Use a Tape Machine's Vari-Speed to Get Glitchy, Pitch-Shifted Drums | Experimental Recording Techniques

In last week's installment of Experimental Recording Techniques, Noam Wallenberg of Chicago's Rax Trax Recording studio showed us how to get some grimy drum sounds with a contact mic, tape and tube saturation, and classic compressors pushed to their limits.

Now, Noam gives another way to bring character to a beat: using a tape machine's vari-speed function while overdubbing drum parts.

As Noam explains in the video above, this can be a tricky maneuver to execute. While the recording engineer changes the playback speed of a recorded drum track, the drummer has to follow, as best he can, while overdubbing new hits. When it works, the quick shifts in tempo and pitch add a glitchy, alien quality to the beat.

After getting the overdubs recorded to tape, you'll want to throw the recording into a DAW to select and sample only the best and strangest takes.

Be sure to check out our first Experimental Recording Techniques video in the banner below, and check back for future installments in the series.

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