Again! My birthday is Tuesday, I'm turning 66. One of the things I ant to do before I die is hang with M-A-T for a week. I'm even learning Korean to help me. It's a fantasy, but you never know! Stand-outs for me, as a somewhat non-musician, in M-A-T's music is Curve and Light. It teases a pop-type song and devolves in to a typical Mid Air Thief song. But it starts with that fuzzy noise, as well as The Wider The Wheel starts with what feels like town bells ringing. When I was a teen, I had THREE reel-to reel tape decks!!!! They were all given to me and only one stereo deck in the bunch. But I learned so much from playing with those 50 years ago. Tape stretch is just that, stretching the tape just before the tape loses it's plastic coating that holds the info. You get a weird warbling sound as the info on the tape isn't where it's supposed to be. Another technique is to physically slow the reels down as they record or play. That takes some practice. I used this when I went to radio broadcasting school and we had to produce some taped commercials. If done correctly, the WOW (technical term for this, mostly used when records were cued up wrong and the record was still getting up to speed when the recorded part starts, hence the name 'wow'. I used the same thing when recording a friend's piano while in another person's 124 track studio. Literally slowing down the 2 inch tape deck and letting it go at the correct time sometimes produces an otherworldly moan when the tape catches up and the tape's slack goes away . It's so cool..... Also, listen to Show Biz Kids by Steely Dan. The chorus and ALL the rhythm was made into a loop and the tape was so long, it had to be routed down the studio's hall in empty movie reels. The only thing they recorded after the loop was Donald's vocals and the lead guitar. But the tape was so long, there are flutters in the backing track that give it 'character.' Coming from me, a dumb dude who works ONLY "in the box" (meaning a DAW,), I'd love to see more experimentation with the older school techniques. Older desk, boards, whatever one wants to call that thing with all the faders and switches are sometimes cheap. My birthday wish is that I come across some cash to build a studio so artists can go in and play with the older technology before the knowledge is lost. Great video Ken. If we ever set up a call, I'd talk your ear off for three days straight, and the two of us wouldn't get anything accomplished. During the week, I drive about 25 minutes to my daughter's house to let her elderly dog out so she can relieve herself (the dog that is). If I'm distracted, I'd be in the doghouse with one old dog, one young dog who loves to play, and a cat who plays hide and seek with me every single day.
Holy fuck! Thanks for decoding to an analog noob like myself with the techniques that MAT talks about in his interviews. Definitely will remember this so that I can try it myself when I get a reel deck in the future. Thanks for the Show Biz Kids recommendation. How do you know that the tape was so long? Is it purely because the song is 5 minutes plus? Looking forward to the call Frank! You can always book a time using the link in my description! Thanks for all your awesome comments!
@@brokenenglishprod Okey dokey, here goes. Most professional tape decks have two speed (some had three or four but I never used those. The speeds are 7.5 ips (or 19 cmps) and 15 ips (38 cmps) That's 7.5 or 15 INCHES PER SECOND or 19 or 38 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND. That's the speed the tape moved through the tape heads. Professionals liked to use the higher number for sonic's sake. So imagine how much tape gets used in that loop, using tape way back in the day, I assume they copied the loop 4 times to get audio consistency assuming the song is in 4/4 time. No one could figure out what the singers were singing due to that massive tape stretch that all that tape running down the studios outside hallway Gary Katz, their producer, said that they ran through empty movie reels perched on ladders. Old school for sure! Tape decks are fun! We had three head decks in radio school and that's how we got our echo through tape head. The first head would record our voice and the third head would play back what was just recorded. The delay was our echo, controlled by the volume potentiometer or "pots" the resistance between the two heads caused the echo. Here in the US they had something called "Drake Jocks" in the 60s, those big huge booming slightly echoed people on the radio. The "Drake Jock" people always had to have a tape deck whirring away in the background to get that effect. Of course it was named after the dude who "invented" this style. Also aligning the tape heads to perfection is getting to be a lost skill. Just recently I was watching an interview with some huge artist from the 70s and the host