newbie and a porta02, mistake?

[Hairy Al]

i got it for £75 which seemed alright, but then i thought "i don't know what i'm doing with this thing!" as this thing has no eq on it, should i mess about with my bass and guitar amps eq, use the eq on my multi-effects pedal or both?

i've got an old version of Cool Edit on the compy which runs like a wheezing old man, should i dump stuff onto it and the procces it to smithereens?

i really don't have a clue what i'm doing?!

bleuh.

[deadzenmen]

Well, I don't how much I can help, but what the hell.. That is the same one I started with and still have. What I have been doing for years is, and everyone else would probably disagree, is running my guitar through effects pedals, into the amp and directly into the 4-track. Of course you can use a microphone into the 4-track directed at the amp. Probably safer. Anyway, I play with the volume, and always use headphones, until the red light flickers every so often, or is it yellow, whatever the second louder light is. Keep the TRIM knobs at about 2 o'clock and the master level between 7-8. I use higher trim on vocals though because my mic is weak. Always use really good tapes, but not metal. I've always used lots of effects though to boost the thickness of the sound because, well, most of my equipment is cheap. But with practice and patience you may get a good sounding product. Try mixing to your stereo to see how it "really" sounds, that will help guide you. Good luck, let me know if you have any more questions or better yet, hope you get someone with more experience.

[Hot Rocks]

I have owned and own a number of tascam cassette based porta studios. I just bought a new porta 2 for my sister from musicians friend. 160.00 delivered. We recorded a bit with it, she was visiting so we didn't spend too much time with it but I was very impressed with the sound quality. It depends on what you need. I got it for her because it is her first multtrack, easy to use,not overwhelming and extremely portable. I would recomend it