Twoism on tape

Cryabetes · Post by **Cryabetes** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:05 pm

Personally, I like how much time a mixtape takes to make compared to a mix cd. You don't make them unless you REALLY WANT TO make them and you pick your playlist more carefully. I mean, a mix CD is essentially disposable, but a mix tape? someone put time and effort into that tape and you'd better appreciate it.

Twoism should have a mixtape trade one of these days.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:13 pm

The Voice of Reason wrote:
polar sky wrote:
The Voice of Reason wrote:You guys are funny.
You are not really getting the effect of the stuff actually getting recorded to tape.
It was mixed and mastered digitally, to fit onto that standard. And is recorded as hot as can be, as thats the new shitty standard.

So you are effectively putting a digital recording on tape just for tape hiss.
So funny.

I think you're missunderstanding. We're not trying to get the original tape 'reel to reel' studio sound. Just simply enjoying the sound of it recorded to a cassette tape from the original CD or Vinyl. I remember getting tapes from friends and my older brothers before CDRs came out and remember the muted recorded to cassette sound. It's just for fun.

Yes I agree with you 100%. BUT, I go back to my original train of thought...
"Back in the day" when you listened to comps your friends would make you on cassette were either compiled with tracks from cassettes or vinyl, WHICH are mastered MUCH more differently than they are today. And what you are enjoying is more space and headroom that was mixed into the master for that was how it was done before all this limiting shit came out.

You were listening to more hand crafted mixes rather than super saturated loud mixes that come out today. So again you are putting a digital recording on tape for 'tape noise'.
Youre not getting that nice warmth that was recorded and mixed into the music they way it was done in the past. And this is clearly visible when you look at a recording from 1980 and a recording from 1998. Waves with peak and valleys VS one massive block of whats supposed to be a wave but looks like a straight line drawn with a magnum graff marker.

I wish it would go back to the better headroom days. With the amps and power everyone now has at home....you can just turn it up to be louder. FUCK HIP HOP from 1996 onward. It was the cause of it all. DMX you suck.

You are digging waaaaay too deep. Like I said before, It IS JUST FOR FUN. I understand what you are saying. I do. I just don't get why you are all over this thread making points that are obvious?

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:19 pm

Kinski wrote:i'm taking it further, here's mhrtc, geogaddi and twoism

Nice! Can you dub those to cassette tape for us!?

Kinski · Post by **Kinski** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:29 pm

polar sky wrote:
Kinski wrote:i'm taking it further, here's mhrtc, geogaddi and twoism

Nice! Can you dub those to cassette tape for us!?

no.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:36 pm

The Voice Of Reason and Kinski, I mean no offense to you guys. I'm not one for making enemies anywhere, even on a web forum as lame as that sounds. Everyone has their views and points. And not everyone can agree on everything. Just playful jabbing on my part, hope there is no hard feelings

I just the love this forum and the people on here and it stops being fun when everyone starts bitching at each other.

Peace.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:47 pm

23degreesdream wrote:Just a question and i do not mean this as a snide comment - but do the people hankering for copies of things on cassette actually remember how annoying tapes were back in the 80's??!

Like, the reel coming out and having to wind it up with a pencil, or having hiss no matter how great your Dolby noise reduction was, or how it use to take such a long time to make mixtapes, or how sometimes your walkman would choose to chew up your tape out of sheer spite? I switched to CD as soon as i could. Vinyl i love, but tapes? Not a nostalgia thing for me. But each to their own i guess

Do I ever!! Tapes were appauling if you wanted posh and fancy things like audio quality/fidelity. :lol:

But there's the thing. Tapes weren't perfect. They warped, they degraded. they suffered from drop-outs. With music like BOC's this 'random factor' is an interesting element. Of course, I've still got the back catalogue on CD too, plus vinyl and MP3. Each format brings it's own character and it's own quirks.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:11 pm

Mexicola wrote:
23degreesdream wrote:Just a question and i do not mean this as a snide comment - but do the people hankering for copies of things on cassette actually remember how annoying tapes were back in the 80's??!

Like, the reel coming out and having to wind it up with a pencil, or having hiss no matter how great your Dolby noise reduction was, or how it use to take such a long time to make mixtapes, or how sometimes your walkman would choose to chew up your tape out of sheer spite? I switched to CD as soon as i could. Vinyl i love, but tapes? Not a nostalgia thing for me. But each to their own i guess

Do I ever!! Tapes were appauling if you wanted posh and fancy things like audio quality/fidelity.

