TASCAM 388: Interviews with Joe Bailey and Jake Aylward (Punch Studios, Ipswich)
Recording wasn't on our agenda when we formed Jack Rundell and the Haunted New Builds. We wanted to keep things light and easy, and recording represented a heavy commitment. However, Ben Brown (HNBs' drummer) had other ideas. With eyes wide and fingers a-flutter, he described how he’d attended a Tascam 388 recording session at Punch and how great it was. He explained that the 388 was an all-in-one multi-track recorder, the first of its kind when it was released in 1985. It had a unique sound, he claimed, and was being rediscovered by many great recording artists (John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees was one; Mac Demarco was another; I later heard about Jack White using one). One of the best things, Ben enthused, was that you could bring the machine in the main room and everyone could be involved in making the record. Thus, you could do away with the awkward divide which you normally have in recording studios between the main recording room and the 'control room'. It did sound good, and Ben's enthusiasm was catching, so a recording session was arranged.
Tascam 388 with Jake's session notes
For me, a couple of scenes encapsulated the experience of the session. One was recording Ben’s spontaneous ‘body percussion’ (image below). It was so stupid that I don't think we'd have tried it in a normal studio-recording situation. However, with our set up it was easy to try out. And to everyone's surprise, it sounded great!
Another memorable scene occurred after I'd messed up a guitar part halfway through an otherwise perfect take. We were faced with starting all over, or ‘punching in’ to amend my wayward chord. Punching in would involve recording over we'd just done (and potentially making it worse). Jake, the engineer, would have to press ‘record’ and I'd have hit the right note at the same moment. Doubtful that we could improve on the first take, we decided give punching in a go. It was such a thrill went we pulled it off, and the celebration resembled the NASA control room after a successful moon landing.
I had been worried that being in a studio would drain the life out of the songs, that I’d feel stifled by the ticking clock, that I'd play and sing badly, and make bad decisions. I'd worried that everyone would get bored, realise they were wasting their time and wander off. In fact Ben and Tom did wander off at one point, on a photography expedition down Norwich Road, but they returned as enthusiastic as ever. And the session went swimmingly, all helped I think by recording the majority of the record playing live as a band, and bringing the Tascam into the main recording room.
As for the outcome, the actual recordings, I think they capture the atmosphere of the sessions, particularly on the title track ‘No Atmosphere (at my Party)’. At the end of the song, you can hear Ben laughing and some deadpan commentary from Joe (‘that was rad’). The honky-tonk piano on the guitar solo sounds fantastic, if I don’t say so myself, and makes me laugh every time. This was another spur-of-the moment idea that worked out surprisingly well.
After the session, I spoke to Joe who owns the studio and acquired the Tascam, and Jake, who engineered the session. I was interested to hear about how the 388 became part of the Punch studio arsenal and what it was like to record with from the engineering point of view, particularly compared to other approaches to recording.
Joe Bailey - studio owner
Jack Rundell: How did you acquire the Tascam 388 and why?
Joe Baily: I had read Tape Op magazine, which was a paper magazine which was sent for free from the States all about recording. They had an article in there, I can’t remember who it was with but they mentioned the 388, this cool machine. So I looked into it. It must have been about eight years ago or so, I just started searching here and there for a Tascam 388 and I found one on Gumtree in Brighton for £60. So a friend of mine Dominic Harrison and I went on a road trip to Brighton and we collected it from a chap who said he didn’t want it any more because it took up too much space and was too heavy. And it sort of worked. We took it back and just messed around with it for a little while. I spent £200 getting it serviced and fully workable, and just really enjoyed recording on it and finding out about artists who had used it. The first Black Key album... that was recorded on a 388. Some really cool stuff has been done on it.
JR: Was the Tascam 388 already a desirable item when you bought yours?
JB: I think since then it has really taken off. There’s loads of recording forums dedicated to the 388, especially on the Tape Op message board. There’s people who share repairs - what it looked like when they bought it and the ongoing repairs they’re doing on them. There’s a real community based around a tape recorder – which is very odd! £60 was a bargain because now they go for anything between £1000 - £2000… normally around the £1500 mark because they’re really sought after.
JR: Is it specifically the 388 model that people are interested in?
JB: Yeah! It’s quite unique because it’s eight tracks onto quarter-inch tape, which is quite thin, but it has the mixing desk on it as well, so it’s a one stop shop to record and mix. It had a lot more possibilities that some of the other home recording gear at the time. I think it was marketed a being semi-pro.
