Tascam Porta02mkII 4-Track MiniStudio

[def_linus]

hello.

i've been having problems with this machine.
i borrowed it from a friend of mine (who also doesnt know how to work the damn thing) and just gave me the machine. i hooked it up and tried recording a few things, and they came out okay i guess.

the problem is, i dont know how to hook it up to a stereo. i have a stereo, and i connect both my speakers to the recorder, but i can only hear out of one speaker and its so low, i can barely hear it.
Also, i tried recording multiple tracks - i recorder piano - bass - guitar and drums on seperate tracks. and i can hear all of them when i play it back on the recorder, except when i put the cassette in a regular cassette player - i only hear two tracks.

am i doing something wrong?
i still dont really know how to use the machine yet, and all i learned so far was just from wasting tape and experimenting what works and what doesnt.

can anyone help me?

[m98ter]

The reason you only hear two tracks when playing your tape back through a regular cassette player is because when you use a four track to record...well, four tracks, it uses both sides of the tape. Obviously your tape player can't play both sides A and B at the same time, so you only hear two of them. If you want to hear both of them, you have to mix them down to another cassette/cdr/whatever else you want to put them on. I'm going to assume you probably have a normal run of the mill cd/dual cassette player? If that is the case, all you have to do is run the monitor outs of the tascam to the rca ins on your cassette player. From there, you just pop a tape in the record side of the cassette payer and hit record as your song is playing over your speakers. As far as your levels and speakers go, that could be any number of things. I don't want to be captain obvious here and insult any intelligence if you already did this, but make sure your pan controls are set to the 12 oclock position, cause if not that could cause them to be hard panned to only one of your speakers. Any more question, hit me up at m98ter@hotmail.com ....I'd be happy to help, as I was where you were only a few years ago.

Will

[radiorickm]

Originally Posted by def_linus

hello.

i connect both my speakers to the recorder, but i can only hear out of one speaker and its so low, i can barely hear it.

i am nor familiar with that particular unit, but i bet you need to plug it into your stereo, using an "AUX" input, not into the speakers.

[kablam]

Hey, I have the manual for the 424MK II in PDF format. Send me and email and I will send it to you. I saw numerous post for people looking for the manual so I took mines apart, scanned it and converted it to PDF. My email is w_henderson63@hotmail.com. Put 424 Manual in the subject. Note: The PDF is 2MB so please provide an email that doesn't have a 2 MB attachment limit as I don't want to receive undeliverable messages.

[Seeker of Rock]

OK, here is what you need to do. Take a normal RCA cord (like a cord that hooks up your home stereo equipment). You should have or buy a cord that has two RCA jacks at either end, for left and right channel. Plug one end of this cord into the slot on the back of the TASCAM that says L/R Out. Plug the other end of the cord into a stereo system that has a Aux in, Tape in, whatever, on the main amplifier (a lot of amps are coupled with the AM/FM receiver). Turn your stereo system on and select the function you plugged the TASCAM into (AUX., TAPE, whatever). Push play on the TASCAM and you will now hear the full signal from the TASCAM coming through the stereo speakers.
Now, as previously mentioned, the 4 track cassette tape will only play properly in 4 track or 8 track recorders. To get a version that will play in regular tape decks, you have to do what is called "mixing down". To do this, run the RCA cord from the L/R Out jacks on your TASCAM to the L/R In jacks on a regular tape deck or a CD burner. If the tape deck or CD burner is part of a stereo system, you should be able to hear the sound coming out of the speakers as the unit is recording so you can monitor the signal. You need to be in record or "record-ready" (record button engaged and pause button engaged) for this to work, though. Otherwise, use headphones but plug them into the UNIT YOU ARE RECORDING TO. This will send you the sound of what is actually being recorded, as opposed to the signal that is being sent to the deck and not take into consideration any additional input level parameters the stereo tape deck may have. Let me know if you have additional questions. It is easy once you get the hang of it, but it takes a little tinkering.