424 MKlll and 102 MKll

[littlejoe]

Hello, New guy here. I've een going round and round with the digi analog thing and recently had an epiphany so here I am. Thanks for all the good posts and especially to Reel. Your portastudio comparison post is great. A valuable resource. I'm considering the 424MKlll and the 102 MKll for mixdown. Good combination?

[A Reel Person]

The 424mkIII is outstanding, and the 102mkII is fine.

A Tascam Portastudio and Tascam mixdown deck is always a great analog solution!

[A Reel Person]

Originally Posted by littlejoe

Hello,... Your portastudio comparison post is great. A valuable resource.

Yeah. It cracks me up sometimes, when (lots of) people tend to say, "Eh, I had a Tascam 4-track of some sort, and it was sorta crappy,"... when there was such a vast and broad range of Tascam Portastudios, from the very low end to the very high end. I mean,... did you have a Porta 02 or a 244? Was it an MF-P01 or a 424mkIII? A Porta 05 or a 246? There's a huge difference between the low-end and high-end Portastudios, that it's very hard to generalize about them. Sometimes, I'm sure when people refer to 4-trackers, many of them may often be talking about Fostex cassette multitrackers, which is another post on it's own!

I could go,... -"blabblabblab- get this four track or that four track", endlessly, but would it really mean anything? Like,... "this one has this many features and that on has that many",... but by laying out the features, and putting them all in a line with accompanying pics really tells the whole story, and helps clarify the issue to many people.

Hey, I'd talk about this stuff even if they didn't pay me!

[The Ghost of FM]

Originally Posted by A Reel Person

Hey, I'd talk about this stuff even if they didn't pay me!

Does that mean that they actually DO pay you?!

If so, I'm pissed!

just kiddin'

Cheers!

[littlejoe]

I think you oughta get something for all the time you put into that post.
I've been reading this forum for a month and let me tell ya it made me rethink the way I was listening to music. I was an analog man all along but I didn't know it. I'm gonna get me one of them there 424's and see what kinda noise I can produce.
Peace

[reel buzzer]

I noticed on my portastudio 424 that the maxwell 60 minute tapes sound better than the longer 90 or 120 tapes.

What's up with that?

[antispatula]

little joe: welcome to both heaven and hell. But mostly heaven. Analog can be a pain to mess around with, but it's weeeeeeeeeeell worth it. If you're into the cassette portastudio thing, you should have no problem.

[The Ghost of FM]

Originally Posted by reel buzzer

I noticed on my portastudio 424 that the maxwell 60 minute tapes sound better than the longer 90 or 120 tapes.

What's up with that?

Shorter tapes tend to be of a slightly thicker construction so you get a little better pressure against the heads which translates into a better transference of information when reading and writing sound on the heads. The oxide coating is also a bit thicker and denser which also contributed to the more solid sound you're experiencing.

Cheers!

[reel buzzer]

ahh. Thanks ghost.

[littlejoe]

Thanks Anti.