Cassettes, tape, future productions, and more from the late great John Cage.

I have always loved the sound of tape. The noise, the hiss, the warmth and distortion. Nothing sounds like it, and nothing can ever truly emulate it’s sound. The only way to get ‘that tape sound’ is to actually go to tape.

In the 1989 Dolby Labs released their best and final noise reduction platform, called Dolby-S. It enabled cassettes to sound as noise-free as a CD and was their last effort to help save the rapidly deterioration of the cassette market. Unfortunately it did nothing to save the cassette from falling prey to the CD, which boasted ‘perfect reproduction’ of music.

I find the distortion and compression introduced by tape when it is ‘hit hard’ (aka warmth) to be quite pleasing to the ear. Perhaps it is nostalgia for my youth when we listened to cassettes on our walkmen on the ride to school, or perhaps it is that tape introduces character to what is otherwise a cold and sterile sonic experience.

I have to admit, I am quite smitten with the way the Dolby-S deck sounds. So much so that it is the conerstone of my mastering process and I am employing it in an analog mastering chain for most future Io Records release. The signal path is approximately this: Computer -> 3 Head Mastering Cassette Deck (w/bias adjusted for maximum sonic warmth and sizzle) -> Orban 622b Dual Channel Analog EQ -> Orban 422 Analog Compressor & Limiter -> Computer. I bounce the tracks to and from the tape in the same pass so that the alignment of the tape doesn’t have time to drift. For releases I use brand new unused tapes to ensure maximum quality and sonic clarity.

In addition to utilizing cassettes for compression and distortion at the mastering stage, I have taken a particular fascination in people’s home recorded tapes. One could even call it an obsession. I have found cassettes and 7″ reels of tape that were recorded at various holidays and special events. At Christmas with their family, and others made at Thanksgiving, Birthdays. I’ve even found a cassette from the 1969 landing on the moon. Someone thought it was important, so they did an open-air recording of the TV broadcast. The commentary of the TV announcers, coupled with the people in the room, and the NASA broadcast in the background is amazing. Even though it is noisey, and mono, when I listen to it I feel like I am getting a look not only into the past, but also of this particular family’s life. It really is an amazing experience to listen to these recordings.

It may seem unbelievable, but people used to record almost every aspect of their daily life on cassette or on reel to reel. If you stop and think about it, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise. We do the same thing now with Twitter and Facebook. The medium (text vs audio) is different, and so is the media (reading vs listening), but the act of recording one’s daily personal experience is the same.

Some of the magnetic media is so old that there is little to no magnetic information left on them, and all that is left is the warbly hiss of the tape with ghosts of voices blurred out. Others items that I have unearthed from this auditory scavenger hunt are distorted church singers, families recording the children’s birtdays, and simple people recording messages for each other as audio letters. So many memories, found again, salvaged from a decaying medium.

It feels strange to listen to these intimate recordings, as they are live, one takes, of their real people’s lives. We are so used to listening to produced and arranged sounds that we forget how amazing the natural world really sounds. John Cage said in 1937 “Noise. When we ignore it, it can disturb us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.”  Take a listen to what John has to say here…

John Cage – On Sound and Music

The recordings, and their decaying imprints on the magnetic tapes have really inspired me to follow a new path with my productions, one based in noise, salvaged recordings, and utilizing old tapes to record new sounds to create new old sounds. The medium is both the messenger and the message. Not only capturing the past, but creating something in the now that is missing and forgotten. The warmth of noise and distortion.

As Mr Cage says, sound doesn’t need to be anything to be enjoyable, it simply is what it is and we are here to enjoy it. All the sounds around us, even the sound of clicking of the keys as I write this post is enjoyable. It doesn’t need to be music, or even musical to be enjoyed. Hiss, noise, warbly salvaged tape recordings. All beautiful things that people forget or associate with one specific time and place, but is not explored to any great extent any longer.

It is the same as how we enjoy color in the world. The light green color of the first grass of spring, or a cloudless starry night with the Belt of Orion shining brightly, so too can we enjoy the sound of the cars on the street, the blowing of the wind in a tree, or even the flushing of a toilet. Who are we to say what sound is good and what sound is bad. It should come as no surprise that Cage studied Buddhism and that it was this study that inspired him to introduce chance and randomness into his compositions, and the acceptance of ‘all sounds as good’ in his life.