The AE-240 Tape Library

Welcome to the analog time travel machine!  You can listen to all of our analog recordings here.

The possibility of 'overdubbing' preceded analog tape - Les Paul bounced from disc-to-disc - but analog tape expanded the sonic possibilities and inspired a new generation of artists, recording engineers and producers.

This class carries on the tradition of recording live, ensemble performances to get a feel for the direct-to-disc era.  We learn to edit tape and create effects like echo and flanging.  We both embrace the options of multittrack tape as well as learn to be creative within its limitations.  There's no pitch correction or grid editing except to 'do it over!!!

** Please Note:  Each of the Tape Machines Articles have the same fundamentals, but each was written specifically for the time period.  As the articles evolved

Enjoy the sound samples!
 

2004 ~ 2007 (prehistory)	2008	2009	2010	2011	Highlights
I Don't Know Why Fall 2004	Winter-2008	Winter-2009	Winter 2010	Winter 2011
For What It's Worth Spring 2005		Spring 2009	SPRING 2010	Spring 2011
Change is Gonna Come summer 2005		Early Fall'09	Early Fall 2010	Early Fall 2011
Centerpiece Summer 2006	Early Fall-2008	Fall 2009	Fall 2010	Fall 2011
Honey Pie Summer 2007

PREHISTORY
My first IPR class was in the Fall of 2004,  the AE-282 'lecture' was an early morning class in Lecture Hall-1.  Anyone who has been in LH-1 wishes it was still a studio and it didn't take too long for me to realize that vision.  But there was  no equipment in the control room at that time, so we commandeered Studio-2 to make the lecture hands-on, because experience is what students need most.  To paraphrase, 'Lecturing about Audio is like Dancing about Architecture.' 

In Spring of 2005, we collected a few bits and pieces into the control room and added a six michrophone lines to the studio (LH-1).  Our first recording was a version of Buffalo Springfield's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH.  The band was tracked live in LH-1 using a laptop, while the vocals were overdubbed in the control room.  In Summer 2005, our recording space expanded into the lounge area immediately outside LH-1 to capture live acoustic guitar and vocal, overdubbing drums in the rear of LH-1.  It's not perfect, but recording Sam Cooke's CHANGE IS GONNA COME opened up a new world - live reverb chambers were once essential to a studio's success and signature sound.

In the summer of 2006, IPR began to offer Summer Sessions, a two-week, 80-hour single class.  This time we recorded an entire Jazz Ensemble live.  Our very own Walter Chancellor played sax and Thomasina Petrus sang.  VIDEO CLIP

Up until 2005, Analog Recording was originally taught in Studio-7, where it provided an entry level experience with a Trident Series 80B analog console plus 2-track editing and multi-track mixing capabilities.   From there its evolution was considerably accelerated for the 2007 Summer Session.  Inspired by the release of the book RECORDING THE BEATLES, the Control Room of Lecture Hall-1 was filled with vintage gear - a 30-year-old 4-track tape machine, two vacuum tube mixers, vacuum tube signal processors and equalizers as well as vintage Altec 604 monitors driven by vaccum tube power amplifiers - the same monitoring rig at Abbey Road, where all of the Beatles recordings were made!  For this session, we simulataneously recorded both Analog and Digital.  Here is a crude video clip of the same band performing in the Green Room.

Since that time, AE-240 has been held exclusively in the Lecture Hall-1 control room and we have turned the classroom and the hallway upside down to accomodate various bands, from Rockabilly to Metal,  Psychedelic to Experimental.