asked him why the words couldn't be understood, and he blamed the tape head alignment and it wasn't purposeful. I think the guy was full of shit, but that was a problem with using tape. For the past 20 years or so, I have always thought smaller more indie labels should OWN a smallish studio so their artists can experiment. That was my goal when I was trying to get my own label started back then. A few people tried to sell me some local studios, but I was broke at the time. The one I was really interested in was a local studio that recorded that song in my video "You" by Jasper Wrath link: ua-cam.com/video/UClmnXJooB8/v-deo.htmlsi=40RfImGAvPFIWkWC but it wasn't for sale. I'm a huge fan of the indie label aesthetic of South Korea's Poclanos distribution company. If I owned that company, I would have a studio for the artist to use! Production delights can be found anywhere! I remember when I was working as a truck driver for Dominos Pizza the guy I was working with was a huge Sarah McLaclan fan. He loved the guitar solo in "Building A Mystery" and when I told him it was backwards and explained how they did it, it blew his mind. Keep in mind, I was a certified driver trainer, so I was gooooooooood really good! After blowing the guy's mind with the guitar solo thing he asked how I knew... I told him "I'm a better record producer than than a truck driver." Then told him how my friends used to call be Bill back in the 70s-80s. That was for Bill Szymczyk, the producer of The Eagles who didn't know how to play an instrument but still knew how to fix shit. Anyway- I think I bored you enough.
@@artkincell have you ever listened to ariel pink? he emulates a lot of old sound but does so authentically and makes tunes that genuinely sound ripped straight out of the 60s-80s (depending on the track of course). listen to "I WANNA BE A GIRL" to get an idea of what he sounds like. i was born in the 21st century but love to read about old techniques used during the pre-digital times. cheers ps the steely dan track rocks! i haven't listened to much of them before
@@manthatsawesoem I love Ariel Pink's stuff, I'm especially hooked on "Pom Pom." Tracks like "Lipstick," like you said, hearken back to the 80s with its e-Drums and soaring chorus. Have you listened to the stuff he recorded with R. Stevie Moore? Mr. Moore is, of course, the king of 'bedroom' records, especially his early stuff. He STILL uses techniques that I used during the 1970s when I was in high school and recording on a small mono single speed reel to reel deck and a mono cassette deck I rigged up to record multi-track. It's nice to see young people curious about the "old ways." I think tape techniques will never go away, and there are fewer and fewer people willing to learn (because it takes so much time and money) that soon it will be lost except for studio notes. Great talking to you and happy recording.
Just as a sidenote "slash" chords are actually called Chord Inversions. A D major chord is usually played as D, F#, A but if you change the root note and play F#, D, A it becomes the first inversion of the chord and playing A, D, F# makes it the second inversion, which are notated as D/F# and D/A respectively.
slash chords are also slightly different than chord inversions in that they can have non chord tones as the bass, such as dbmajor7/eb or f/g or something similar.
me encantó el vídeo, no entiendo mucho de ingles pero me arriesgue a mirarlo por qué nunca ví a alguien hablando de mid air thief... este canal tendría que tener más visibilidad, es muy bueno
found this video by chance and havent even listened to mid air thief, but this was a good and easy to understand video! would love to see one on ear candy like you mentioned too
Yo appreciate you stopping by and watching! Hope I put you on to a goldmine of an artist. He is incredible. Will be planning my ear candy video for sure! Quite a few have asked for it!
You can pitch your samples up, record them into the tape recorder, and pitch them down (either on the tape recorder or in Ableton) to "extend" the tape and emphasize the warble of the tape recorder. I do this with a crappy little Sears tape recorder I found at Salvation Army for $10, but also with my PO33 to get some "ear candy". I would love to hear some more ear candy ideas though. Great video.
Have you heard of the band Working for a Nuclear Free City? Some of their stuff is amazing, in particular my favorite song from them “All American Taste”. Would love to hear your thoughts on that song, even if just a text response, since it has some pretty cool production on it
Recording tape is made of polyester/mylar and can be stretched up to a point. It will get thinner and more narrow, of course. I'd never considered deliberately stretching a tape, but it is a cool idea. He must have a lot of practice, or a lot of tape (probably both) to do it so well.
