Direct box for use with cassette portastudio?

You mentioned you didnt like the ipedance transformer, that is exactly what a passive di box is. It is simply a di box in reverse, without the box. If you dont like that, you wont like a passive di with the female to female adapter.
What you need is a preamp. A good preamp will get you a clear signal and allow you to turn down the gain on your portastudio, which might be causing the problem. If a preamp doesnt solve the problem, then there is actually someing wrong with the input section of your portastudio.
 
I agree with you, I think, though I've read that a passive DI will sound better than a transformer. Whether this is true or not, I dunno, but it's more heavy-duty, probably more reliable. And I'd have the option of using it for more than one application, which would be nice. There is the part where you have to have the female-female adapter, which personally, I'm not a fan of, that's why I've been trying to find some kind of passive DI/direct box that actually has XLR-in and unbalanced TS-out. Oh well.

Anyway. A multi-channel preamp's next on my list of things to buy, followed by a compressor and spring reverb.
 
I have never used a direct box with my 244, whether I was inputting a mic or guitar and have always been satisfied with the results. Of course it could be that I am not as discerning as other people or to cheap to purchase more equipment.
 
Illsidgus said:
I have never used a direct box with my 244, whether I was inputting a mic or guitar and have always been satisfied with the results. Of course it could be that I am not as discerning as other people or to cheap to purchase more equipment.
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When you say guitar, what were you plugging in to the 244? Were you just running a cord from your electric guitar jack straight into the 244, or were you running through an amp sim box like a POD or something?

Or are you talking about acoustic?
 
famous beagle said:
When you say guitar, what were you plugging in to the 244? Were you just running a cord from your electric guitar jack straight into the 244, or were you running through an amp sim box like a POD or something?

Or are you talking about acoustic?
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I am talking about running the guitar, electric or acoustic, from the pick-up into the 244.
 
Illsidgus said:
I am talking about running the guitar, electric or acoustic, from the pick-up into the 244.
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Yeah, now see, I tried that with my friend's guitar and it was absolutely fine. My guitar, however, doesn't have a pickup, and more noise or not, I think I'd be getting better tone from a mic anyway. I've got a couple different ones to try, the SM57 sometimes just doesn't give me enough level sometimes, and I think on my album I used primarily a Sennheiser E945. Besides those, I have a couple battery-powered condensers, a CAD Equitek and an Audio Technica. I'll be doing some testing of those all tomorrow, but from what I've seen so far, that SM57 is the worst offender, and I wonder if the gain stage has *something* to do with it, because I really have to crank it to get acceptable levels.
 
Hammerstone said:
Yeah, now see, I tried that with my friend's guitar and it was absolutely fine. My guitar, however, doesn't have a pickup, and more noise or not, I think I'd be getting better tone from a mic anyway. I've got a couple different ones to try, the SM57 sometimes just doesn't give me enough level sometimes, and I think on my album I used primarily a Sennheiser E945. Besides those, I have a couple battery-powered condensers, a CAD Equitek and an Audio Technica. I'll be doing some testing of those all tomorrow, but from what I've seen so far, that SM57 is the worst offender, and I wonder if the gain stage has *something* to do with it, because I really have to crank it to get acceptable levels.
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When recording acoustic guitar through a mic, I have had good results with a small diaphragm condenser mic, the Shure BG 5.0. It can use phantom power or an AA battery for power. On my 244 I used the battery power.
 
...

I developed a technique where I could plug guitar/bass directly into the 244 and get satisfactory sounding results.

:spank::eek:;)
 
Wow, I'm amazed that y'all plug straight in from the guitar into the 244! Every time I've tried to do that, it's sounded like total cardboard crapola. If I don't mic an amp, I always had to run through some kind of amp simulator to get a tone that resembled a guitar at all.

And I never record acoustic with the pick-up. They're a necessary evil for playing live, but for recording, IMHO, a mic always sounds infinitely better than a pickup.
 
A Reel Person said:
I developed a technique where I could plug guitar/bass directly into the 244 and get satisfactory sounding results.
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Exactly, the tascam portastudios were designed to work without a direct box. The fewer devises in the signal train the less unwanted noise.
 
famous beagle said:
Wow, I'm amazed that y'all plug straight in from the guitar into the 244! Every time I've tried to do that, it's sounded like total cardboard crapola. If I don't mic an amp, I always had to run through some kind of amp simulator to get a tone that resembled a guitar at all.

And I never record acoustic with the pick-up. They're a necessary evil for playing live, but for recording, IMHO, a mic always sounds infinitely better than a pickup.
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Hear, hear.

Though from what I've read, bass directly in is kind of SOP for a lot of people. Electric guitar too, if you're taking the output off tape through a guitar amplifier and are remicing that. But acoustic? Yeah, I'd never use the pickup on something I actually wanted to keep.

