Why I bought a tape machine / starting something new
In my audio blog post called Exploring the physical space I talked about how I have been fascinated with physical, real things lately. A bit of an absurd sentence to write in a way, but since the digital computer space is becoming such a big part of everyone’s life these days I feel like the physical world is becoming new and fresh again.
This got me thinking. I have released 6 albums and 2 EPs of original music. These releases have mainly been made in two ways:
- Either record live improvisations
- Or construct things on the computer
Floating Body / Diving Mind is sort of an exception as this was a combination of the two where I used multitracked improvisations as the starting points to then construct further in the computer. So usually I am either capturing something happening live in the moment, or I record, process, edit and compose on the computer screen.
Even if I have used a lot of instruments and effects outside the computer, if it is not a live track, things have been quite reliant on the computer screen in early stages of composing the music.
A change of scenery / screenless computer musician
When I play live I almost never use the computer screen. I do sometimes when I perform music for contemporary dance and have to keep track of time, cues etc. but for regular concerts I don’t use the computer screen.
The reason for this is that I feel like it pulls me out of the music and the moment. It is so visually stimulating and is giving you so much information that it is easy to get sucked into it. I also think there is something about looking at the same thing you do so many non-concert things on that makes you associate it with that.
So when I play live I either use a screenless computer or close the laptop. I still need a little bit of information so I have made this little Arduino screen that only shows me the info I need.
Screenless composing?
This got me thinking. I wonder how it would be to combine my computer screenless presence with the constructing-music-piece-by-piece-style composing.
Is it even possible for me, or am I too based on the computer screen to do this?
How would it change the process and / or the music itself?
Left brain and right brain combination
These questions I found very inspiring! I think it is very interesting to have some sort of framework to give context to the music when composing. It sort of combines your emotional dreamy part with an idea, something to respond to, and to your problem-solving, logical mind. I really like it when these things come together and find it fascinating how they can complement each other.
They don’t even have to be decided on beforehand but can show up during the process. When I composed my newest album Subsupra I didn’t have a plan for it when I started out. The only plan was to not repeat what I did for the previous album so I just started recording some instruments into the computer.
After a while when I was talking about the music to my wife I realized that in all of the tracks I had been playing around with the relationship between foreground and background elements in the music and even in the sounds themself.
For example, there were parts where the background elements were louder than the lead melody, and I had been using techniques like using noise reduction software in reverse to output what is usually removed and plugins that were made to “fill out” the sound and then delete the original sound and only keep the newly added “makeup”.
So this became the concept for the album and I now talk about this when I perform the music live.
Even the cover art explores this. The bottom part is an image of the sky, while the top part is where the roll of analog film stopped. This becomes a very nice illustration of what is the signal and what is noise? What is the photo and what is a “mistake” or just the frame etc.
So what is the theme now? Dawless jamming?
Hehe, the theme is not set in stone yet. But something around the physical / non-virtual world, tactility or non-general-computer seems like an interesting starting point for a computer musician.
So I thought a lot about how to do this in a new (for me) way. Maybe I could make an Ableton Live or Reaper based setup where I could record with the screen turned off and just use controllers?
It would absolutely be possible, but I would still need to:
- boot up the computer
- open the program I always open (remember I am trying to make it feel different)
- open the project
- turn off the screen.
And if something would happen on the screen (“please click the ok button”) I wouldn’t know about it.
Maybe a better idea would be to get a digital recorder which supported overdubbing? Then, all of a sudden, I saw that someone was selling a Tascam 238 8 track cassette recorder!
It was not cheap, but the internet told me it was a good machine and the seller told me it was in good shape, and had been fixed by local hero Thom Johansen at Notam, so I took the chance and bought it.
With a cassette-based machine, it even forces a bit of sound into the process, so it would have some sort of presence which I think fits the concept well!
To be clear: I am not making a pure analog album. I will still use digital instrument (even Ableton Push Standalone), but I will try to do most of the composing and recording of the main idea to the tape recorder, with no computer screen.
Then when the main elements are there I will transfer the tape to the computer and I will do some editing, fill out, double some octaves and mix it there. That is the plan for now.
The setup
So I got the machine, went to my storage room in the attic to pick up some old rack units I got from my old mentor and friend Alex Gunia when he moved back to Germany over a decade ago. They never really fit into my workflow before, but this would be a chance to use them.
I also hooked up the Tascam to my 8 channel preamp and connected the analog outs to my monitors, so I can listen without starting up a computer, but I also hooked the adat out to an audio interface so transferring the cassette recordings to my computer would be super easy!
I didn’t have a mixer big enough to get all the 8 analog outputs so I actually hooked two old Mackie mixers together, hehe! Remember that this is only for monitoring so when I transfer the recordings to the computer these mixers will not be in the path.
After trying a few different organizations I decided to stack vertically. Works perfectly and saves space on the desk!
So now my little analog corner looks like this.
That’s how far I’ve come
So that is the status of this project for now. I have tested that it all works, you can listen to my little test sketch below. I am a little nervous, but I am hoping I will be able to make some nice music even if this workflow push me outside my comfort zone.
Wish me luck!
First test run
- My multi sample guitar instrument played on Ableton Push Standalone
- Endorphin.es Shuttle system
- Volca modular
- Reversed parts are recorded by flipping the tape over and recording.