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Nothing conjures up the vintage sound more than analogue tape. While the days of huge reel-to-reel multitracks have become the preserve of a few choice studios, ‘real’ tape delays are enjoying a renaissance, both hardware and software forms.
Dave Gale
MOBY
The popularity of sounds from vintage machines, like the tape-based Mellotron, continue to be exploited in a number of production circles. This beast of a machine was an early form of sampler, before sampling went digital. Playing a note on the Mellotron’s keyboard would activate a tape-rolling mechanism, where the recording of a chosen instrument would be replayed, in real-time, by tape! But even in contemporary live settings, there have been attempts by artists such as Nine Inch Nails to use cheap and cheery cassette-based 4-tracks, to replay pre-recorded chords, using the faders and pitch control to alter harmony. Thankfully, we can adopt a more pragmatic approach, but what do you do if you want that hint of vintage, but want to keep your sounds far more contemporary?
Dave Gale is an Emmy award-winning media composer, producer and orchestrator, with an enormous passion for synthesisers, in all their forms. His varied composing style embraces everything from full orchestral and hybrid scoring, to fully electronic scores, employing synths wherever possible. He also happens to own some of the finest synths in existence but we’re not jealous, OK?
PORCELAIN The opening chords typify the effect that we have attempted to make today, bit.ly/muse_explrrswith vintage colour and string-based amplitude swells. bit.ly/moby_porcelain