Op-1 - Tape techniques to wear/mangle tape

Hi guys, does anyone have any tips to mess with the OP-1 tape playback to get that cassette worn sound? I’ve being able to mess with the play speed to get some irregular playback, but I can’t seem to actually record it??

Boards of Canada is prob the best reference for the textured playback I’d like to try.

I don’t just want to sample textures, I ideally want to degrade the overall playback of that makes sense.

Any tips or techniques that sound help me out?

Many thanks.

I get some good initial results with the bp filter (the one which looks like a driving arcade game) with lfo modulation, but to get proper wow & flutter I send the audio to DUST running on an Organelle, or to an actual 4 track recorder :slight_smile:

Yea… Put the tape at half speed and work at double tempo. 50% is plenty. Sometimes I do it at 25% and thats super filthy.

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Awesome, thanks. And is there any way to get an irregular playback to kind of break it up and actually record it?

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with Shift and mic you can use the EAR symbol to resample to tape.

this way you can record the nudging of the blue encoder, tape tricks or free up other tracks.

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u can also use album to bounce to and from

Had not thought of this, thank you!

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Hi @JohnnyEgo I tried this technique last night but it sounds like it is actually sampling it live from the mic with a heap of unwanted outside/white noise which kind of sounds awful and takes away the original recorded sound? Unless I’ve missed something major here? And idea?

you need to go into the mic menu (shift + mic), and then select the ear symbol (with the blue encoder).

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what @pfig said. :innocent:

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And then do what exactly? I still can’t seem to record it.

record onto a new track - hit mic to make sure it’s on (you’ll see the ear icon briefly, as opposed to x), and introduce “errors” with the encoder.

Thanks for getting back to me. But as I mentioned, I tried it and was able to record it, but it’s acting like a “live” sample and letting in a heap of white/unwanted noise as a result.

All I want to do is effect my recording with the playback speed (with the blue encoder).

Using the Ear while recording drastically effects the original recording WAY WAY too much to the point that the original gets completely drenched in live white noise out with the Ear sampling method. Does that make sense?

To be completely clear - effect the original recording with playback varying speed. Thats all.

Thanks to everyone who has offered some advice.

i use ear all the time

ear records thru the EQ, Master Drive and Compression.
are yours all set to be flat?
maybe your levels are too low?

i dunno i’ve never had any problems

anyway to do what u wanna do u could also record to album while u tweak or record to an outside source

Ahh ok, cool. Which levels do I need to check?

Anyone know what levels I should be looking into for the ear feature?

Sorry, I’m pretty new to the OP-1

set your EQ flat or close to.
turn down the master drive or set to taste
levels would be the tape tracks in the mixer
and the orange knob level on the tape screen.

hopefully your recorded takes are of a healthy level already

Thanks so much for the help!

So to resample I’m selecting “ear” and simply going into Tape and hitting record and tweaking the playback to achieve the randomness, is that the correct process?

Just didn’t want to be sure I’m doing it correctly aside from adjusting the levels.

Thanks again.

yes thats the jist.

ear will record the output to whatever tape track u have selected
so prob wanna choose an empty track if u got one

just mess around w/ it for yourself you’ll get the hang of it

You Can vary the recording speed with the blue encoder. That would give you the effect you asked for. Maybe you should first record to album then record the album playback with the blue encoder trick to tape.