Makes sense. For some reason I did not think he would actually just stretch it. Thought it was some term that I had no clue about haha. f*ck im so dumb
If i had infinite time id spend like 500 hours of my time making a decent 100% ableton recreation of these chains or crumbling together but i dont think i could realistically get 0.5% there right now
Hey there not to worry it takes at least 10,000 hours to be good at something. You might not be able to sound like him right now but along the journey as you keep going you will eventually pick up skills that help shape your own sound as an artist. Also I do think it’s not entirely possible to recreate it as he uses a lot of weird mistakes in his music.
Hey! apologies for the lack of clarity. You can watch it what I did here: ua-cam.com/video/zpQxZpC5K0c/v-deo.htmlsi=EB_J4e-PH8GAYIV7&t=126 If you still are unclear, do message me again and I'll make a guide.
To bo honest both would be an blessing. I like the way you explain things so an guide for ableton would be nice. But also a guide for making a track like Mid Air Thief in ableton would also be really nice@@brokenenglishprod
mid air thief is such an inspiration, texturally perfect. not enough videos about them, thank you
He really is man. Thank you for watching!
Again! My birthday is Tuesday, I'm turning 66. One of the things I ant to do before I die is hang with M-A-T for a week. I'm even learning Korean to help me. It's a fantasy, but you never know!
Stand-outs for me, as a somewhat non-musician, in M-A-T's music is Curve and Light. It teases a pop-type song and devolves in to a typical Mid Air Thief song. But it starts with that fuzzy noise, as well as The Wider The Wheel starts with what feels like town bells ringing.
When I was a teen, I had THREE reel-to reel tape decks!!!! They were all given to me and only one stereo deck in the bunch. But I learned so much from playing with those 50 years ago. Tape stretch is just that, stretching the tape just before the tape loses it's plastic coating that holds the info. You get a weird warbling sound as the info on the tape isn't where it's supposed to be.
Another technique is to physically slow the reels down as they record or play. That takes some practice. I used this when I went to radio broadcasting school and we had to produce some taped commercials. If done correctly, the WOW (technical term for this, mostly used when records were cued up wrong and the record was still getting up to speed when the recorded part starts, hence the name 'wow'. I used the same thing when recording a friend's piano while in another person's 124 track studio. Literally slowing down the 2 inch tape deck and letting it go at the correct time sometimes produces an otherworldly moan when the tape catches up and the tape's slack goes away . It's so cool.....
Also, listen to Show Biz Kids by Steely Dan. The chorus and ALL the rhythm was made into a loop and the tape was so long, it had to be routed down the studio's hall in empty movie reels. The only thing they recorded after the loop was Donald's vocals and the lead guitar. But the tape was so long, there are flutters in the backing track that give it 'character.'
Coming from me, a dumb dude who works ONLY "in the box" (meaning a DAW,), I'd love to see more experimentation with the older school techniques. Older desk, boards, whatever one wants to call that thing with all the faders and switches are sometimes cheap. My birthday wish is that I come across some cash to build a studio so artists can go in and play with the older technology before the knowledge is lost.
Great video Ken. If we ever set up a call, I'd talk your ear off for three days straight, and the two of us wouldn't get anything accomplished. During the week, I drive about 25 minutes to my daughter's house to let her elderly dog out so she can relieve herself (the dog that is). If I'm distracted, I'd be in the doghouse with one old dog, one young dog who loves to play, and a cat who plays hide and seek with me every single day.
Holy fuck! Thanks for decoding to an analog noob like myself with the techniques that MAT talks about in his interviews. Definitely will remember this so that I can try it myself when I get a reel deck in the future.
Thanks for the Show Biz Kids recommendation. How do you know that the tape was so long? Is it purely because the song is 5 minutes plus?
Looking forward to the call Frank! You can always book a time using the link in my description!
Thanks for all your awesome comments!
@@brokenenglishprod Okey dokey, here goes.
