Fostex Archives Tapes

Back in the 90's I purchased a second hand four track tape recorder to make recordings of my guitar playing. There are many types of home recording four track such as the Tascam Portastudio and the Fostex Multitracker XR range. The Multitracker XR-3 was an interesting option at the time as the feature of bounce down (essentially a basic mix) of 3 tracks to 1 track which then enabled the use of the 3 tracks again to essentially give 7 track capability. This feature was a little bit fiddly and once committed to the bounce down you lost any adjustability to individual levels. However the system wasn't designed for perfect recordings but idea creation (or demo recording).

Multitracker XR-3 by Fostex

I used the XR-3 for many years as a way to quickly record guitar ideas and as my musical horizons spread from heavy metal guitar to electronic music creation the XR-3 stayed with me as a trusty way to capture the moment. Its small form factor meant band rehearsals and trips away weren't an issue and storage was convenient too. 

The recommended tape to use was the C-60/C-90 (type II/High position) TDK SA, Maxell XLII or equivalent - however due to limited funds sometimes the only option was to record using whatever tape was to hand - as such often when playing back there would be a track of high speed music pitched up as a result and often backwards - this all adds to the strange world of four track recording.

In recent times I mainly use my phone to record guitar ideas - which isn't ideal as voice memo doesn't allow multi track recording - however I always have my phone with me so its often convenient to record on it. To produce multi track recordings I will often use Garage Band on my Mac computer or a program such as Pro Tools or sometimes Audition. Both of these programs allow multi channel recording through a digital audio workstation (DAW). The Focusrite Scarlette 18i8 allows 8 devices to be connected to enable live recording. 

To preserve the recordings I have made over the years on the XR-3 I recently recorded the output of the XR-3 using the Scarlette 8i8 into ProTools and I'am now going through the recordings and mixing them to share online. I have currently completed 3 Archive Tape recordings and have many more. Here is a link to my Soundcloud account where I posted the archive recordings and who knows maybe some of the ideas will get a re-working using ProTools or even developed into new songs altogether in the future. 

Soundcloud - Sausisson Fas https://on.soundcloud.com/2L9RBLpabJPQvLFk8