But there's the thing. Tapes weren't perfect. They warped, they degraded. they suffered from drop-outs. With music like BOC's this 'random factor' is an interesting element. Of course, I've still got the back catalogue on CD too, plus vinyl and MP3. Each format brings it's own character and it's own quirks.

this...

The Voice of Reason · Post by **The Voice of Reason** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:16 pm

Mexicola wrote:
23degreesdream wrote:Just a question and i do not mean this as a snide comment - but do the people hankering for copies of things on cassette actually remember how annoying tapes were back in the 80's??!

Like, the reel coming out and having to wind it up with a pencil, or having hiss no matter how great your Dolby noise reduction was, or how it use to take such a long time to make mixtapes, or how sometimes your walkman would choose to chew up your tape out of sheer spite? I switched to CD as soon as i could. Vinyl i love, but tapes? Not a nostalgia thing for me. But each to their own i guess

Do I ever!! Tapes were appauling if you wanted posh and fancy things like audio quality/fidelity.

But there's the thing. Tapes weren't perfect. They warped, they degraded. they suffered from drop-outs. With music like BOC's this 'random factor' is an interesting element. Of course, I've still got the back catalogue on CD too, plus vinyl and MP3. Each format brings it's own character and it's own quirks.

You see that is another misconception. Tapes were great on quality equipment that was kept clean and maintained. Tapes were messed up when left in the sun, or after getting eaten by the deck, or if it got stretched with constant FWD and RWD or by getting stuck in the deck, or with dirty record or playbacks heads....OR use the same tape 100x over to record and rerecord. If you want those imperfections you use a shitty tape deck and a fucked up cassette. An audiofile had perfect tapes. Myself I had an Ampex reel to reel and shot for the most pristine transferal of my records to preserve them on tape.

So that is untrue of tapes. You only got those imperfections when you made a home recording on shitty equipment. And if you happened to get a shitty one from the store you took it back and got a clean one.

I do understand the point you are making. But, coming from that time, I dont understand why you'd want to bother, and on top of that deal with the unbelievably slow interface. You have a huge device for listening to the music, you have no randomization capabilty [which i find makes shitty music good. example: Christ to me is unlistenable as an album, but when mixed in with other music hitting you at unexpected times, a single shot of chirst in the right mix can be quite good]. You can only carry 60 or 90 min of music with you [unless you tote around a bag full of cassettes], and you have the inability to jump to a better tune if you want.

If you're all a flutter over 'that tape sound', why not fuck up a cassette, record your album [or mix] to that cassette, then record the cassette to mp3. Or is it one of the new hipster things to walk around with a Walkman and hip bag full of tapes, have a onesy bike with fake thick rimmed glasses and toque and scarf?

Don't get me wrong. Some of my favorite shit is on cassette still. I used to record DJ Red Alert's show off KISS FM in New York. A lot of the stuff he played you'd only hear on his show. Keepers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWn5vdv0tA

Oh and Polar...shit may be obvious to you, but I'm willing to wager there are people on the board that haven't even heard music played from a record. And why does a forum have to be a place where everyone strokes each other? You can't debate points of view or question others? You yourself talk about making comments re: points of view. Mine is that this transferal of digtal to cassette is just plain silly. You contradict yourself in saying the forum is to express points of view....I guess they need to be inline with yours or else someone is "bitching".

YELLOW · Post by **YELLOW** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:27 pm

i know this doesn't have much to do with boards of canada on tape, but when i play music like boards of canada and clark and autechre and other warp artists in my girlfriend's 1987 volvo, i find it refreshing how the sound is not pristine and usually distorted from the age of 24 year old car speakers, it's like hearing another side to the same songs im used to. i usually listen to my highly encoded lossless music on my $150 headphones at home

The Voice of Reason · Post by **The Voice of Reason** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:50 pm

Last quick question...
I seem to recall a lot of people shitting on the old tunes tapes. Wanting better quality versions, saying the recording was shitty. Isn't it exactly the way you want it?