JR: Why were you interested in the 338 when you read about it in Tape-Op? Was there anything in particular that drew you to this unusual machine?
JB: Well, when I started recording, I was using cassettes – 4-track cassette machines. And to me it was a big version of that really, but with eight channels. And I just loved the way it looked… the 80s browness of it, and the faux-leather on it and the wood. I think it was part of my upbringing, recording without and computer. I remember saving up all my money from working at the Royal Hotel one summer, at £2 an hour, and spending nearly £300 on a Tascam or Fostex 4-track, when I was about 16. I just loved doing that. So I suppose it’s just carrying on the teenage romantic idea of recording and creating music naturally.
JR: Did you buy the 388 just for yourself, or did you have a vision of it fitting in your studio enterprise?
JB: Initially it was totally selfishly. I wanted to record onto it. But we wanted to offer it as something we could use within Punch to market and do something quite different. We recorded Horse Party to it – the two Horse Party albums – and they just sounded really cool. And then we didn’t use it for maybe two or three years, maybe even longer than that, just because there wasn’t the demand. But now there seems to a demand for turning off the screens because everyone’s on screens 24/7 whether it’s phones or computers. You do the same in the recording studio, you’ve got the screen and you’re looking at the waveforms… I think it’s just nice to have a period of time when you’re not looking at anything and you’re using your ears. We’re certainly trying to reintegrate it back into the recording set up as much as possible now.
JR: And as a musician yourself, what has your recording experience with it been like?
JB: The friend who picked it up with me, we recorded his band as a project, and it was so much fun from the recording side – the hands-on engineering. But I also recorded my band to it, and that was a fun experience. It’s really easy to use, and it just sounds cool. It does a funny thing with the drums and the bass and makes everything sit in nicely. It’s certainly got a vibe to it that you can’t get digitally. It’s also that hands-on creative process that you wouldn’t have if you were going through ProTools. You plonk it in the room, and it becomes a really expressive instrument in itself.
JR: Did you use the ‘bounce’ function, recording several tracks onto one to free up more?
JB: Most of the stuff we’ve done has been within the eight tracks. But I have done some bouncing around, and that’s always slightly scary. Because coming from a cassette background I think of all the tracks I’ve wiped in the past by mistake…
JR: I’m not sure there are many recording studios who have a Tascam 388. Do you think you’ll see more people wanting to use it in their recording sessions?
JB: Yeah – I think recording to tape is still considered very desirable. We used to have a 24 track 2-inch machine which was an amazing sounding piece of gear, but it was just so expensive. For the tape we were using, you’re looking at £350 for 15 minutes of tape, so you have to use the piece of tape over and over again, whereas for the 388 the tape is just under £30 – it’s more affordable. You’re not going to get your Abbey Road quality recording, because you’re not using the 2 inch tape, but you will get something that’s unique.
JR: Is a 338 recording session more expensive than a computer one?
JB: Only marginally because of the cost of the materials. But I think it’s a cost well worth paying – and it’s not that much more. And the session for the musicians and the engineers, once they understand the ins and out of working with the machine, is much more enjoyable. Absolutely more enjoyable.
JR: And potentially, it's cheaper because you tend to do things more quickly, so you spend less money on time making up for what you spend on the tape?
JB: I think that’s true. And you spend less time mixing because you have to make decisions as you go. So when the White Stripes recorded, most of their stuff was onto 8 tracks. Jack White likes to work on 8 tracks because you have to think about what is the product at the end. Where are the instruments and where are they going to be? I think they did end up recording to 16 or 24 tracks for the last album or two. But he didn’t like those recordings because he had too much freedom. With the limitation of 8 tracks you have to be really analytical in your creative thinking, if that makes sense. There’s a really good article on Jack White in Tape Op somewhere online about working with eight tracks as his preferred method. Otherwise you get onto your tenth take of a guitar solo, or you’re triple tracking everything, and you lose the vibe. It’s more of a photograph of what’s happening, capturing the moment, rather than something that’s been neatly edited and had special effects put on it.
Jake Aylward - recording engineer
Jack Rundell: How did you first encounter the Tascam 388 and what drew you to it?
