Can Old-School Tape Delay Give Your Music the Boost It Needs?

A few months ago, I stumbled upon mi padre's antique Ampex reel to reel tape machine in the attic while I was visiting home for Thanksgiving. At the time I was interested in learning about different sampling methods and discovered that you can scratch a reel to reel tape deck very similarly to the way you can scratch a vinyl turn table. You can then process the audio output into you DAW and go from there. I was like, "this is awesome, I want to manipulate sound in a really weird way and THIS COULD BE MY OPPORTUNITY BOO YA!" However I never really used the reel to reel tape deck (because it was a bitch to set up) and it ended up collecting dust in my bedroom studio... until I discovered tape delay.

As I am told, back in the "good old days" things were done very differently. Studios existed because the recording hardware was huge, expensive, and complicated to run. Contemporary professional studios are going out of business because the general consumer has access to equipment and knowledge to make these old-school techniques obsolete. They are becoming private bedroom studios where SoundCloud rappers can get recognized. Long story short, the digital age has taken very expensive, bulky, analog hardware and made it tiny so it can fit in a millennial's bedroom like mine. BUT the old school techniques are valuable and timeless! I will show you how to use an old reel to reel to add incredible effects to your instrument/mic level signals at low cost.

All you need is a reel to reel tape recorder (these come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes; ones from the 90s fit in your pocket, the older and bigger the better), an instrument (microphone, guitar, synthesizer, etc.), and a small mixer with an auxiliary or an FX send. It is important that your tape recorder can actually record, meaning it has a record head and a play head. In simpler terms, one that can accept 1/4" in or RCA input and also has an 1/4" or RCA output jack. Side note, if you can get a reel to reel with a variable speed knob... bonus.

The setup is simple.

Step 1: Connect your instrument's output to the input of a channel strip on your mixer.

Step 2: Connect your reel to reel tape deck's output to the input of a channel strip of your mixer.

Step 3: Connect the FX, auxiliary or bus output (labeled "send") from your mixer to the input on the reel to reel tape deck.

Step 4: Turn up the gain on your instrument channel strip, and the FX send. This will send some of the signal coming from the instrument channel strip to the FX output into the reel to reel tape deck.

Step 5: Turn on your reel to reel tape deck, hit record, and make sure you are monitoring the input from the FX send. Turn up the gain on the channel strip that has the output from your reel to reel tape deck.

This may take some troubleshooting depending upon what gear you own

HOLY SHIT BROTHER. We have ourselves an analogue effects send. For all of the Logic, Ableton, and Pro Tools producers out there, this exact routing happens digitally when you send to an auxiliary or bus track.

The cool thing about this setup is that you can turn up the FX send on the channel strip that processes the output from your reel to reel tape deck, and the signal will feed back on itself. It creates the craziest sounds on synths, and the best, classic rock slap-back echo. Adds some warmth and gives you a ton of control over the effect with your mixer.

Some important notes: You have a dry channel strip with the instrument and a wet channel strip with the effect. The FX send knob on the channel strip with the instrument controls how much gain you send to your reel to reel. This means that if you send too much, the reel to reel will clip and become distorted... perhaps another artistic choice but is generally something to be avoided.

If you bought all of these materials brand spanky new:

Mixer:Behringer Xenyx 802 Mixer = $60

Cassette Player: May need to do some looking... Search vintage Marantz, Pioneer, JVC recorder/cassette players. I have seen prices from $10 to $200 dollars. Old reel to reel decks are worth quite a bit of money these days, starting at around $400. It really depends on how much you want to spend. Well worth it though, especially if you can find one on craigslist or eBay for like $20.

The quick and dirty not-so-cheap method is a stand alone effects pedal manufactured by a company Denmark that does exactly what I described above, just smaller and more expensive... around $800 more expensive.

T-Rex Replicator Analog Tape Delay Pedal