Vintage gear: tape machines

Tutorials

Vintage gear: tape machines

w/ Fab Dupont

1 h 3 min • 2019

German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese

For many years, tape machines have been coveted as the key to many colorful words associated with the sound of analog recording.

In the latest entry to our How To Listen Series, Fab Dupont and Chris Mara (producer, engineer, and owner of the Nashville based recording studio, "Welcome To 1979") sit down with a Mara Machines JH-110 1/4" and 1/2" machine to run multiple mixes through them for the purpose of quantifying the sound of printing mixes to tape.

The examples chosen for the video represent a wide array of musical genres to help identify which format; digital, 1/2" or 1/4" tape; might be best for each piece of music.

In this video, you will:

Learn What tape machines do to your music
Learn How to align 1/4" and 1/2" tape machines
Compare a digital mix to a 1/4" and 1/2" print from tape machines
Hear the effects of 1/4" and 1/2" tape machines on a variety of genres of music, and learn how to choose the best format for your music.

Pay attention! There will be a quiz at the end of the video to test your listening skills and see if you can identify the sound of each format on the songs heard in the video.

This is a chance to quantify all of the characteristics you hear about analog tape’s effect on music for yourself as Chris Mara and Fab Dupont print demonstrate, explain, and give you tips on what to listen for to learn the sound of tape.

25 reviews

david.su • Thursday, March 30, 2023

Cool Man, great to get this video

Mr Rambolini • Monday, December 19, 2022

Super interesting - thanks for another great video!

thenacker • Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Fab this series is awesome I learning so much!!! Said that I am really appreciatee to get the opportunity to compare digital and real top notch tape machine with fine calibration. In the all rnr people have this tape mith with it's truly not a myth only but you need to have top notch macine and know how to use them otherwise is crap. So let's put our feet on the ground and le't's go digital if we can't allow a great tape machine / great calibration Great to know the differences by listen to them in comparison with digital

mistapes • Wednesday, February 3, 2021

This is freaking awesome!

fangjin • Monday, October 19, 2020

I chose them all right, yeah! The 1/4” tone is a little more modern than 1/2’’. I like both. Thanks to Fab and Chris.

hughettos • Monday, January 27, 2020

What a Masters! Thanks

Mike1372 • Saturday, January 25, 2020

Loved this but it’s now begging the question for me about what a 2” 24track and a 2” 16track sound like! Can you comment or embellish on this video? Would the 2” 16track be equivalent in sound to the 1/4” because they share the amount of tape width per track? Would the 24 track have its own sound due to smaller tape track width’s than both the 1/4” and 1/2”? Thx!!

dc • Saturday, January 4, 2020

Great! Weirdly enough it was easier to hear the difference on the iPhoneX speakers... The quizz was easy-peasy if you looked for: - transients: digital versions were obviously in your face and detached from the rest - highs: the quarter is darker then comes the half then comes the digital All in all, the tape (especially the quarter) was adding a nice compression and EQ that made all the tracks more cohesive like the famous glue effect we are all looking for. The French song especially... when the vocal seems to blur with the violins was very emotional on the quarter tape version.