Hey guys, picked up an OP-1 recently and I love it!
Just wondering if the tape speed is meant to emulate tape sound at all? Or when you lower the speed/ips, is it just lowering the bit rate and sample rate? I’ve been messing around with recording stuff at different tape speeds and it sounds very lo-fi at the lowest settings but not sure what it’s doing exactly.
Any tips for getting nice lo-fi sounds using the tape? Maybe resampling with fx at different tape speeds? A bit confused how to do that… would you have to keep going from tape to vinyl and back to tape?
Would be really cool if there were a few tape emulating parameters like tape hiss, wow and flutter, nice saturation if you recorded something hot 
i think the tape speed is more digital than emulating a "tape sound" it will get you lofi sounds tho for sure.
you don't always have to use album to resample your tape. altho u totally can and u will get the master fx and master compression/drive on your sound. (u can get some tapey saturation type sounds w/ the compression and drive, as well as some noise if u jack it up)
wow and flutter can be emulated w/ the blue knob on the tape screen, altho i don't think u can record this to the tape.
you can use the ear function and record from 1 tape track (or multiple tape tracks) to another tape track.
or you can record from tape (or lift and drop) to the drum or synth sampler and then record back onto tape. this is limited to 12 seconds for drum or 6 seconds for synth at a time.
w/ the op1 there is usually multiple ways to skin the cat, if u start thinking outside the box.
the tape is 44.1khz but it sounds like it runs interpolated so recording at say -24 will take the top off but still won’t sound too aliased. recording at -24 effectively samples at 11khz.
really depends on what you class as “lo-fi” - if you’re after warm noise and pops and crackle and non-linear distortion, it won’t give you that without effort. if digital lo-fi and aliasing and clicks is what you want - the drum sampler is there, aliasing and all.
i’d try tape > eq + drive > record from output to synth sampler (no aliasing) or drum sampler (aliasing) and mangle further
Thanks for the replies! I guessed that the tape speed was more of a digital thing, was just curious if TE claimed that it emulated tape sound at all. Still sounds pretty cool sampling stuff at 11khz and 22khz.
Will play around with the ear function and resampling from the output to the drum/synth samplers. Seems like there are plenty of ways to do things.
I meant lo-fi as in the kind of sounds you get from recording to cassettes in the red etc, rather than the digital kind of lo-fi. I guess the easiest way to get the sounds I’m after is to just bounce loops between the OP-1 and my tape machine.
yea nothing beats tape like tape!
To clarify: tape tricks can be recorded to tape, but not in the same way they are recorded to album. You can use the blue knob or tape stop or whatever when recording a single live signal such a a synth or drum pattern and the pitch and time effects will be captured. I used to do this a lot to detune panned sounds from one another before the fine tune feature was implemented. It’s still a cool way to get a more organic flavor than a static detune.
Can we get back the recorded material from album without a computer ?
I meant lo-fi as in the kind of sounds you get from recording to cassettes in the red etc, rather than the digital kind of lo-fi. I guess the easiest way to get the sounds I'm after is to just bounce loops between the OP-1 and my tape machine.
if you actually have a tape machine then it’s entirely weird you’d ask the question
recording into the red saturates the tape so you end up anywhere between compression and distortion, depending, also the added hiss, and overall magnetic non-linearity gives the recording colour that can only be matched with cpu-intensive modelling. add noise-reduction systems which smear the sound a little upon record and a little more upon playback… easy. (not)
i’d say “drive” - short release settings get you a slightly warmer/distorted sound at the expense of added noise, but in no way will the op1 match tape tape.
if you actually have a tape machine then it’s entirely weird you’d ask the question
I was just wondering if the 4-track was supposed to emulate tape saturation/colour etc, like many tape plug-ins do very well, since it uses the term “ips” and degrades the sound. I also like to use my OP-1 standalone and am not next to a tape machine most of the time I’m using it
Thanks for all the tips, getting lots of cool sounds resampling in different ways!
I was just wondering if the 4-track was supposed to emulate tape saturation/colour etc
Lower tape speed = fewer magnetic particles to rearrange. in that regard it's reasonably similar, except tape has much higher "sampling rate" to work with (millions of particles per inch per second), but also a complex relationship between content (frequency), headroom, and noise. It's not the same and it doesn't have to be, since it's mostly academic. Totally get what you're saying regarding using the OP1 standalone. I don't let mine near a cable other than usb yet.
Can we get back the recorded material from album without a computer ?
There is a way to get the album audio back onto tape, if thats what you are asking.
You need to set the audio-in to the EAR. This is located in the little Mic Button.
Then play the album and record a track on the tape.
Can we get back the recorded material from album without a computer ?There is a way to get the album audio back onto tape, if thats what you are asking.You need to set the audio-in to the EAR. This is located in the little Mic Button.Then play the album and record a track on the tape.
Thanks. Tedious as it is another record style trick, but never thought of this.