Dictaphone Orchestra
Instruments recorded direct to microcassette. Includes trumpet, violin, clarinet, kalimba, toy piano and rajao.
ByJames
The story
Some time ago I became interested in ambient music and particularly dawless music. However I completely failed to produce anything of any interest and much prefer the ease of sample libraries and acoustic instruments where I don’t have to faff with tape and noise. I never found a suitable microcassette tape emulator and decided to record a few things myself.
Included instrument: trumpet, violin bows and plucks, clarinet, kalimba, toy piano and rajao (5 string portuguese ukulele).
I’m not entirely convinced I’ll find any of this useful in the near future though, so hopefully someone else will.
Interface
Reviews
Great for Lofi
This is a great pack for lofi. The dictaphone gives this a very unique old and vintage charecter.
There's so much to work with here
There has been a growth in "tape instruments" in recent years, and this sample set demonstrates why there is such an appeal to the medium.
It boggles my mind that there are 7 dictaphone-sampled instruments in this pack. Each instrument covers an interesting gamut; in addition to being recorded on a dictaphone, each instrument has then been re-pitched and stretched beyond recognition at the extreme ends of the keyboard. Given the reason for the initial draw of "tape instruments" being a sound that is similar to, yet distinct from the source instrument, I find this wild stretching to be a very good thing.
In some ranges, many of the instruments can start to sound like one of the other instruments in this pack, but move a little further along the keyboard, and new timbres and characters quickly emerge.
I can easily see myself using these instruments, particularly as a pad, or doubling a more traditional instrument to add some texture and interest.