what;s a good cheap one? i wanna get that vintage 60s psych sound especially with the reversed tape experimentation stuff

Shit Outta Luck, No Such Animal.

You'll have a much easier time finding an eight-track deck or a two-track deck. And the tape is not cheap.

That being said, a friend of mine had one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-Tascam-tsr-8-8-track-recorder-w-box-and-tapes-les-than-15-hours-NR-/110749674092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c931ea6c and it sounded pretty good?

You will need a mixer, too, and one that is appropriately configured I/O wise for tape. A used Soundcraft would probably serve nicely and has good EQ, can be found on the cheap. Remember you need inputs going to tape and coming back, and not all boards, even older boards, will have tape returns.

It's a neat sound and a rewarding way to work. You will learn a lot about recording. It doesn't resemble working with a mouse and a screen at all.

The tape itself is only one component of that sound, though. Mic choices, placement, workflow, committing to sounds on the way in, etc. all play a big part. That being said, I am not going to discourage anyone from going down that path. It is a labor of love if you're the right kind of nerd for it.

On the cheap, I would probably go Tascam for the recorder. Parts should be available if need be more so than Fostex or Akai and they are generally sturdy machines. Really, beyond those three, you're talking professional gear and professional prices, the sort of things that if you see on the cheap, they are broken and need a serious tech to repair. Check out the forums at homerecording.com, electricalaudio.com, tapeop.com to start. There are more, but it's late and I am tired. But I suspect the Tascam decks of being your best option.

You can do it on the computer. Big parts of it, like I said, though, are all the other choices you make. You can make the computer sound like tape and a big old board if you have a reasonably manly machine and run a good tape and console emulator on everything. You can fake it pretty good. Tape forces you into a certain workflow and methodology, though, and makes you work in a very hands-on way that you will learn from and be able to apply to digital recording. I suppose it depends on your learning style, but there's a lot to be said, I think, for the actual physical patching and routing that goes on with real hardware. The gain staging of things, too.

for teh cheaps, get a cassette 4 track. You can apply speed fuckery and flip tape etc..... for reverse fuckery. Always fun is reverse the tape apply an effect , bounce it down then flip tape back over again....

Matter of fact I still have one of those cheap 4 tracks in our classifieds I think. I know I have one kicking about the house.

Shit sounds intense, but worth it. What exactly is different about tape, as far as sound etc.? I will check out all of that, if I get the money I'd have to learn how to do all of this. Any recommendations for a free vst tape simulator? I've been using TB Ferox but I don't really know what I'm doing. On a related note, in this video, there is a guy with what looks like a reel to reel at about 1:15. What exactly is he doing, and what is it? Very cool. There is also reverse guitar at around 2:40, how the fuck did they do that live? Does it have something to do with whatever that guy is holding? that performance is fucking sick.

yeah he is definitely using a tape that was reversed and playing it. I don't think I've seen someone in a band actually playing tape recorder.

well, that's very cool. I would like to do that with my band, once I get one.

yeah is that what's going on at 2:06? Live reel-to-reel player?

The reel-to-reel appears to just be set up to play some prepared ambient/noise sort of sound or loop(sounds like cats meowing actually). He seems to just be controlling the speed and direction of the noise, it is down in the mix, but you can hear it when he makes abrupt changes.

There are delay pedals that will do pseudo/live reverse though. The TC Electronics Flashback is a recent one that seems to do it nicely.

Yeah I've heard of those, I was thinking of a Strymon Timeline to do that shit and other stuff when I got the money. Is there a delay though? Like I want it to playback my guitar just in reverse with no delay or repeats or dry signal, can I do that?

If you just want reverse guitar clean and other such noises get an Eventide rack unit.