Most professional tape decks have two speed (some had three or four but I never used those. The speeds are 7.5 ips (or 19 cmps) and 15 ips (38 cmps) That's 7.5 or 15 INCHES PER SECOND or 19 or 38 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND. That's the speed the tape moved through the tape heads. Professionals liked to use the higher number for sonic's sake. So imagine how much tape gets used in that loop, using tape way back in the day, I assume they copied the loop 4 times to get audio consistency assuming the song is in 4/4 time. No one could figure out what the singers were singing due to that massive tape stretch that all that tape running down the studios outside hallway Gary Katz, their producer, said that they ran through empty movie reels perched on ladders. Old school for sure!
Tape decks are fun! We had three head decks in radio school and that's how we got our echo through tape head. The first head would record our voice and the third head would play back what was just recorded. The delay was our echo, controlled by the volume potentiometer or "pots" the resistance between the two heads caused the echo. Here in the US they had something called "Drake Jocks" in the 60s, those big huge booming slightly echoed people on the radio. The "Drake Jock" people always had to have a tape deck whirring away in the background to get that effect. Of course it was named after the dude who "invented" this style.
Also aligning the tape heads to perfection is getting to be a lost skill. Just recently I was watching an interview with some huge artist from the 70s and the host asked him why the words couldn't be understood, and he blamed the tape head alignment and it wasn't purposeful. I think the guy was full of shit, but that was a problem with using tape.
For the past 20 years or so, I have always thought smaller more indie labels should OWN a smallish studio so their artists can experiment. That was my goal when I was trying to get my own label started back then. A few people tried to sell me some local studios, but I was broke at the time. The one I was really interested in was a local studio that recorded that song in my video "You" by Jasper Wrath link: ua-cam.com/video/UClmnXJooB8/v-deo.htmlsi=40RfImGAvPFIWkWC but it wasn't for sale. I'm a huge fan of the indie label aesthetic of South Korea's Poclanos distribution company. If I owned that company, I would have a studio for the artist to use!
Production delights can be found anywhere! I remember when I was working as a truck driver for Dominos Pizza the guy I was working with was a huge Sarah McLaclan fan. He loved the guitar solo in "Building A Mystery" and when I told him it was backwards and explained how they did it, it blew his mind. Keep in mind, I was a certified driver trainer, so I was gooooooooood really good! After blowing the guy's mind with the guitar solo thing he asked how I knew... I told him "I'm a better record producer than than a truck driver." Then told him how my friends used to call be Bill back in the 70s-80s. That was for Bill Szymczyk, the producer of The Eagles who didn't know how to play an instrument but still knew how to fix shit.
Anyway- I think I bored you enough.
@@artkincell have you ever listened to ariel pink? he emulates a lot of old sound but does so authentically and makes tunes that genuinely sound ripped straight out of the 60s-80s (depending on the track of course). listen to "I WANNA BE A GIRL" to get an idea of what he sounds like. i was born in the 21st century but love to read about old techniques used during the pre-digital times. cheers
ps the steely dan track rocks! i haven't listened to much of them before
@@manthatsawesoem I love Ariel Pink's stuff, I'm especially hooked on "Pom Pom." Tracks like "Lipstick," like you said, hearken back to the 80s with its e-Drums and soaring chorus.
Have you listened to the stuff he recorded with R. Stevie Moore? Mr. Moore is, of course, the king of 'bedroom' records, especially his early stuff. He STILL uses techniques that I used during the 1970s when I was in high school and recording on a small mono single speed reel to reel deck and a mono cassette deck I rigged up to record multi-track.
It's nice to see young people curious about the "old ways." I think tape techniques will never go away, and there are fewer and fewer people willing to learn (because it takes so much time and money) that soon it will be lost except for studio notes.
Great talking to you and happy recording.
I'm so glad I stumbled across your chanel, your videos are awesome :)
Hey happy to know that my video has provided value to you brother
Just as a sidenote "slash" chords are actually called Chord Inversions. A D major chord is usually played as D, F#, A but if you change the root note and play F#, D, A it becomes the first inversion of the chord and playing A, D, F# makes it the second inversion, which are notated as D/F# and D/A respectively.
Ayyyy thank you for the further clarification! Appreciate it man! Thanks for watching!
slash chords are also slightly different than chord inversions in that they can have non chord tones as the bass, such as dbmajor7/eb or f/g or something similar.
dude this video is so helpful thank you
Yo! No problem man! I’m glad that it helped you in your music production career.
