Tips on starting tape label

[Sweatscreen]

What do folx make copies with is mostly my question. I've done some small batches via daisy chaining walkmens. I know there's a better way. How many of you have just done it with the high speed dubbing dual decks? That's kinda what im looking at to start. Lemme get them pro tips from low income tape maker.

[MKULTRA]

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[s.p.i.n.]

[crochambeau]

Expect to lose money, be happy if you don't.

[fire]

What do folx make copies with is mostly my question. I've done some small batches via daisy chaining walkmens. I know there's a better way. How many of you have just done it with the high speed dubbing dual decks? That's kinda what im looking at to start. Lemme get them pro tips from low income tape maker.

dubbing decks are fine if they are in good shape, really the quality of equipment/sound is up to you, how good do you need it to sound?

make some tapes, see if they sound good, bam

also, what MKULTRA said, very important

your label will end in disappointment

[JoeTheStache]

don't ever make more than 20 copies.

[FireAlarmPoet]

Expect to lose money, be happy if you don't.

This.

I'm going to try and condense most of my thoughts here into a rule of thumb: what equipment is best for you, aside from cost, is entirely dictated by how you present your label and how you want your releases to sound.
Personally I like having a dual deck with at least one recording level knob, CrO2/bias switch(es), mechanical buttons, hi-speed dub and some kind of noise reduction, preferably Dolby NR, and while this is a solid quality yet still diy route to take, it may not yield your desired aesthetic.
If you want the best quality tapes, in terms of sound, packaging, artwork, consistency and especially convenience, you'll likely have to suck it up and invest with NAC or some other tape duplication company.
From what you've described, it seems you're just starting out; I'd recommend seeking out a dual deck secondhand (fyi these are becoming increasingly harder to find, let alone ones without some sort of problem you'd have to fix) and experiment with doing limited runs. Joe's 20 copies figure is dead-on. This way you also get an idea of just how much work goes into running a label should you want to continue it/take it more seriously: this is infinitely valuable experience.

Good luck.

[¼ dead]

Join a forum like tapeheads.net. Search for topics related to questions you have. From there, figure out what it is you want from a tape deck, and how to service your own equipment, inside and out. That's the most important thing to do if you want to get into home taping long-term.

You only need a single deck. Just keep it clean and in good working order. Nobody knows who you are. You will be lucky if you sell 5 copies of anything, especially if you aren't interested in pimping yourself online as a full-time job. If it's really worth dubbing at all, it's worth the time (and the savings) to dub copies individually at normal speed. You can deal with dubbing 5, 10 or 20 copies at normal speed right now.

[xdugef]

How many of you have just done it with the high speed dubbing dual decks?

Hi speed dubbing is not really the best way to make copies if you are concerned about quality.

Using walkmans is probably fine but instead of daisy chaining I would buy an inexpensive distribution amp and connect each recorder to it. If you are daisychaining most likely the last deck in the chain will be receiving a degraded signal.

I use one of these for my dubbing setup.
https://www.amazon.com/TNP-Splitter-Com ... B071P6DF7P

41qUJ3iNh2L[1].jpg (28.42 KiB) Viewed 2231 times

[Sweatscreen]

Oh yeah im totally not planning on profiting off of this, im just interested in putting out compilations and stuff that my friends do/ collaborations. That signal splitter looked neat, im definitely interested in trying that out. I've repaired a few old reel to reels and im no stranger to tape techniques or tinkering. I was just making sure there wasnt some approach that was being overlooked. I've asked other forums, but figured a noise forum would be more familiar with the cheapest and most utilitarian approach. Thanks everyone for the input.
P.s. im stoked to find this site

[¼ dead]

I hope my post didn't sound dismissive. I just don't want someone getting ahead of themselves when talking about starting a noise (strike 1!) tape (strike 2!) label (strike 3, yer out!). But I will still say that a single, well-maintained deck is about as utilitarian as it gets, especially for occasional, small (under 50, ~c-60-length) tape batches. Dubbing single tapes at normal speed is slow and tedious, but you reap a lot of benefits, from the money and space saved, to avoiding all the QC and maintenance headaches of dubbing across multiple decks. For my money, I think the time spent dubbing single copies and tuning up and cleaning the deck in between dubs gives the best balance between utilitarian simplicity, affordability and relative consistency.

I don't want to discourage anybody from doing what they want to do here, though. A deck splitter is a cool device, and running even just two decks from one cuts dubbing times in half, which makes it a sensible enough investment while keeping the headaches of deck maintenance and consistency checks fairly low.