YELLOW, I think its not the quality of the sound so much as the setting and mood you are in when rolling with your girl in her volvo [in the car on those speakers you are losing most of the low end, so as far as WARP music goes, a fair bit of each tune], know what I mean. Completely different envrio than sitting at home listening on your cans. I personally LOVE hearing the stuff on my RS-1's, but yes there is something quite different about the way I hear to tune while driving through the rockies while its snowing, or along the beach after a good surf with my girl at my side on a hot summer night. There are a lot of feelings involved, its not just the music.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:59 pm

The Voice of Reason wrote:You see that is another misconception. Tapes were great on quality equipment that was kept clean and maintained. Tapes were messed up when left in the sun, or after getting eaten by the deck, or if it got stretched with constant FWD and RWD or by getting stuck in the deck, or with dirty record or playbacks heads....OR use the same tape 100x over to record and rerecord. If you want those imperfections you use a shitty tape deck and a fucked up cassette. An audiofile had perfect tapes. Myself I had an Ampex reel to reel and shot for the most pristine transferal of my records to preserve them on tape.

So that is untrue of tapes. You only got those imperfections when you made a home recording on shitty equipment. And if you happened to get a shitty one from the store you took it back and got a clean one.

A fair point well made. I was talking about my experience of cassettes, which was very definately via a crappy old £60 stereo with shitty dubbing facility and a selection of ratty old C90's - not an audiophiles set up by any stretch and you're right to pick me up on the difference.

The Voice of Reason wrote:I do understand the point you are making. But, coming from that time, I dont understand why you'd want to bother, and on top of that deal with the unbelievably slow interface. You have a huge device for listening to the music, you have no randomization capabilty

Different strokes for different folks I guess? Personally, I like the lack of a random button. I like not being able to skip tracks. How many albums have I since bought on CD that - if I'm being honest - I skip through, cherry picking my favorite tracks. And how many albums contain those slow-burn tracks that only really reveal themselves after repeated plays?

I also like having to fast forward to the end of the tape before turning over. From a functional viewpoint it's clearly inferior. This is just one example of how cassettes are out of date today. But then I love it for one of the main reasons I love BOC in the first place - I love the feel, the nostalgia. It takes me back to being a kid, in my bedroom, making mix tapes, taking time, writing out the labels by hand, the feel of the buttons under my fingers, the gentle rumble in the background as the tape turns before the music starts. None of these things should matter if it was all about the music and yet - to me - they do. Or at least, they do sometimes. Other times I just put my iPod on like everyone else. For me, this isn't 'instead of', it's 'as well as.'

The Voice of Reason wrote:If you're all a flutter over 'that tape sound', why not fuck up a cassette, record your album [or mix] to that cassette, then record the cassette to mp3. Or is it one of the new hipster things to walk around with a Walkman and hip bag full of tapes, have a onesy bike with fake thick rimmed glasses and toque and scarf?

See above. The fucked up sound is a big part of it. But only part of it. And I'm no hipster either by the way. I also like Motorhead, Biffy Clyro and Crowded House. 3 bands who are about as uncool and un'scene' as you could point and giggle at. And besides, little is sadder than a 37 year old hipster-wannabe in Converse, beanie hat and soul patch (apologies to anyway fitting this description). But then again, every hipster in the World denies it, so perhaps I am a hipster after all? Shit, now I AM worried! :shock:

The Voice of Reason wrote:Don't get me wrong. Some of my favorite shit is on cassette still. I used to record DJ Red Alert's show off KISS FM in New York. A lot of the stuff he played you'd only hear on his show. Keepers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWn5vdv0tA

Nice one!

The Voice of Reason wrote:..why does a forum have to be a place where everyone strokes each other?

Agreed. Hope you don't mind me coming back on this one? Think it was the hipster thing that 'got' to me :wink:

The Voice of Reason · Post by **The Voice of Reason** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:19 pm

Mexicola wrote:Agreed. Hope you don't mind me coming back on this one? Think it was the hipster thing that 'got' to me

Not at all. Isn't that the point of a forum. And instead of being defensive and telling me to go away, you present good points of view.

But as the not being able to skip tracks point, I think that that has opened up many more tracks to my ears. Not so much the skipping as the random feature. Because in the day i used to skip as well. Its just took longer. And I found I tired more quickly of albums, because I'd end up keeping one on rotation for weeks on end. I find with the random feature today, I hear many more tunes. Meaning I listen to them differently. Like I had mentioned re: Christ. I personally can not make it through an album of his. His recording wears your ears out. His hi's are brutal and the tunes meander in such a boring way when all strung together. BUT, drop a Christ tune in between two totally different tracks and it can sound SO different. Though I may have heard the tune several times before, when he sneaks in behind a track that he follows well, I find myself checking the screen to see who that was....and to my surprise....Christ. Blows me away every time.

