Tape "Sampling"

[Beneficial]

Not trying to be a dick but why would you want to do that... is it just for the joy of physically cutting and taping together pieces of tape? Every sound I use hits tape first in my setup, and sometimes hits the tape again but I always dump it back in the box and do the splicing there. I guess if you're not using a computer at all in your process and wanted the sound of programmed samples you could do it that way.

[Theo_Karon]

No, it sounds very different.
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[Beneficial]

Madchen and Shine Whole are great. Must have taken forever to do the drums that way.

[ithoughticouldrelate]

Some really awesome replies here and great ideas! Thanks for all the inspiration. I definitely acknowledge that this is NOT practical! But sometimes the coolest-sounding things end up not being all that practical. Like the MelloMan for instance: http://mysterycircuits.com/melloman/melloman.html

I think it's mostly the approach for me. I have nothing against using a DAW, but if I'm trying to program a drum-beat, say, and I had to cut / splice stuff, I'd definitely think twice before saying "Hmm, what would this sound like with a 32-nd hi-hat pattern?" If that meant cut-tape-cut-tape-cut-tape-cut-tape instead of "click-click."

It's kind of funny but there are so many options with the DAWs nowadays that sometimes it's just refreshing to say, "Hey, here's the audio, it's three feet long, you can rearrange it how you want, but no time-stretching/pitch-shifting." Kind of like subtractive rather than a subtractive/mutating/additive hybrid you get with a DAW.

I still have Logic 8 for some things, but I find myself going to tape still 90% of the time. Actually, a lot of the time I just use Logic as an effects processor to compensate for outboard gear I don't own yet.

Plus, I'm 22, so I'm not from the "tape generation." Meaning that I never got burned out after trying to window-edit / splice my way to a good take. I guess it's one of those "You have to learn for yourself" sorts of things!

Edit: I guess maybe there's something about the "playability" too. Obviously this is subjective. But I've tried PODs in the past a lot, and while they sound nice in the headphones and on playback a lot of the time, they just FEEL different to play, even if you have them set up with a good amp / proper settings and levels. Even high-end guitar processors like the AxeFX. Again, sound? AMAZING. But I played my friend's and something is missing. It's certainly not BAD. Just different. And so I always gravitate toward a tube amp and a pedal or two and a cable, and that's that!