course so bad I just can't afford it right now.
I had a dictaphone as a kid, and we had so much fun with it. The thing was that you could tweak the playback speed by sliding the knob past play, but not all the way to FFW. It is a feature on most dictaphones, so that if you are transcribing an interwiew for instance, you can fast track back and forth through the recording without ever stopping the tape. By wiggling the knob, recorded speech would turn into the most hilarious garbled mess.
Well, hilarious to a 10-year old at least.
Btw, the same kind of tapes were often used in answering machines in the 80's
(that's a voice message machine that hooked up to your home telephone, to you kids out there)
At about 3:15 it starts getting real close to the Hyper Light Drifter Soundtrack by Disasterpeace. Very cool.
yessssss
First? (3:32 sounded incredible)
Yeh
I guess
11:08 gives me major Burial: Untrue vibes.. ... I’m here for it 100%
Weird gear!!!!! Welcome back, one of my most favorite youtube series.
Hey Andrew, how is your earing loss coming along?
bracelet loss
Drip loss
neckloss
braceloss
ring loss
floss
rick ross
He found it dw
you elevate these videos to art Andrew
Another one trick: cassette converter (for old car radiocassette) put this in walkman (or stereo deck with dolby) and use in realtime like a distortion box, lo-fi effect or Dolby NR reduction
Out converter-->cassette converter-->Walkman or deck in Play--> return in converter
12:08 I expected u to go full on "By the rivers of Babylon" here damn
No idea how I missed this. Love the series! Some really cool stuff there, love tape. Btw, you and Hainbach should do a colab. THAT would be interesting! :)
I totally dozed off at 10:50 ,it was so peaceful. And the moment you started talking again scared the shit out of me🤣
that last moment with the tape echo was so satisfying
I just randomly discovered your channel and I’m HOOKED. Keep up the good work!!
Watching Tape Delayes really stresses me out idk why. They sounds absolutely stunning tho!
I still have three microcassette recorders from back in the day (i.e., late 1970s - 1986). Sony had some very nice ones. I used them for recording class lessons when I was in France and I could replay them to make sure I got all the material in the lectures.
10:25 is just Black Moth Super Rainbow
8:08, the tape that is playing is also used at the beginning of the song 'Dare to Tread' by Tall Dwarfs.
and Friquencies by K-otix. still trying to figure out where is it from.
You gotta make more this is such an interesting series
Really enjoyed the camera work 😄
Extra nice lighting and video quality on this vid I felt!
YES THE DICTAPHONE!!! Yessss.
And your tape on repairing IBM machines in the modded Walkman. I see you.
I love tape delay. That VOCU looks so cool!
The spooky ambient part with the 5th tape thing was awesome :o
I've got a dictaphone with a line out. Layering that with my Rode sounds really interesting and... weird.
this is so cool, i got excited watching this
It's like you are reading my mind, i was thinking about getting a tape machine and there you go, you make a video. Much love!
YES ANDREW!!!
The song with the Marantz and the tape loop gave me Fobidden Planet vibes
Weird = Awesome!! *Sparkle mountain 🔥
7:06 Three words: Ferrite Rod Antenna.
Super fun ! Loved the old tape feels 🤘🏼
The intellijel bit reminded me of Blade Runner.
Yes! My favorite show is back!
Weird Gear is back!!!! WOOO!
Also, congrats on 2 mil!
2:54 could work so great with some Break Beats.
It gives me Venetian Snares vibes.
It's been a weird year but I'm looking forward to hearing some weird gear.
Andrew Hainbach!
3:46 - This is a pretty unique & entertaining device and if it had a few philip's screw heads you could drive it with an electric screwdriver.
it's quite hilarious that you find the Dictaphone so strange and archaic. These things were everywhere when I was in my teens. ( Not So long ago!! )
I still have My late Mother's and hers was usb with no cassette tape.
I need a VOCU, its def my favorite. Probably the visual tape got me hypnotized. Im scouring the internet now.
Straight cosmic horror vibes with that end bit my dude. Sp00ky
I have one of those little mini tape dictaphones, they're great! Mine will play through as you fast-forward or rewind so you can kinda get that scratching effect.
Had a Sony dictaphone that used normal size cassettes, had a dial for changing the speed, and u could record half speed.
Best £25 I ever had! Also picked up a Watkins copycat at a car boot sale, love that thing!!!
You could add a line-out to that dictaphone super easily! You just need to solder a 1/4" jack to the speaker +/-
or a bog standard 1/8" jack
New Weird Gear for my birthday, thanks Andrew!
Finally, we've got that amazing video!
Yay weird gear is back!!
I'm still not sure I understand how the tape delay doesn't just get super degraded straight away. That's super cool!
That atmospheric piece with the one note tape loop sounds like something you'd hear in some dystopian sci-fi movie
That first one is crazy. Almost a little bit of mechanical art too.
You could hear the NHS secretaries from UK gasp at the sight if the Dictaphone
The one note loop tape switch has built-in portamento because of how the speed changes. THAT'S SO COOL!
12:49 I like how he says "so now we have this nice tape progression going" and I'm just sitting here thinking "this is pure nightmare fuel, I'm not sleeping today"
4:13 this sound like something I would hear off of Sung Tongs or something. I really dig it. I just immediately thought of songs like Kids on Holiday and Who Could Win A Rabbit.
Nice Rhyms! 😂😂