Getting a warm low-fi sound

[deftones]

i must confess that i love john frusciantes first two albums.

many people probably find the prospect of him wailing at the top of his lungs unappealing but if you just listen through the rough stuff theres always something beautiful,which makes the albums much more satisfying to listen to, rather than a sterile and polished album.

ive never really recorded anything before and am considering buying a 4 track cassette recorder off ebay. (ive always been told that analog is nicer sounding)
id love to get a warm low fi sound like on his first two albums.

also i havent got a clue when it comes to microphones.:(

[knives490]

well a good preamp into the cassette recorder would help to get this sort of sound on a budget. if there were any way to get a tube EQ on your mic with a volume control so you dont always overload the cassette, that would be a pretty good start. it might be best to go with a nice condenser mic.

[deftones]

could you reccommend me some pre amps to check out?
i honestly dont have a clue about them either im completely new to recording.

ive looked at some but i dont know what features are worth paying for. some are modelling but for a few pounds more i can get a tube preamp. ive been looking at the the behringer range. but also theres some ART preamps which look quite good.

what exactly is it that will make it a low fi sounding recording? is it simply the fact ill be recording onto tape? or would the preamp make a large difference? or is it where you position the microphone in relation to the guitar amplifier?
sorry for all the questions :D

[knives490]

dont get the behringer ultragain. its not tube. its a lie, just an empty tube with amber leds on a timer so that it looks like they warm up.

i'm currently developing one for a close friend of mine, tube buffered in and out, controls for treble mids and the "brilliance" (prominence of bass in the signal, and rolls off some highs while retaining bass character)

all you really need is something to get the sound to go through a tube; an eq would be best so you can tailor the tone better.

its the pure warmth and tid bit of "crapiness" (but in the best way) that we all love to give it the lo-fi sound. recording to tape is the best part of it and the tube going into it helps so much more.

[deftones]

what if i was to buy this preamp
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop/flypage/product_id/3791

and then get a eq pedal and put that after it?

the only tube eq i can find is the electro harmonix one and thats over £100

[knives490]

that one was one that i thought looked pretty good. :)

mic>tube pre>EQ w/ volume control>tape recorder

[DAVIDCOUPE]

Run the headphone out of the tape recorder into the next channel and record it like that. Thanks Fuzzhead:)

[Tezifon]

someone have tried a ibanez lo-fi filter?

http://guitargeek.com/gearview/170/

[messy bedroom]

if you're going for lo-fi trying to find good gear is counter intuitive. I'm assuming you are referring to the Niandra lades and usually just a a t shirt album. Simply an SM58 into a cassette 4 track will do. The 4 track will do most of the lo fi work for you. The reason for is to due to how small the tape is physically mixed with the input level of the information you're recording.

Also if you cross feed your inputs and outputs you get a nice slap back echo. and if you have a tape speed control this now means you have echo control :) anyways in the end lo-fi is something you want to try to minimize even when recording lo fi intentionally because otherwise it will sound like crap and that your ripping off everyone cool from the 90's.

you'll most likely find that you wont have to try to hard to find a lofi sound that works for you.

Also refer to guided by voices (early years up until alien lanes) for good lo fi gems. if youre not already familiar.

[Fuzzhead]

Just get a 4-track, a dynamic mic (two if you're feeling frisky), and some XLR-to-1/4" adapters if your model of tape recorder doesn't have XLR inputs. If you wanna get a little nicer quality, you can get a little mixing board that'll offer you better preamps, more EQ control, more XLR ins, phantom power for condensers, etc. and just run the board into the 4-track.

And yes, Guided By Voices should be required listening for all owners of a cassette 4-track.

EDIT: To respond to your purchasing questions. Something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Tascam-Portastudio-414MKII-NEVER-USED_W0QQitemZ220365229749QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item220365229749&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A13 18|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 would be great. 4 tracks, all of which can be recorded on at once, and 2 XLR microphone inputs make things easy. For microphones, I'd say the best one to start with is a Shure SM57. It can pretty much mic anything with decent-to-great results. If you're looking for a second mic of a different variety, I'd choose a cheap (but good) condenser mic. Do a search here on these forums and I'm sure you'll get some good ideas. Keep in mind though that condenser mics need (external) phantom power, which would require buying a mic preamp/mixing board.