You making something inspired by the goat?
do the ear candy video man!!! love your explanations
Alright brother it’s in the works! Stay tuned for it!
Love the vid man. There’s a free tape emulation plugin called chow tape that I think sounds really good
Yo! thanks for watching the video brother. Thank you for the recommendation. Will definitely check it out! I'm sure the others will check it out too!
me encantó el vídeo, no entiendo mucho de ingles pero me arriesgue a mirarlo por qué nunca ví a alguien hablando de mid air thief...
este canal tendría que tener más visibilidad, es muy bueno
thank you very much Felix! That means a lot to me!
found this video by chance and havent even listened to mid air thief, but this was a good and easy to understand video! would love to see one on ear candy like you mentioned too
Yo appreciate you stopping by and watching! Hope I put you on to a goldmine of an artist. He is incredible. Will be planning my ear candy video for sure! Quite a few have asked for it!
You can pitch your samples up, record them into the tape recorder, and pitch them down (either on the tape recorder or in Ableton) to "extend" the tape and emphasize the warble of the tape recorder. I do this with a crappy little Sears tape recorder I found at Salvation Army for $10, but also with my PO33 to get some "ear candy". I would love to hear some more ear candy ideas though. Great video.
That’s awesome! I’ll definitely try that in the future. I’m sure other MAT enthusiasts will give this a go too! Appreciate it brother!
Somehow didn't get the notification for this when it came out but I've been waiting for this one!! Super stoked about it!
appreciate the love London!
thank you for your dedication to finding the information and making a good video.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching!
I want a full video please
Hahaha what do you mean by this?
Haha my bad, i meant a deeper dive in how to apply those mixings in ableton@@brokenenglishprod
Great video man! Appreciate the quality of it
Have you heard of the band Working for a Nuclear Free City? Some of their stuff is amazing, in particular my favorite song from them “All American Taste”. Would love to hear your thoughts on that song, even if just a text response, since it has some pretty cool production on it
yooooo I just gave them a listen and they are fucking incredible thank you for the recommendation! I will need to listen to the rest of their music!
Recording tape is made of polyester/mylar and can be stretched up to a point. It will get thinner and more narrow, of course.
I'd never considered deliberately stretching a tape, but it is a cool idea. He must have a lot of practice, or a lot of tape (probably both) to do it so well.
Makes sense. For some reason I did not think he would actually just stretch it. Thought it was some term that I had no clue about haha. f*ck im so dumb
could you do standing on the corner?
will add them to the list
@@brokenenglishprod 🐐
thanks alot this was great !
thank you for watching!
Instant sub!
Thank you!
Mid-air thief uses such weird chords
yessir!
If i had infinite time id spend like 500 hours of my time making a decent 100% ableton recreation of these chains or crumbling together but i dont think i could realistically get 0.5% there right now
Hey there not to worry it takes at least 10,000 hours to be good at something. You might not be able to sound like him right now but along the journey as you keep going you will eventually pick up skills that help shape your own sound as an artist.
Also I do think it’s not entirely possible to recreate it as he uses a lot of weird mistakes in his music.
You're a legend in the making
Hahaha thanks man
Fire
thank you!
Is there a link to the Ableton no bullshit guide? I'm confused. Would be awesome if you had went over that a little
Hey! apologies for the lack of clarity.
You can watch it what I did here: ua-cam.com/video/zpQxZpC5K0c/v-deo.htmlsi=EB_J4e-PH8GAYIV7&t=126
If you still are unclear, do message me again and I'll make a guide.
could you do oli xl?
I'll add him to the list brother!
@@brokenenglishprod how does it feel to be da🐐
Can you make an ableton guide!
Like the ins and outs of Ableton or making a track like Mid Air Thief in Ableton?
To bo honest both would be an blessing. I like the way you explain things so an guide for ableton would be nice. But also a guide for making a track like Mid Air Thief in ableton would also be really nice@@brokenenglishprod
This video definitely isn’t MID !
Thanks brother.