Four Track Cassette tape recorders!
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Cassette four track recorders, such as the Tascam Portastudio 414 mkII, are still a popular way to record music masters at home (or anywhere!) This is a multi-track tape recorder, which will record to one of four different channels or "tracks." After recording guitar, vocals, bass and drums to tape (with your own microphone) you have control over the volume of each track- or mix. Yamaha, Fostex, and Vestax all made their own versions of multi-track recorders, as well. I'm not sure there is a "best" one, but maybe there's one with a lot of features you like.
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Although they are popular for demos or songwriting ideas, in the right hands these machines can produce mixes suitable for widespread release. (Don't forget about the Tascam 424MKii....)
These are sophisticated multitrack devices. They allow you to record one track onto the tape, and then record 3 additional tracks as you monitor back the original track(s). You can do this one track at a time, or you can do it all at once. This allows you the ability to control the volume of each source you've recorded. So, if you record guitar and vocals at once, each to it's own track- you now have the ability to control the volume of each with the track volume faders.
Once you have all four tracks filled, and have mixed them to their approximate volume levels, there is a master volume fader which controls the overall output of the machine.
Here's a video demonstrating the concept, and giving some tutorial about how to basically use the machine. In the video, an acoustic guitar is recorded to tape using only a cascade ribbon mic. DBX is on and the tape used is a high bias type, Maxell XLII. Contrary to popular belief, condensers are not always needed to record acoustic guitar...
This unit features 2 suitable microphone preamps, they are fine- but not great. Better results can be had with newer, quieter preamps. It's important to note, however that the mic preamps on this machine are not phantom powered. So, it will work fine with newer ribbon mics(Cascade or Royer) and dynamic mics (like the shure sm57 or sm58) but it will not power a condenser mic(like the MXL 990 or v67G). To use a condenser mic with this unit, you'll need to use a preamp/mixer with a phantom power supply, or an inline phantom power supply.
Also, 2 band eq, which comes in handy. It also features 2 effect sends, which are available on each channel. So, you could hook up a delay and a reverb and then dial in as much(or as little) as you need.
This recorder also has DBX noise reduction as an option, which nearly eliminates tape hiss on the tracks. If you find it changes the feel of the tone, you can switch it off for future takes. One note about dbx on this machine, though. If it's on, it affects all 4 channels. So if you record a take and want to turn it off, you have to redo the take, or you'll be left with the weirdness of the dbx encoding on that track. If you continue to record, you'll have one track that has obvious "effect" and the rest will sound "normal."
My experience with this device is that it is a great tool for singer/songwriters, or small ensembles. This is a narrow track format, and I feel that four tracks on cassette tape at 3.5ips (inches per second) is right at the limit of "great sounding" fidelity (feel free to argue here). Eight track cassette machines cross the line into "acceptable sounding" fidelity(my opinion!) That's not to say I don't think they are worth using. I have heard compelling music come from these machines. I just prefer the four track fidelity for my work.
That said, I feel that using four tracks on this format requires some compromises for a large band. For example, guitar, bass and drums will occupy 3 tracks(or 4, if you give the kick drum it's own mic). Bouncing that to 1 or 2 tracks means you've lost the ability to mix the instruments independently with the vocals and you will have lost a bit of sound quality from the bounce...
Here's how to get all 4 tracks out of the 414 in one pass:
Less sophisticated versions of this type of machine also exist, such as the Tascam Porta 02 (I think it runs at 1 & 7/8 ips, which is really suited to bare-bones sketchpad-style demos. But the tapes are really handy to have stored for future listening if you've run out of ideas....
Enjoy your portastudio!
You can check out more of my music at www.frankolson.com