And how about that with cassettes. "Man that was a great tune....what's the name of it. OH SHIT i left the case at home. K...it starts at about the 2nd hash mark on the tape window" No screens, labels. That used to drive me nuts all the time with new tapes.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:47 pm

The Voice of Reason wrote:
Mexicola wrote:Agreed. Hope you don't mind me coming back on this one? Think it was the hipster thing that 'got' to me

Not at all. Isn't that the point of a forum. And instead of being defensive and telling me to go away, you present good points of view.

But as the not being able to skip tracks point, I think that that has opened up many more tracks to my ears. Not so much the skipping as the random feature. Because in the day i used to skip as well. Its just took longer. And I found I tired more quickly of albums, because I'd end up keeping one on rotation for weeks on end. I find with the random feature today, I hear many more tunes. Meaning I listen to them differently. Like I had mentioned re: Christ. I personally can not make it through an album of his. His recording wears your ears out. His hi's are brutal and the tunes meander in such a boring way when all strung together. BUT, drop a Christ tune in between two totally different tracks and it can sound SO different. Though I may have heard the tune several times before, when he sneaks in behind a track that he follows well, I find myself checking the screen to see who that was....and to my surprise....Christ. Blows me away every time.

And how about that with cassettes. "Man that was a great tune....what's the name of it. OH SHIT i left the case at home. K...it starts at about the 2nd hash mark on the tape window" No screens, labels. That used to drive me nuts all the time with new tapes.

Fair points both. Heck, you might have actually found a way for me to (finally) enjoy Christ. as I usually don't engage with his music at all - much to my constant annoyance and disappointment. He's like a Steak and Kidney pie or peanut butter. I like the component parts and I WANT to like the whole too. All my gut instincts tell me I should. And yet I keep trying, keep trying, keep trying.....and it just doesn't work for me.

Hmmmm. Where's that iPod again...

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:37 pm

Voice Of Reason, how old are you? Just a friendly question. Late 30s?

Yellow Records · Post by **Yellow Records** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:07 pm

Just a fucking mean old bastard that gets his thrills by shooting down people's fun. It brings back memories for us, it makes me feel good, I don't know why everything has to turn into some fueled debate! Boards of Canada's music brings back memories, as odd as it is. And adding it to a tape for the "fuzz," just adds to the nostalgia. Maybe if you were a true fan, you might UNDERSTAND. But there is no way to win with these fuckers.

Integer · Post by **Integer** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:34 pm

Being a child of the 70s/80s, myself, I can honestly say I DO NOT rue the demise of the cassette tape with all of its inadequacies and encumbrances. Maybe this nostalgia for them from people who weren't alive when they were first around stems from wanting to experience something unique from a by-gone era they weren't a part of. I guess I can understand that. Otherwise, wanting more hiss from my audio experience doesn't make any sense to me.

LWTUA · Post by **LWTUA** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:49 pm

First post. Irrespective of the debate about sound quality, I was bored so made this up.

[img][img]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2997/p1040322.th.jpg[/img]
[/img]

23degreesdream · Post by **23degreesdream** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:26 pm

Cryabetes wrote:Personally, I like how much time a mixtape takes to make compared to a mix cd. You don't make them unless you REALLY WANT TO make them and you pick your playlist more carefully. I mean, a mix CD is essentially disposable, but a mix tape? someone put time and effort into that tape and you'd better appreciate it.

Twoism should have a mixtape trade one of these days.

True, also there was something of a challenge in filling every second of that 90 mins - I used to add little short tracks to fill up the last minutes to take you to the next side, i think Teenage Kicks featured on most of my tapes - BoC vignettes would have been ideal for this purpose.

Spine · Post by **Spine** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:08 pm

LWTUA wrote:First post. Irrespective of the debate about sound quality, I was bored so made this up.

[img][img]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2997/p1040322.th.jpg[/img]
[/img]

That looks awesome :O Can you scan your cover and post it up? I'd love to use that for my iTunes.

Kinski · Post by **Kinski** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:16 pm

this is not a thread about your home-made tapes. this is a thread about original twoism tape sightings. which part of this some of you don't understad? i'm trying to be nice, but there's already poser-callings.