A bit a a rambling post I'm afraid but I'd love some comments on this!
I'm always amazed how some cassette multitrackers can sound - still very happy with my Tascam 244! When cassette 8 trackers became available it seemed unbelievable at the time but they also seemed very capable in good hands. Hadn't realised how good the Tascam 238 was until I found a post on the forum the other day with quite favourable comments:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/user-...m/tascam-238-8-track-should-i-go-there-36503/
Seems there as a dbx version with S/N of about 90 dB and Dolby S version (238S) with S/N of about 75. Seems that 2 Tascam 238 decks can be synced together using an external box to make a effective 14 track - a track from each being sacrificed for the sync tracks. Wonder if anyone has used them like this? I like the idea as it would mean you could do the final tracks on a new cassette on machine 2 without all the tape wear of the previous 8 track recordings.
Which brings me around to wondering if tape development hadn't stalled 25 years or so ago, someone might have made a 16 track cassette that sounded pretty good - maybe even bumped up the speed to 7.5 ips to maintain or even improve on the the 75 dB Dolby S S/N. That would have been really something! (I guess 24 tracks on 1/4 inch would have been good too!).
I'm always amazed how some cassette multitrackers can sound - still very happy with my Tascam 244! When cassette 8 trackers became available it seemed unbelievable at the time but they also seemed very capable in good hands. Hadn't realised how good the Tascam 238 was until I found a post on the forum the other day with quite favourable comments:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/user-...m/tascam-238-8-track-should-i-go-there-36503/
Seems there as a dbx version with S/N of about 90 dB and Dolby S version (238S) with S/N of about 75. Seems that 2 Tascam 238 decks can be synced together using an external box to make a effective 14 track - a track from each being sacrificed for the sync tracks. Wonder if anyone has used them like this? I like the idea as it would mean you could do the final tracks on a new cassette on machine 2 without all the tape wear of the previous 8 track recordings.
Which brings me around to wondering if tape development hadn't stalled 25 years or so ago, someone might have made a 16 track cassette that sounded pretty good - maybe even bumped up the speed to 7.5 ips to maintain or even improve on the the 75 dB Dolby S S/N. That would have been really something! (I guess 24 tracks on 1/4 inch would have been good too!).