Technical info

Max The Tape Recorder's Eighth Album

More technical info

My fun with the "Max The Tape Recorder" albums is to recycle and record on old tapes (reel-to-reel, cassettes etc...), often made for "consumers" and not necessarilly for professional applications (although I sometimes use pro ones too, and the tape quality varies depending on the era it was made), and I try to get the best out of them using multi-track recorders.

I generally try to calibrate the machine as best as I can for the tape used, although sometimes I may also experiment on this side:

of course the Tascam 238 8-track recorder for cassette tapes was made to use only CrO2 Type II chrome tapes, other types of tapes can also be used with a few technical tricks.

These albums are where I go crazy and experiment with the technical aspects, and the music also.

	Track 1: "Street theater" Tape: BASF Chrome Maxima II 90 Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips (Both of the machine's pitches at max) --- Says "99,9% NOISEFREE" on the cover lol It's actually a very good quality tape, and before I record my piece I tested it with a Nakamichi tape recorder at normal speed of 1 7/8 ips and under the CrO2 Type II calibration; I can confirm that this tape has very little background noise.
	Track 2: "Gaslighting" Tape: Hoyin Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- No offense to the company, but this is probably the worst quality tape I've ever encountered which makes it special lol I've had the idea of recording on this tape for a while, this is what my Max TTR albums are all about, experimenting with consumer-made tapes :) It's the kind of "budget" tape that was sold 3 in a plastic bag for like $0.99 at the nearest convenient store ;) At normal 1 7/8 ips speed the high frequencies are very grainy, volume is very low with a lot of background noise, and at 5.3 ips (the speed at which I recorded this piece) the volume is very unstable, going up and down all the time (I had to use a compressor on every track in the mix to make the volume equal everywhere) and the high frequencies were still a bit grainy at that speed, more than 2 times its normal speed! Also, it says "C-60" which means there should be 30 minutes on each side at normal 1 7/8 ips speed, but by looking at it I thought there's no way there's that amount of time unless the tape is very thin, so I checked and there's actually only 19 minutes per side, which makes a total of 38 minutes instead of 60! It should be a "C-38"! "Made in China", this tape dates from the early 90's before the famous "dollar store". Today China creates better products than back then I'd say. ^^
	Track 3: "Unconsented involuntary electronic invasions that are objectionable and damaging" Tape: Zonal 675 Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Very good studio quality tape, made in England and Scotland.
	Track 4: "Synth-pop suite #2 - Getting better after the prescribed drug's bad trip - Parts I, II & III" Tape: Radio Shack's "Concertape" Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Even if it says "Budget priced tape for voice and general purpose recording" and was sold $2.19 (probably in the 80s) I was surprised by the sound quality and output of this tape at normal 7 1/2 ips speed, and at 30 ips with Dolby C it's even better, though a bit noisy. I had to "bake" the tape first before using it though because it had the "sticky" back coating syndrome.
	Track 5: "1-hour DEW shower" Tape: Brentwood Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- This tape had something recorded on it dating from 1974, so it's probably a budget tape sold back in those days. Medium quality, the tape is slightly larger than 1/4" so it can cause some troubles on some tape recorders. It did a little bit on the E-8, but nothing audible much, but I could only use 6 tracks out of 8 because the tracks on the edges (1 & 8) were very bad.
	Track 6: "Blue-sky experimentation" Tape: Super Chrome "Reel-to-reel" cassette tape - CrO2 position Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- Good quality tape, but very thin in order to fit 30 minutes on each side at normal 1 7/8 ips. The tape actually broke during a recording session (fortunately it was just a little bit before the piece started), which had me repair it, and could take a pic of one of the reels to show how small they are.
	Track 7: "Manufactured coincidences" Tape: Pan Canada Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: Fostex E-8 Recording speed: 30 ips --- Good quality tape made in, you guessed it, Canada ;) Probably dates from the 60s as I think I have another one with something recorded during that time period.
	Track 8: "Gift cards to hell" Tape: Sony UX-ES60 - CrO2 position Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- Very good Type II quality tape and cool looking, probably dating from the 80s from what was recorded on it before I erase it with my new piece.
	Track 9: "Make the target look bad, then blame him for his reaction" Tape: Calibron PC1 60 - Normal position Tape's state before recording: used Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- Calibron PC1 "Precision Cassette", made in Korea and the USA, probably dates from the 70s; Good quality tape, and the jewel case is kinda neat, having the brand name Calibron "bumping out" of it :)
	Track 10: "You got paid to love me (and to leave me)" Tape: Maxell Communicator Series C-30 Tape's state before recording: new Machine used: TEAC 238 Recording speed: 5.3 ips --- "Professional Industrial P/I Communicator Series"... How circumstantial... Very good quality normal position tape, don't know if they sold a lot of these though.