Thursday, May 15, 2008

Times They Have A Changed - A New Old 4 Track

Well, I mentioned in the last post I might pick up a 4 track, and I went and did just that this week. Thanks Joe for the offer of a Tascam Portastudio, but I had my heart set on replacing my old recorder.

My old deck was a Fostex XR-3. I remember when I bought it back in 1997 it was the most expensive things I'd ever bought, weighing in at a hefty £250. I was working at Tesco at the time for not much money, so I spent a long while paying that one back. Anyway, a couple of years ago I put it up on eBay and sold it for about £70, with the intention of buying one back in the future.

This week I spotted a newer Fostex 4 track of the same family, but a slightly newer model with some better specs. It's a Fostex X-24, and I picked it up for the princely sum of £12. Yup, £12.

It seems the digital age has rendered the old analogue recording methods all but obsolete on the home recording front. Personally I like the sound of my old tapes, they have a warmth about them that digital recordings just don't have, so that's why I've been keen to pick one back up. It also means I can play my old master tapes again should I want to borrow something from them, as the old Fostex played the tape back at 2x speed to improve quality, and this one does the same.

It made me smile, paying so little for it now, and thinking back to how broke I was when I bought the first one. It never ceases to amaze me how things move on in prices. But I was in for a shock today when I saw how much blank tapes cost. I sort of remember hearing a few years back that most places had stopped selling blank cassettes, without really thinking much about it. So today I start looking for some high end metal cassettes, as they are recommended for the Fostex as it puts a lot of demand on them. To cut a long story short, they don't make them anymore.

I did some searching, and now the only place you can pick up metal tapes seems to be eBay. And they're not going cheap either, there's some high prices on them, £5 - £15 each depending on the make and length. There's got to be some irony there, the tapes are now more expensive than the 4 track. I'd just assumed that tapes were still being made, and good audio stockists would still carry the high end audio tapes. How wrong I was.

I eventually found some suitable Sony metal tapes, and having used them in the past decided to pick up a few. I've no plans to do anything in the near future, but if the medium is dying out, I thought the prices would only get more expensive as time goes on. Still, for that warm and fuzzy lo-fi sound I love so much, they're worth every penny and an investment for the future. I think I will be building a little stockpile for when I get my arse in gear, book those guitar lessons and get recording again.

Posted by Dio Bach at 22:59

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...: You need to sort out one of those weird musical swinging tubes and a few Predator 2 samples.....; 12:39 PM
Dio Bach said...: Hell yeah! I still got a copy of that mangled up tape thing somewhere to. :); 6:08 PM