Readers Digest Beat tape

Neko Neko Readers digest

Available now for download in .wav, Flac and 320kbps MP3’s. There will be a limited CD release of this in the follow weeks and maybe even a special one off tape for the hardcore out there.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Gray

Background

Some time ago I picked up a readers digest box set titled “international hits” from a charity shop for a £1. It contains 9 records of utter shit middle of the road, lounge and easy listening crap. I guess the idea behind it is that each record is in a style from around the world. It’s god awful.

So some time passed and then I got an idea one day to try and make something listenable from this giant paperweight. The project was born. I set some rules about how I could do this.

The Rules

They are simple and aimed at limiting myself, in theory pushing me to be more creative with what I got.

1. Samples to be used only from the records in the boxset.

2. Drum breaks are allowed to be used from other records, seeing as there are none on the boxset ones.

3. Synths can be used to make basslines and sounds but no melodys or main parts of the song can be instrument based, only samples from the boxset.

4. There are equipment limitations mainly that only analog equipment can be used, apart from mastering in the computer.

The Equipment

Seeing as I could only use analog equipment and was working with samples this is what I used. Most is in the photo above.

MPC 2000XL

Sansui WS-X1 (6-track cassette recorder, 2-track mixdown deck and mixer)

Sansui MD-R7 (tape sync box)

Deltalab effectron II (delay)

Electro Harmonix memmory man (delay)

Yammaha MG 16/4 (mixer)

Roland Alpha Juno 2 (synth)

DIY built synth

Technics 1210’s

Patchbay

Vestex PMC 05 pro sl (mixer with built in sampler which got used)

Cables

Mic

Everything is recorded to the sansui 6 track on cassette and mixed on it too. It has two tape decks one is 6 track one is 2 track. Idea being you mixdown to the 2 track from the 6 track. The MPC is recorded Live in one take with no overdubs. In fact not much overdubing being done at all as can only use 6-tracks. I will post more about certain pieces of gear later on.

Why would I do this?

I don’t know it seemed like a fun thing to do, which it has been. Fun to make it and challenging to get around all the limitations. Literary have to make something from not much. Surprisingly simple to record and work. I suppose i wanted to get away from having a gazillion plugins or synths to play with. Might sound weird to some. Also wanted to get a more hands on or live approach to music making, not just clicking away with the mouse. In that respect it’s been dope to do. I suppose I wanted to see if I could work with these limitations and take music back to being about working with what you got and having fun with it.

The end result

The end result will be an album or long EP of tunes. Not sure about ow it will be released format wise, might do small run of CD’s if not most probably digital.