I feel exactly the same. Guess it's why I also love comic books and old computer games too. I like my art stylised, the medium used doesn't matter too much to me, but in general it just seems that people get carried away with the polish when working ITB so I started to gravitate towards cassettes. Haven't actually done much recording at all as of late though . . . Need to sort myself out and get to it!!

Anybody ever used this BAD BOY!!! Sorry I didn't have a better pic handy whenever the beautifull LEDs are lit and hitting the red !!!

Unless I'm mistaken or misunderstanding your question, most of the ones I've worked with will do that: Tascam 414, 424, 246, etc.

I know this is an old thread but....RIGHT ON famous beagle Im with you all the way my friend

Right Beagle, In my experience with all the cassette 4TKS I have/had anyhow only have a erase head and a rec/playback head combo

Yamaha MT2X? Did some great rock recordings on those in the 80s: Hire a console and mics to add to the SM57 and Radio Shack PZM we had, get live drums and bass to 2 tracks. Then the guitarist would take it home and put 2 rhythm tracks on the remainder with Marshall stack in the shower. We'd then mix that to stereo Hi Fi VHS, back on to the four track, then lead vocals/lead guitar on one track, lastly backing vocals on the last track, mix again with an SPX-90 and you've got a pretty good result.
Good times!

YES INDEED , thought I was the only one that did that kind of stuff

Tascam 144 portastudio, 244 portastudio and the porta one ministudio!
They were heavly used in my life time, still have the 244 and it's still serving me well! Want another 144 and port one!

Just busted out my tascam porta one (to see if it was still working) it does. Nice vu meters.....come on. Maybe I'll try to make music on it . It's kinda refreshing to no see a waveforn.....nothing to look at ....just feel...

246 cannot do this, and i highly doubt the 414 or 424 can either

Just knabbed me a flawless 424 mkII off Craigslist yesterday for $20. Couldn't be more happier!

I worked very much same way with an MT1X - the effect buss was a game changer - and of course, VHS Hi-Fi.

Hi !
I sold my tascam 644 many years ago but i still have my compositions on K7 4 (track) ... but i cannot listen what i have done, because of the speed pitch & the K7 have been recorded on the 2 sides !
So i need something for listen my composition but to the lesser cost !
Do you have any idea ?
Thanks

Hi,

I came across this thread, and I'm new to using cassette recorders. I just bought a 424 mkiii off ebay, and would love to use it to record onto tape and export into logic for mixing.

I'm thinking of running drums and bass (If not everything) through the 4 track into my DAW, but am wondering what the best way to do this will be. I currently have an M-Audio Mobile Pre that I use as an interface which only has 2 inputs. My plan is to use two mics and send the direct outs from tracks 1&2 into Channel 1 for my "drum track" with a two rca - 1/4 cable then run half of another two rca --> 1/4 cable out of input 3 on the tascam to input 2 on my interface for bass.

Will this send the track saturation from the tascam into my interface, and will I run into any problems using one half of an rca to 1/4 cable for the bass?

My whole goal is just to record on the 4 track, but add effects like reverb in logic to each individual track.

THANKS!

I'm note sure I understand what you're trying to do here. Are you wanting to record to the Tascam first and then transfer it over to your DAW, or are you wanting to have it transferred as you're recording it?

I would love to record everything on my Tascam and export individually, but I've read that due to varying playback speeds that wouldn't be possible to export different tracks separately.

So Ideally I'd like to transfer it as I'm recording it to get that analog warmth on my logic tracks. (And so I can capture my two tracks of drums & my other bass track all on my two input interface at once by using the tascam)

So you're using a cassette recorder to...NOT use the cassette recorder.

You do realize that the saturation you talk about above is usually what people call tape compression, right ? Or do you really mean something else and i'm all confused ?

There is no tape compression if you don't record to tape...

Playback speed won't vary too much, i think. Why don't you simply give it a try ?

Having said all this, and at the risk of getting beaten to death by fanatics, big expensive tape machines can sound ok but cassettes were and are just shit. As for the preamps etc in these Portastudios, i don't think there is any benefit to using them over say, an ART Tube MP, for example. It's just a cheap analogue mixer.
Is there really a point to any of this ? I'm simply not sure.

Just like anyone else who was poor back in the day, i owned a 4 track cassette because i couldn't afford better. I then owned the 8 track version of the same machine because i couldn't afford better. And then i got a 16 track digital because it was a freakin great improvement. And then i got the 24 version of that because it was better.
Let's all dump the Audis for Ford Ts, shall we ? WTF.

Thanks for the reply. I would be recording on the Tascam while playing. I just want to know if what is sent through the output is "post tape" or if it just sends the input signal through the machine without giving it that compression.

I would also essentially be using the mixer on the tascam to capture 3 tracks Drum mic 1, drum mic 2, and the bass line in and send my drum mix into my interface input 1 and the bass into interface 2 so that I could capture more

I get your question now.
It cannot be post tape since you are not playing the tape, what you hear on your outputs is what is going IN to your machine, not what is coming from the tape. The only way to hear what is on the tape is to press PLAY. Proof of this is that the hiss levels are very different pre & post.

