I was using my Tascam cassette recorder one weekend to play around with tape distortion and noticed that the machine’s motor and mechanics made a beautiful harmonious sound. So I recorded it thinking I would use it as a loop. After playing around with it, I loaded it into Kontakt and went down a rabbit hole that led me to create my first virtual instrument.

The instrument is made of three layers:
– the sound of the motor and mechanics of a cassette recorder.
– a breathy alto saxophone sample.
– the looped tail of the sound of a metallic kitchen table leg.

I’ve added 4 effects that you can blend in/out to give the pad some dimension:
tape saturation/plate reverb/delay/space

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! Let me know what you think and what could be improved 🙂

Contributors

Quentin Lachapèle

This instrument is the result of watching hours of priceless tutorials made by David Hilowitz and Stephen O’Connell on Youtube. I had some additional help and support from the amazing Alex at Nami Audio (@nami_audio); those layer faders would have never worked properly otherwise ;) I’m very grateful!

Nami Audio