my new solo record: folk/pop on cassette 8-track

[konabuzz]

Oh, my.....

This is nice...nice...nice. Bravo, my friend.

As this is a recording message board, we are all fascinated with the process -- 8 track cassette? Fantastic -- I have a 238 and 234, and 34b RTR myself...love them all! But....I have to say it's the performance that really grabbed me -- I downloaded your songs and was quickly grinning...didn't even stop to consider the process till I had calmed down a bit after 3 or 4 songs - ha. Really like your songs and especially the arrangements. Huh.....wow.

As to the recording....another poster mentioned hiss...and I know he was nostalgically pining for "back in the day" but I actually have heard quite a bit worse as far as hiss goes...especially with 8 track cassette. I think you've managed your noise floor quite well. Don't hear a lot of oversaturation of the tape (which can be a pleasing effect in itself) which means you were mindfull of your gain staging among other things. Pretty clean.

One thing I must mention, as he is another fav of mine......Kelley Stoltz.

http://kelleystoltz.com/music.html

He records similarly to 388, RTR 8 track and gets great results. In fact, the comparison is striking as he is also into melodic pop with interesting arrangements, and records everything himself.

Anyway.....would like to hear more...

Peace

[kayagum]

Another 388 advocate is the original TapeOp fave (as in issue #1 from 1996!) is FM Cornog of East River Pipe fame.

Another fun 8 track cassette band: cLOUDEAD (anyone know which model?)

I will forever think about recording in terms of my beloved 238s - even after I sold it to fellow TapeOper ;ivlunsdystf after he made an unsolicited offer

[austin]

As to the recording....another poster mentioned hiss...and I know he was nostalgically pining for "back in the day" but I actually have heard quite a bit worse as far as hiss goes...especially with 8 track cassette. I think you've managed your noise floor quite well. Don't hear a lot of oversaturation of the tape (which can be a pleasing effect in itself) which means you were mindfull of your gain staging among other things. Pretty clean.

One thing I must mention, as he is another fav of mine......Kelley Stoltz.

Yeah, Kelley Stoltz is great! His 8-track is way nicer than mine.

As for hiss/saturation: I used the dbx NR on the 488 for nearly everything on the record, and when you hit it hard with the dbx on, it can create some weird artifacts (sounds like noise is pumping along with the signal). So I tended to keep levels pretty conservative to avoid that.

The amount of hiss when the NR is off seems worse on the 488 than on other cassette machines I've used, for whatever reason (maybe reduced track width? I don't know) -- on my old 4-track, I used to prefer the sound of NR off + hitting tape harder, but not on this machine.

[mertmo]

Hey Austin. I just bought a 238 cassette 8 track and I found this thread while
searching around.

Just wanted to say, great music man! Nice job on the recording too. And the
whole package, with the great cover art just popping right into iTunes...
Nice job. Inspiring me to just have fun with my 8 track and do a record.

"1982" is cool too --