So last week I went out and bought a Tascam Portastudio 4 track tape deck. Yes, I actually spent $60 on a old piece of recording equipment you can barely buy media for. It's in really nice shape, actually, after wiping off some mysterious gunk that it came with. I got it to experiment with some lofi/ambient sounds in my music, in no small part inspired by AMULETS, and so far it's really cool. I could potentially use it as a one-stop studio for analog recording too, assuming I learn how to use it that way. Coming from always having used a DAW, it makes me appreciate the trials and tribulations our ancestors in music went through. I've also been having a ton of fun poking around with electronics. I made a variation of the Atari Punk Console that has an eight-step sequencer via 4017 chip, and all the variable resistors are photoresistors, so it works like a kind of light theremin. I have all the stuff to start etching my own circuit boards, but I haven't tried one yet. I'm also beginning to get a grip on understanding 555 timers and OP amps. I think I'll be doing lots of soldering in 2018.
Oh hey, I own that exact 4 track too. It's what I recorded most of my first 2 EPs on, and I still get some use out of it these days. There's a good YouTube channel called something like "Recording 424", I'll dig it up after work. Has some good tutorials for using this particular doohickey.