Computerized overdrive?
 

I've been reading that it's possible to generate distortion on an old tape recorder by plugging a guitar into it.

I tried to come up with sort of a modern way of doing that becuz I read in the instruction manual of my Cakewalk Music Creator Pro 2 recording program that if the level hits redline, the sound will distort. Well, I put my mic directly up against the speaker and turned my amp up to full (no drive), hoping to get some sort of effect like the one described.

But no, just a really loud clean with an occasional crackling when played hard.

So does anybody have any ideas of how to come up with a modernized version of the tape recorder trick? Short of plugging the guitar directly into the computer (which would probably be a VERY bad idea), I can't think of anything.

I achieved something to this effect when doing exactly what you did.

It sounded like shit though. :[

If it's a nice enough recorder with an external mic-jack, you might be able to plug your guitar into it with an adapter, something like this:



Dunno what it's called, but it converts an instrument cable to headphone-jack size. Dunno if that would work with output, though, since it's made for input, and I know nothing about that stuff.

I have the adapter, but my recorder doesn't have a mic jack.

if you have a mixer by any chance, just put volume above 100 and turn the amp volume down. Works like a charm for me

That should work. I have one and I use it to run a keyboard through my guitar amp. It should work into a tape recorder, as well.

this isn't made just for input, you can put it anywhere you want you signal to go that has an 1/8th inch input or output.

you will find that distorting a digital recorder will only give you intermittent distortion not a solid wave of it. you can get a solid wave of it by putting a delay with the feedback at 100 percent on the channel you are using as an input, but i'm guessing you are going for something a bit different like the natural distotion you get when a gutiar amp is loud. plugging your guitar directly into your computer will do very little unless you have active pickups, passive pickups don't have enough to drive any real juice into the sound card.

It always seems to sound nast..can be interesting though..i use garage band.,

Ugh, I plugged my guitar directly into the computer today...the sound was completely lifeless, dull and clincal, though that could just be the shitty pickups in my Epiphone Les Paul.

Maybe if I tried with my Heartfield RR58 it'd sound better, becuz it's got Duncans.

I thought a "computerdrive" would sound cool, like a cross between the tape recorder overdrive and a bit reduction effect like some synths have, since it's digital.

Also, I blew out my one and only mic with the loud clean, but I should have expected that; it was a $19 Radio Shack deal meant for "public speaking", not blasting guitar amps.

i got one of those public speaking mics from rat shack, i love it.

the tape distortion works when you turn the volume of the tape player all the way up thus boosting the signal. you cant really achieve the same effect with just a computer, you might be able to get mediocore results by plugging your guitar into the computer boosting the signal and then outputting from the computer into an amp and you wont really get gritty distortion or anything like you would get from a pedal or something, just some clipping from the levels going into the red.

One of the dual cassette boom boxes I used to have had a line in & so I plugged my guitar in there, but the distortion wasn't anything too special. But one thing that was cool is that I put a cheap mic inside an acoustic & would play through this box & it sounded amazing with just the right amount of clarity & just he right amount of "damage". The box had a equalizer on it too, so that lended itself well to some experiments.

you wont get much effect just pluging a guitar into the line in, what your supposed to do is take off the tape head and solder on a jack and plug that in.

and using digital equipment you wont get near the same effect.

I don't know if this is the sound you are going for, but I posted an unfinished rough mix of one of my bands new songs (nothing to write home about) on my choutmusic myspace page ( link below) using the Danelectro French Toast octave distortion. It has a real cool synthetic like distortion sound.
Oh, and the Zvex Fuzz Factory has lots of cool video game like sounds.