I miss this kinda Hainbach content

Love those incredible Nagra recorders. Love the mbira. The end result is wonderful !

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.

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.

Lovely track

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. :-)

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

I enjoy these procedural videos. It's not even the odd gear, but that adds to it as well.

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)

Beautiful music

I love the sound quality that magnetic tape produces

468 is the loveliest tape out there! i use it on my tape machines too

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.

Late to the party here, but great video! I hope to find more analog tests like it on your channel.

Great work, the analog and digital colliding in a very compelling manner.

Fantastic work. Why on earth would anyone give this a thumbs down?!?

Sehr schönes Stück, transportiert für mich etwas Melancholisches

Also, yes please please make more videos about tape techniques.

what a difference in texture ! I like the track best in the original tempo

love it!!

Thanks! This was great. I really enjoyed the slow speed track as well. Got a great droney sound to it.

I liked it best in the slowest version. Rythmically I find it more hypnotic and relaxing ;)

Honestly dude bless your videos, you're helping me get into this beautiful world of analog music production

danke heinbach dank dir bin ich jetzt süchtig nach tapemaschinen

great ambient and nice tape experiment... yes please more tape videos

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!

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.... 😁

... a good kick to get my uher vario sg 520 cleaned and repaired... wish me luck because i am doing it myself

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

love all your instructional videos. i've learned so much from your tape techniques and ciat lonbarde stuff in particular. so good. thanks!

Lovely sounds and texture. All speeds have their unique qualities. Have a nice weekend!

All the various versions of the recording sound great to me :)

Definitely want to hear the slower version! :) great work as always!

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.

That was brilliant, Hainbach! 👏🏻

Yeah good call! The faster version keeps that crystalline sound... but warms the crystals up. :)

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.

Always inspiring!! Danke!

daMN great job sounds amazing nice texture

That video is gold! Amazing work my friend.. And yeah I think that the pitched down version was even better..

Loved this and these technique videos. Just signed up for your patreon. Thanks for the all the great work.

Very informative. Thank you! :-)

beautiful work Stefan. Vivarium-core!

ooouh YES i love the 3.75 version so much !!! but i feel that it needs some snappy percussion on-top imo

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 😃

Love this series. I'd like to get a reel to reel type recorder but it seems a bit daunting.

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!

Excellent and has given me some ideas too, so thank you.

Dope🌿🎧🎶

this is wonderful! I think it'd be great if you made a video on your mastering process - the final recording came out awesome.

hainbach rocks

Awesome stuff

yo this is sick

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.

Definitely more.... 😎

wow. that's really nice

beautiful piece ;)

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!

Listen to for a long while, your an inspiration!! Whats you fav module

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?

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!

Beautiful! I *need* to get my Tascam 32 fixed soon. How are pinch rollers so expensive?! :cry:

Very nice Hainbach .. what’s the difference in the III and the IV-L ? Thanks

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.

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!

its like the 'pre-aging' thing they do with some products, jeans, cymbals. Modernity has made the consumer crave the past.

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.

what kind of output cable is it there on the nagra?

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.

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.

Hi HAINBACH, where do you recommend to buy blank reel tapes for the Nagra III? Great video, Thanks

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

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 :)

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?

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.

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?

The tape adds such a nice texture. Makes me feel nostalgic :~) Does the Nagra record in mono?

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.

I still haven't figured out how rewind works on Nagra III. Nothing on manual, no clues on knobs 😂

Need advice ..How good is Nagra E to record Acoustic Indian Classical Music ?

What do you think about the Nagra E model? Thank you!!

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.

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?

Really interesting stuff. Can the nagra also be used to perform the tape delay feedback trick?

you mean Tone Miles Davis "Tone is everything"

:)

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?

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!

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.

Hello Hainbach, can i please ask you wich cable are you using for the nagra?

make a tutorial for the basics about tape machines please

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 :)

Are any of the soft analog texture lost when it gets digital again on KZfaq?

Hey. Loved this video so much that I decided to purchase a Nagra. I wonder where you buy your tapes?

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 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?

Is this extremely dreamy track available on bandcamp?

Where can I buy the tracks in this video on 180g vinyl please?

Can you still buy that quarter inch tape new¿?