Jake Aylward: Joe had told me about this machine that was like a mixing desk and a reel-to-reel recorder all in one. And I’d never seen one before in my life… I had no idea what it was. My first proper encounter was trying to get it down a staircase with Marcus [Neale] who works at the Smokehouse. We were extracting it from his loft where it wasn’t being used. It was gathering plenty of dusk. It almost killed us a few times because it’s the weight of a small car. It’s so heavy… so if you get one, just leave it where you have it. The thing that really drew me to it was that back in the day those things were like ten grand, and I just couldn’t believe it. And it’s a completely different way of recording I find. Because its just not a conventional thing. Whereas if you’re doing ProTools with a million tracks and endless possibilities, with the 388 you’ve got eight tracks and you’ve got to make those eight tracks count and it you don’t then you have to start again. There’s no delete button.
JR: But you mentioned you learned your trade recording digitally using ProTools. How does recording on the Tascam 388 compare to ProTools?
JA: From my experiences doing ProTools based sessions, the artists could be so sort of indecisive with their takes and you end up having folders and folders of random vocal takes, and a lot of them aren’t very good, but they’re there just in case you need them. And what I really like with the 388 is that it’s either the best take or no take, because you can’t store loads of takes backed up. You just have to do one and if you think that’s the best it’s going to be, then that’s the best take. You haven’t got to keep going over it a thousand times or storing them all up. So that’s mainly what I like about it, and how hands on it is.
JR: Do you enjoy recording in this way both as a musician and engineer?
JA: Definitely both. We recorded the first Bad Stone single, like studio release, on the 388, and we recorded that all live, with everything going all at once at maximum volume. We did so many takes to get the best one. And you’d just play the song, and if wasn’t very good, rewind the tape, do it again, rewind, do it again... Until it was really good. And when you’re really happy with it, you know you haven’t got to do it anymore. That’s what’s really cool - it forces you to be a better musician because there’s no two ways about it - just do it or don’t do it.
JR: Was your first experience of recording digital, rather than analogue?
JA: Yeah, I came from doing digital, computer recordings. It was all I knew. I’d heard of tape machines, I knew they were a thing, but I’d never used one for my own music, let alone in a professional setting. So the Bad Stone thing was the first proper time I was exposed to the world of tape recording.
JR: What was the learning process like while getting to grips with the Tascam 388 and how did it differ to previous recording methods you’ve used?
JA: One of the biggest differences was that you have to take the time to keep cleaning the machine - you’ve got to keep cleaning the tape heads after every few takes to make sure it doesn’t start sounding worse. Obviously with ProTools you haven’t got to do that. Yeah it does slow you down, but it also gives the musicians breaks from recording. Because I also find when you’re doing long-day ProTools sessions you start at ten in the morning and you pretty much go nonstop until the session ends. You don’t get any real time to take a moment, breathe, think about what you’re doing. So that’s what I do like about the tape stuff is it allows you to take a more laid back approach to it because you need to do all these menial tasks, like change a tape reel and stuff. I think it’s a nicer way of working.
JR: Did studying the manual make any difference?
JA: Oh yeah, that manual is great! It’s not like any manual I’ve ever read before. It’s almost sarcastic… It did teach me how to use the thing. It’s not complicated once you get going – it’s just getting used to a new way of doing something… new to me anyway. So it wasn’t too bad, and I think I learnt a lot doing the Haunted New Builds session.
JR: I thought it was fun because it seemed a bit like an experiment for everyone. I’m not sure we knew exactly how we wanted it to sound - we just wanted to try it. And I remember we did talk about whether to have the 388 in the room, rather than separate in the control room, and I think we decided that on that day.
JA: I remember that at first, we had it in the control room at Punch and then we realised we wanted that more personal, in-the-room feeling - everyone’s part of the band sort of thing. I think if we had done it with me sat in the control room it wouldn’t have had the same effect. Most sessions I do, you’re in the control room, the bands in the live room, and the only real interaction is over the talk back, shouting orders back and forth, and when they come back in to hear their takes. But with the Haunted New Builds session, the communication was so much more direct, I felt that really added to whole recording experience, for me anyway. And I really like working like that I’ve now found out. If I could do more sessions where I’m sat in the room I would.
Jack, are you forgetting that we recorded Let's Get Going and Death Clock on Tascam 388 at Old School Studios?
ReplyDeleteHaha! I didn't even realise! I do remember how we bounced everything on Death Clock and how that made it sound even better!
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