Mixing 5U Modular Tech With Tape Delay & Ensoniq ASR-10 Sampler

Published on May 24, 2018 The Daydream Sound

"Adding tape delay to your setup is old school and it’s fun and unique. In this video we’ll combing vintage technology (Analog Tape & Ensoniq ASR-10) With a modern analog synth. Well I guess it’s definitely old tech as well. Do I even have a point here? Anyway watch the video. It’s great!

Video Timestamp
00:03 - Preamble.
00:43 - Demo begins.
01:04 - The two oscillators are being sent to its analog filter and modulated by the EG.
02:16 - Oscillator 2 modulates the pulse with of oscillator 1.
03:15 - Analog Tape Delay begins.

For those interested. Here follows the patch. The ASR-10 is driving the MIDI to the Modular system. Its audio is also being fed to the Instrument Interface of the modular. Moving on to the Synthesizers.com system. The two oscillators are being sent to its analog filter and modulated by the EG. Later on in the video you’ll see that I take one of the oscillator outputs of the second oscillator and use it to modulate the pulse with of the first oscillator. Lastly the both the dotcom system and the ASR-10 are sent to a Macke mixer. This is where the tape delay is being created. If you want to know how to create Tape Delay here’s the video:"

How To Create Analog Tape Delay Effects With A Reel To Reel Recorder

Published on Feb 9, 2017

"If you have a consumer grade Reel to Reel tape recorder lying around your studio there’s still a few things, you can do to integrate it into your studio. One of those things is analog Tape Delay. Tape Delay is an echo effect based on the principle of audio feedback. In this video we’ll go through the steps to turn your analog recorder into a productive member of your studio.

Here’s how:

HOW TO CREATE ANALOG TAPE DELAY WITH A REEL TO REEL

1. You’ll need a 3 Head Reel to Reel tape recorder (this can also be a 3 head cassette recorder as well) and a Mixer with at least one post fader AUX send.

2. Patch the output of your tape recorder to an input channel on your mixer. Then come out of a post fader AUX send of your mixer to the line input on your recorder (This does not have to be stereo you can use one mono channel for each).

3. You’ll need a sound source that you want to apply the tape delay effect to. This can be anything, a microphone a sample or a line level audio source. Whatever you decide you’ll need to patch this into a free channel on your mixer.

* Just to recap; At this point you should have two input channels in use on your mixer. The Tape recorder on one channel and your input source on another and an AUX send connected to the input of your Reel to Reel.

4. Set your recorder to monitor the playback head.

When recording on your Reel to Reel you’ll have an option to listen to the signal coming into the recorder or the signal coming off of the tape. This is the function of a 3 head record deck. The first head erases the tape effectively getting rid of anything that might have been previously recorded to your reel of tape. The second head is the record head. This records/prints the incoming audio input to the tape. Immediately after this is the playback head. The playback head allows you to hear what you’ve just recorded in real-time. The physical gab between the record head and playback head creates a slight delay (this delay can be lengthened or shortened depending on the tape speed). This is the first premise of tape delay.

5. Start your sound source. And raise the fader level of that fader on your mixer.

6. Raise the AUX level on your sound source channel. It should be feeding the input of your Reel to Reel.

7. Set the input record level on your Reel to Reel and get a nice healthy level.

8. Now raise the fader level of the channel input that your Reel to Reel recorder is patched to. Immediately you will hear a delay between the sounds source channel and the Reel to Reel recorder’s channel. This is because of the time gap between the playback head and the original sound source.

9. Lastly raise the AUX level of the channel that your Reel to Reel recorder is patched to. This is where the tape delay effect will be heard. A feedback loop is being created because the tape recorder is hearing itself by being fed its own signal.

10. You can now play around with the EQ’s, Panning and Fader Level of the Reel to Reel channel on your mixer to achieve the desired delay effect.

11. That’s it your done!

Thanks for Reading Everyone!"