How I recorded my EP with tape in 2021

So, I might not win any Grammys this year or the next, but that's okay. I mean, after all, I don't own a fancy bathroom to display such a trophy. I and ten other writer's aren't going to turn up on the red carpet and start preaching self vanity and idealism. Nope, I wrote, produced and mixed 'I just want to sleep' by myself. If you could use the words loosely because as you will find out there wasn't too much producing or mixing going on for that matter. It was pretty rudimentary and in a lot of ways very similar to the method used in the '50s or early '60s. I've been experimenting with using tape now for a little while, as you can see from some of my other material. However, this is finally a collection of music whereby I got it mostly right. I hope to show you in this article how I did it and if you are interested, maybe how you can try it! Would I advise you to try it? Hell yes, tapes are pretty cool.

Equipment

The most vital piece of equipment when it come's to tape recording is without a doubt the tape recorder. It is everything. The Coomber 393 I used isn't a multi-track recorder, meaning that guitar and vocals were recorded onto one track. I would very much recommend a multi-track recorder if you can get one, although they can have a much larger price tag attached to it.

The second most important piece of equipment is the tape itself. I really don't have an alliance or preference for any brand. The Maxell tape featured above were the most popular and also the best price on Amazon. These can be tricky to get a hold of as I see the price has increased drastically since my last purchase. Almost 5x the price I paid a year ago. Finding new cassettes to buy at a reasonable price does seem like quite a challenge. Fear not, however, as you can most probably record over any old cassettes you find knocking about. Not to say they will all work perfectly, mind you, but it's worth trying out if you find some stored away in the attic.

For the more general part of the equipment, I used two standard dynamic microphones. I would have loved to experiment with different types if I had owned them, unfortunately, I had to make do with what I had. Make sure you have the right cables to input into your tape recorder directly, these could be jack or XLR inputs. I used microphone wind covers for both and a pop shield, as well for the microphone I was singing into. I'm sure this made a difference and helped get rid of some of the plosive and breath noises, however, it won't completely remove them. I wasn't looking for perfection. I'm recording with tape after all, but it did give me confidence in getting up close and personal with the microphone.

Recording

I would be lying to you if I said this was easy. The recording process was tough. Really tough. When I started recording I couldn't play every track perfectly and I wasn't even set on exactly how I was going about recording. I began recording with just using one microphone until I added the second one. It was then truly a case of placing both microphone's where I thought they would sound best and it took a lot of recording and experimenting before I found the best combination. So, it was trial and error before I even had the right set up to record the tracks properly so, at least when it came to the final takes I had the songs pretty much perfect and I did need to. Tape is very unforgiving, this isn't a modern studio approach. Vocal's can't be recorded line by line, endless re-records. No, guitar and vocals have to be perfect, both have to be perfection. As a virtue of my single-track tape recorder, it's a one-take stop. Yes, it does feel cruel when something outside of your control does ruin a perfectly good take. A slam of a door, a shout of a neighbour. Say what you will about tape recording, but it does better you as a musician.

Analogue to digital

So, you recorded beautifully a million different takes onto your cassette, know what? How do you get it digital?

This stage is simple enough. You can copy tapes reel to reel if you wish to reproduce the whole tape physically but if you wish to get the sound onto your computer, you will need a 3.5mm double ended jack. Essentially, plug into to headphone/output channel of your tape recorder and into the line in/input of your computer.

This might not be the best video ever but this is one I found that explains the process in more detail: Video

Mixing to editing

In a traditional sense, I didn't do any mixing. After all the beauty of recording into one track is that the mixing was done at the microphone placement stage. This was very much the case in the '50s and early 60's studios. Group performances would be recorded with one microphone with the balance of the recording determined by distance, this is very much the same here. There are some great documentary's to watch about it that is very informational. I would recommend this video

Now when it comes to editing I had to ask myself some very important questions. Am I just doing this for nostalgia? Do I just like older music? Am I just rejecting modern recording methods just for the sake of it?

To answer these questions I have to think about the benefits of recording to tape. I do love the honesty, the warmth and the rawness it brings. It defiantly can't be captured so easily in a modern sense without expensive emulation. For my editing, I simply used ocenaudio it is a free music editing software, that allowed me to combine the positive characteristics of tape but also to improve it with some digital alterations.

Tape hiss is something that all tape recordings are prone to. How much you get on the recording is completely variable. The best audio equipment will have very little with a cheaper recorder having a lot. There is a noise reduction effect I used within ocenaudio. You can use that to completely remove the noise, although that will make the recording sound very odd. So instead, I opted to reduce the noise from anywhere 8db to 12db per track. This still gives the track the feel of being record onto tape but makes it less intrusive, especially when you want to normalize it.

EQ was another tool I used and probably gave the biggest effect. I got rid of a lot of bass frequencies and super high-end frequencies. This cleaned my tracks up a lot. Without it, honestly, most of my tracks would sound terrible.

There are plenty of other tools and effects you could potentially use however, I went with what sounded most effective and keep the authentic factor as much as I could. Experimentation is key, although I think in these cases less is more.

To conclude

I feel that tape can defiantly still be a cost-effective and powerful medium to produce music. The honestly and warmth is its greatest strength and I felt with the release I defiantly exploited it. Combined with a few digital effects to reduced the hiss and normalize the volume. You can get a good result. If you are not a good musician, however, there's no hiding. If you suck, you're going to suck hard on tape.

If you wish to hear 'I just want to sleep', coming on the 28th march, you can here

If you wish to check my other music you can here

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/CharlieSmithMusic