Cassette Multitrack Recording

[HeematobicRAS]

First post after I joined this forum a couple moments ago...
I'm a rare breed nowadays, as most recording musicians are able to produce music that not all that long ago was a mere pipe dream.
The full throttle advancement in the home recording universe has pretty much put the nail in the coffin when it comes to cassette multitasking. But there is a now dwindling number of like minded people out there; people who simply refuse to ditch their 4 tracks & such, and I'm one of them...
I'm launching my very own "sanctuary" for these folks who've become more and more alone in this world of digital audio "perfection" I plan on returning to this forum regularly with updates as to how long before my site will be available, as well as leaving the door open for any other ideas or contributions until such time.
You're gonna love it.....hopefully!

 

[witzendoz]

I interviewed a guy on my radio show (I am mixing the cd launch as well), who recorded his latest album on a 4 track cassette from a hock shop, he could not remember the model lol, he loves the lofi sound and the simplicity, also sounds like it is a very basic model tascam.

http://flybynight.org/event/tim-underwood/

Alan

 

[Levelanything]

Couldn't remember the name? Blasphemy.

 

[witzendoz]

I got the feeling the model was not important

 

[Levelanything]

Lol, I'm going to listen to it later. I always find these kinds of stories interesting. I just joined this forum and would've done it sooner but I thought it was dead. Not many people here but it's better than I thought.

 

[witzendoz]

The old forum has gone as it was run by a member called Dr Who and he sadly passed away, it was back up for a while as a reference as tascamforums.co but thats gone now, this site is the new version.

 

[Levelanything]

Awesome. I've been recording and fixing Tascam 4-tracks for years and am obsessed with them. Happy to be here. Hope more people join up.

 

[Caveman]

Just read this I know it's late but I'm a huge fan of cassette recording. I owned and ran a commercial recording studio almost 20 years cutting edge.
Today I have a very small set up in a spare bedroom. Using a dp24sd along with a US 428, tascam 238 and two Yamaha 4 track cassette recorders. I use decent mic pres and mics.

The dp has a very clean sound but I prefer the 238 and the 4 tracks. Fast fun simple and the sound is very good. No, doesn't have the depth of wide rtr 16 2" or the softness but they still sound really good. Different than digital but in a good way.

When we were young we bought these machines and had a blast. The sound wasn't very good but looking back and comparing what we know now with all we didn't know then, I think it was lack of experience and knowledge along with good mics and pres that had more to do with the low quality sound back then. Other than a depth lacking which lacks with digital too, the cassette recordings I'm doing today sound a lot better than I ever dreamed they could sound. I'm actua

 

[SkywaveTDR]

Add me to the list if you wish. I have been repairing all kinds of these units through the years and while I worked at Teac and after. I have a couple of 246 units in my open list and have actually worked on a Fostex X28H. People send me all kinds of stuff. The one item to be aware of is the Tascam 238S. There are Dolby S units that are like the 122 Mk II and Mk III capstan motors with cheap and low grade SMD caps on the sub modules that are failing big time. Most likely due to the garbage Chinese caps they used. No one can find a Service manual for the 238S either. I fixed the 238S here except for the Dolby part- it works fine with Dolby turned off.

 

[John Mackenzie]

Skywave, I too believe in this platform for recording. I started out recording on two track Sony machine , with Sound on sound facility. when the first Tascam portastudios came on the market I was over the moon ! After a year or two, I had the opportunity to buy a used ( 6 month old) Tascam 688. I have recorded a lot of my music on it and still prefer it to my computer DAWS. I am trying to get it repaired at the moment. Making progress with real help from a member on here. I am glad this forum is still alive. Keep in touch my man .

 

[Stephen Jones]

I did a lot of recording back in the 1990s with a Fostex 4-track cassette "Multitracker." I have so many really good cassettes laying around, although I have lost some of the final stereo mixdowns.

I recently fixed up my Ric 360-12 that's had a broken tailpiece for many years, and wanted to get back into recording on the Fostex. Unfortunately after many moves the Fostex won't go into play. I can run it fast forward or rewind, but it doesn't do anything for play.

The good news though, is that it forced me to finally get around to buying a 32-track digital recorder that I have been drooling over for the last few years. (Tascam DP-32SD).

The main things I liked about the 4-track is the user-friendly ease of everything. In comparing the two, the Tascam digital has a lot cleaner sound, although the cassette still sounds great and is a bit warmer. I may be able to fix that once I learn how to use the EQ effectively. But that brings me to a good example of the 4-tracks ease of use: I found it a lot easier to turn the EQ knobs on each separate track and immediately hear the difference... without pouring over the manual and having a learning curve. With the Tascam its all software on a tiny screen, along with a single set of knobs. So far, when I play with the EQ I can't really tell much of a difference in the sound. So I am going to have to dig out my old home studio recording books as well as the Tascam manual to see if I can learn how to effectively use this. (for all I know, I could have been changing the EQ on a different channel -- I've had that happen on other features.)

Other difference in ease of use are with the location markers for Punch-In/Out and Auto-Record, ad well as Effects. These features were very easy on the Multitracker, but quite tricky on the 32SD. I am sure that is because of the flexibility and power of the Tascam, but it is much more complicated to do these things. And, so far the only effect that I have been able to actually use is one of the Noise Suppressors.

My project right now, besides creating a few new recordings, is to take a library full of great songs I recorded on cassettes with the Fostex, port them over to the Tascam and use them as a central core to add new (cleaner) tracks with better separation. I want to put together a CD for my family and friends for the holidays using some old Christmas/Chanukah tapes I made back in the 1990s.

I did something similar once before using some PC software. I took old Multitracker recordings of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Scarborough Fair, added some new tracks using the PC software, and they came out great. So I will just do the same using the Tascam.

I would really like to use an old 1" Reel-to-Reel, but I've heard they are in demand by some professionals and are extremely expensive.

 

[Stephen Jones]

John Mackenzie:

I got my start in home recording back when I was a teen in the 1960s and had a really good Stereo (Sony?) 1/4 " reel-to-reel recorder that had Sound-On-Sound. I created a lot of great recordings with that. The S-O-S is sort of like pseudo-multi-track. You can layer recordings on top of each other without erasing whats already underneath.

The biggest drawback was that there was a very small delay between each recording layer. So if you recorded one vocal over another, it would sound like you had a slight delay or echo going on.

But it was still a lot of fun and made really nice sounding recordings.

 

[John Mackenzie]

where do you host this "sanctuary" for tape enthusiasts. I would love to be part of it.

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I don't know where the sanctuary is but there are many websites that have people recording on tape and some of them are Porta Studio persons. I just finished working on a Fostex X28H and it was no pic nic. I have many of them to work on here from 246 to 424 and 488's.
They are not always easy to work on as I have to go and make me some extension cables but after that is is just cleaning contacts and dealing with the transports.