Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures the Open Reel Ensemble, a group that does DJ-style performance mixing, performing live.

via garudagroove:

Open Reel Ensemble (ver.1.6) are :

Ei Wada
Kimitoshi Sato
Haruka Yoshida
Keitaro Kuno

?recording and playback
?algorithmical switching and scratching
?the solenoid’s direct (physical) effects
?controlled by numpad and iPhone
?motion loop

This video demos the Tapehead Inspector – a sort of tangible sampler. 

Here’s the background on it, via Roy Mohan Shearer:

Inspired by the reversal of the name of a musical trio that I play in with Chris Croasdale and Mr. Jonnie Common. We’re really into tapes, and as Chris’ birthday was coming up Jonnie and I decided to make him a wee instrument: A manual tape player, ie. one in which the player can directly control the movement of the tapehead against the audio tape.

Simply a hack of the increasingly hard-to-source cassette walkman, I took out all the mechanics, hard-wired the tape circuit to ‘on’, lengthened the cable to the tapehead and housed the whole thing in a videotape casing. Jonnie built the instrument case/playing surface and then we made up a few audio tape ’slides’ by recording some of Jonnie’s choice vinyl to tape and getting crafty with scissors and sticky tape! I am abridging greatly for brevity here – I maimed one walkman making the whole thing work and the overall instrument design was chewed over a few times over cups of tea at Jonnie’s house. We’re pretty pleased with the results and hope Chris enjoys inspecting his tapes!

Looks like this would be fairly easy to recreate – and an interesting, tactile way to manipulate sound. 

These tapes include seminal works in synthesis from the mid-60s to the late 70s, such as works from Herb Deutsch, Wendy Carlos, Larry Fast, Isao Tomita, Keith Emerson, Roger Powell, Chris Swansen, John Weiss, David Borden, Joel Chadabe, John Eaton and many, many more.

The $8,000.00 grant provides for the assessment of the tape’s condition by a team of experts including an archivist, a preservationist (responsible for digital transfer), a historian and a copyright expert. The assessment team includes archivist Steve Weiss, Sound and Image Librarian for UNC-CH, preservationist Seva David Ball, recording engineer/mastering engineer, Soundcurrent Mastering, historian Douglas Babb, Curator for the Bob Moog Foundation, and intellectual property attorney Steven Schnedler. Michelle Moog-Koussa will be coordinating the project.

Once the assessment is completed, the foundation will have the opportunity to apply for a $20,000-$40,000 preservation grant to set about preserving the tapes in a digital format, so that they can be shared through the Foundation website, traveling exhibits and eventual Bob Moog Museum.

Image: Bob Moog’s analog tape machine

The process documented is vintage, old-school tape process. The gear is original. The vinyl is live cut.

It’s an interesting and timely set of videos:

Mission of Burma- Burma Reissue Mastering Sessions Part 1

Mission of Burma- Burma Reissue Mastering Sessions Part 2

Mission of Burma- Burma Reissue Mastering Sessions Part 3

Mission of Burma- Burma Reissue Mastering Sessions Part 4

DUY DaD Tape was originally developed for TDM in the mid-90s to satisfy the needs of digital recording technology, and escape the “cold digital recording media”. To achieve the desired results, four of the most representative tape machines in the market were physically modelled.

DUY also simulated three of the most common noise reduction systems, and even added a proprietary noiseless-tape mode. All these features are integrated into DUY DaD Tape, along with a switch that allows to switch between tape speeds. The plug-in has become a standard when it gets to delivering an analog tape character to a final mix or a section.

DaD Tape’s features:

• Real analog tape sound, with classic warmth, within the digital domain, and with characteristics and control impossible to achieve in conventional tape recorders
• Modelling of the four most representative tape recorders on the market: an old vintage machine with valve circuitry, a transistor-based machine of the late 60’s, an operational amplifier-based machine of the 70’s and a machine of the latest generation
• Simulation of the three most common noise reduction systems, plus a proprietary noiseless-tape mode
• Switchable tape speed (7 1/2 ips – 15 ips – 30 ips) allows maximum control and even permits unusual combinations of tape recorders and speeds
• Easy and intuitive user interface

DaD Tape Applications:

• DaD Tape rounds off peak transients and adds warmth to electronic and acoustic instruments, either individually or by sections or sub-mixes
• Especially suitable for percussive sounds
• Mastering of complete mixes

Pricing and availability:

DUY DaD Tape for RTAS, AU, VST and MAS is shipping now, and is priced at 299 EUR.

DUY offers a special price of 239 EUR for registered users of EverPack 2.5 & 3, Magic Spectrum 1.0 or MagicEQ LE 1.0.

This native version of DUY DaD Tape can also be purchased as any of the multiple native bundles containing it.

System requirements & authorization:

Mac OSX 10.3.9 or higher is required. The software can be authorized on an iLok via ilok.com, or onto the hard disk using standard disk-based authorization.