So if you're looking for tape compression, then lay down the drums, rewind, hit play and record them out to your PC interface. Then start over for the bass.
To get decent compression you will of course have to make sure your levels are quite high, i guess you know that but just checking.

If you can, check out the ART Tube MP preamp : extremely cheap, and i've heard it can be great with a good quality replacement tube. I recorded my bass with it onto my Roland VS-1680 and it sounded pretty good IMO. Very warm, and you get a tad of compression too.

Awesome. That's the answer I was looking for.

The only problem that I've seen written about on other forums is that the playback is going to have slight variations (and phasing) if you're sending multiple separate takes due to the tape speed.

So essentially you can export a whole mix to your interface but sending individual tracks on separate playbacks becomes difficult.

Also, I do have two of those art MP's and they work great! Planning on using it with a condenser mic placed a couple feet in front of the kit and an sm57 for the snare/high hat!

My main problem is I don't see a way that I can record on my tascam and add effects on the individual tracks without buying an interface with more inputs or buying more gear to send things like reverb into the tascam..

I'm a huge recording newb though..

I've never done that exercise of exporting individual tape tracks to another format, but i wouldn't expect huge problems with a bass vs drums. You can align phase in your DAW by syncing tracks and there are even plugins that do that for you (and make a huge difference to a mix). Of course, phase will vary along the way since speed varies but since the bass is in the low frequencies i don't think you will have a bad enough result to worry about it. Just my opinion, as i said i'm a noob too when it comes to that specific exercise.

Sorry, I forgot about this thread. Ok, so I think I understand now that you have a 2-channel interface, and therefore you can't send all four tracks to your computer at once individually.

Another option, besides buying an interface with more channels, is to sync your DAW to your 424. This can be done with a device like this:

JL Cooper PPS 1 Never Used MIDI Tape Synch Box Vintage Synth Drum Machine | eBay

This isn't a horrible price, but I think I got mine for around $35 or so.

Basically, you use this device to "stripe" track 4 on the 424 with MIDI time code. Then you use a MIDI cable to connect the sync box to your computer and an audio cable to connect your 424 and sync box. This way, the computer will "chase" your 424.

The bad news is that you lose one of your 424's tracks for the time code. But, you can keep recording to those three open tracks and bouncing them over (individually or in groups of two) to your computer as many times as you want, because the computer will stay in sync with the 424.

I know that if you're running MIDI tracks on your computer, they will stay in perfect sync with the 424. I'm not positive about the tracks that you've already bounced over to the CPU. Like you said, tapes never play back at exactly the same speed, so there may a little bit of drift compared to the bounced tracks on the CPU. However, it's a fairly simple procedure to time stretch them once in the CPU so they align. I've done so before but just stretching the necessary track so that the first and last notes align with the other tracks, and it sounded great.

In fact, you can hear the result of this process here. This song was done on my 414 mkii. I did this without using a sync box, very similarly to what you've asked about. I actually had an 8-channel interface, but the 414 didn't have direct outs, so I could only transfer two tracks at a time. Here was the process:

1. I recorded all 4-tracks on the 414, and that was the complete song.
2. I bounced tracks 1 and 2 to the DAW with effects.
3. I bounced tracks 3 and 4 to the DAW with effects.
4. In the DAW, I time-stretched tracks 3 and 4 to align with tracks 1 and 2.
5. I added some EQ and slight compression in the DAW to create the final mix.

Not to continue bumping the thread but my old Tascam 688 has built in MIDI Sync (stripe the 8th track leaving 7 free).
Also has tape outs for sending all 8 tracks after recording.
And has live outs for sending all 8 tracks while recording.
You can even just use it as a 20 input mixer with 8 separate outs running straight into a DAW (This is what I do now)
It also has a TRS jack on every channel for outboard effects patching.
It even lets you record routing presets and back them all up to tape if you want.
And has enough routing capabilities that you can avoid latency when laying down more tracks.

What I do now, mostly, is just use it as a mixer (10 line + 10 mic) running into a MAXI Studio ISIS (8 inputs of very clean 20bit Burr Brown goodness)
The ISIS has a built in 36MB Synth/Sampler and accepts MIDI in/out/through and is connected to my near-fields via optical.
All running on an old Pentium III with Windows ME. (Yes, I then dump everything to a more modern PC for adding better VST instruments and for effects/mixing/etc)

It's ugly as hell check
It sounds lo-fi check
It's overpriced check

Must have one.

Still got one of these from back in the day. I used to record direct into it with $20 dynamics. Never knew what a preamp was. Actually, mine was the 414 mkii. Not the 424.

Yes, digital replaced those long ago. What about the sound quality - the run at double speed and used only Cr cassettes. Did it manage to bring the sound closer to ORT or it was more of an amateur thing?

Sounds intriguing? What was the real issue with 234 so you didn't use it? Any chance it may be lying around so I can purchase it?