A couple of friends of mine decided to transform their living room into a recording studio. Because they are poor like the rest of us, they opted for piecing the studio together using a variety of thrifted equipment, which they keep running via some combination of nearly lost information from Googled .pdf owner’s manuals and pure electronic geek ambition. It’s a colorful sight to see. And by tossing in the obligatory copy of Pro Tools, the timeline of musical fidelity they are able to recreate is remarkable. The studio may be new, but you’d never be able to tell from the range of sounds that come out of its Frankensteined guts. It’s everything that’s good about repurposing without any of the mechanical errors and questions of structural integrity.
So, I took my dual deck tape dubber over there. It’s been facing all of the issues I’d expected from a five-dollar Goodwill purchase. These guys, of course, ripped it open, took one long look at it, and twisted a few pieces with a knife because they couldn’t find their screwdriver before screwing the cover back on and blasting some of the most beautiful pure-tones that machine had probably ever made, previous owners included. It’s now back to work, dubbing tapes in reel time, and I have to say, it’s sounding great. Ya know, for a tape player.
• T.E.A.M.S.: http://teeeams.bandcamp.com
• AyGeeTee: http://aygeetee.bandcamp.com