Tape In Your Computer: The Making Of ModeAudio’s Analog Tape Drums Vol. 2

When it came to following up one of ModeAudio’s best-loved drum sample packs to date, they decided there was only one way to improve on the original - smack their way through as many actual drums as they could lay their hands on!

Pairing meticulous, multi-mic recordings of real drum kits and cymbals with their newly acquired but instantly adored vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder proved a match made in heaven - the result, Analog Tape Drums Vol. 2 is out now on Splice and to celebrate, let’s peer behind the curtain and find out more about how the pack was made.

The concept was to sample lots of different acoustic drums and cymbals to provide a wide range of authentic, real-world drum flavours for beatmaking of all varieties - to this end, the ModeAudio team contacted the local drum shop and were able to record numerous kicks, snares and toms, as well as getting their hands on world-class cymbal sets to bring back to the studio for sampling.

To kick things off though, ModeAudio head honcho Niall McCallum headed straight to the throne of his very own drum kit as shown in the video above, using a mix of direct and overhead mics to capture a true stereo image of each instrument.

Carefully tuning and subtle damping went alongside tried and tested mic placement to record a rich, lively sound, which was sent first into the computer for mixing and editing. Yamaha rack and floor toms, Gretsch and Tama snare drums, gorgeous Zildjian rides and Sabian crash cymbals - many brands and beautiful pieces of kit were selected and lovingly struck for hours on end, a fun job for a certified drum fanatic!

Next up in the process was to send all of those carefully captured and edited samples into the tape machine - cue footage of those hypnotic reels revolving round and round, passing the delicate thread of magnetic tape from one spool to the other and instantly imbuing each sound with that irresistible presence and warm mid-range that the medium is still regarded and loved for to this day.

ModeAudio were careful to run the sounds into their vintage Akai 1720W reel-to-reel at sensible levels, though with some of the louder or spectrally fuller sounds pushing those delightfully worn VU meter needles just into the red for some added analog crunch.

The last step in bringing you Analog Tape Drums Vol. 2 was of course to get the sounds back into the computer once more, for easy and instant dragging into your DAW - after editing the resulting recordings for a second time plus some labelling for identification purposes, the final selection of 271 tape-kissed samples was complete at last.

As a bonus, the ModeAudio team even worked up a couple of tape hiss loops to lay just beneath your beats in the mix, for an instant hit of purest aural nostalgia. If you’re looking for crunchy, vibrant drum sounds with real depth and layers of genuine analog character, then look no further than ModeAudio’s latest release on Splice, Analog Tape Drums Vol. 2!