What it does do, however, is give you good volume! Plus, if you're recording live w/ vocals, it might be advantageous in some circumstances to have a track that doesn't have bleed-in from your voice.

Illsidgus said:
Exactly, the tascam portastudios were designed to work without a direct box. The fewer devises in the signal train the less unwanted noise.
Click to expand...

Ehhhh, yeah, but I don't have a 424 with XLR-inputs. Also, I think that the portastudio was ultimately designed with versatility in mind, to the effect that, yes, they work without a direct box, but the design of the 244 is such that with the majority of mics available, you're going to have to use an adapter of some kind - an external device is unavoidable. And isn't a direct box the best available option? Sure, you can use something cheaper to get your signal through, but that's not what Tascam did when they first demonstrated the portastudio, is it?

Naturally, the best 4-track cassette recordings one can get are by bypassing the portastudio mixer altogether, which is why everyone that owns a Tascam 234 also owns a Neve console... ;)
 
...

I think the 244's mixer is very decent, given that the 244 is not a "pro" machine geared toward "pro" recordings.
I don't think it requires bypassing the mixer section to get the "best" recorded sound from a Portastudio.
The XLR(F)-1/4"(M) transformer/adapter should get you there, but as always, YMMV!
:spank::eek:;)
 
Hammerstone said:
Hear, hear.

Though from what I've read, bass directly in is kind of SOP for a lot of people. Electric guitar too, if you're taking the output off tape through a guitar amplifier and are remicing that. But acoustic? Yeah, I'd never use the pickup on something I actually wanted to keep.

What it does do, however, is give you good volume! Plus, if you're recording live w/ vocals, it might be advantageous in some circumstances to have a track that doesn't have bleed-in from your voice.



Ehhhh, yeah, but I don't have a 424 with XLR-inputs. Also, I think that the portastudio was ultimately designed with versatility in mind, to the effect that, yes, they work without a direct box, but the design of the 244 is such that with the majority of mics available, you're going to have to use an adapter of some kind - an external device is unavoidable. And isn't a direct box the best available option? Sure, you can use something cheaper to get your signal through, but that's not what Tascam did when they first demonstrated the portastudio, is it?

Naturally, the best 4-track cassette recordings one can get are by bypassing the portastudio mixer altogether, which is why everyone that owns a Tascam 234 also owns a Neve console... ;)
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I wonder what they were using to power the Neumann mic and how they were getting the signal into the 144. If only we could see video of that, we could settle the debate on how they intended it to be done. :)
 
famous beagle said:
I wonder what they were using to power the Neumann mic and how they were getting the signal into the 144. If only we could see video of that, we could settle the debate on how they intended it to be done. :)
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I can't speak to how they used a Neumann with the 144 but with my AT 2035 I run an XLR cable to a phantom power box, from the phantom power box to the 244 I use a XLR to 1/4 cable. I know this isn't the ideal setup for recording but it works for what I do. As to recording an acoustic guitar through a pickup... When I first got my 244 in 1984 or 5, I lived in the Netherlands in a small house, this is where I learned to record. By recording guitar via a pickup I produced nice clean guitar tracks without a single screaming kid in the background or the roar of a fighter jet thundering overhead.
Back to the AT 2035 into the 244, it tends to be a bit too quiet, I wish I had a way to boost the gain a bit. Any suggestions?
 
Illsidgus said:
I can't speak to how they used a Neumann with the 144 but with my AT 2035 I run an XLR cable to a phantom power box, from the phantom power box to the 244 I use a XLR to 1/4 cable. I know this isn't the ideal setup for recording but it works for what I do. As to recording an acoustic guitar through a pickup... When I first got my 244 in 1984 or 5, I lived in the Netherlands in a small house, this is where I learned to record. By recording guitar via a pickup I produced nice clean guitar tracks without a single screaming kid in the background or the roar of a fighter jet thundering overhead.
Back to the AT 2035 into the 244, it tends to be a bit too quiet, I wish I had a way to boost the gain a bit. Any suggestions?
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The way you're doing it (running the AT into a PP supply and then using an XLR to 1/4" cable to the 244) is the way I would do it as well. Unless you're using an external pre with PP, which I usually do. When I do that, I just run a 1/4" cable from the pre to the portastudio and set it to line in instead of mic, because it's a line-level signal at that point.

And yeah, regarding the use of the pickup in the acoustic, you have to do what you have to do, obviously! When I record electric guitar for work (I write/edit guitar instructional books for Hal Leonard and therefore record a lot of the accompanying audio tracks), I almost always use AmpliTube now simply because time is money, and it's quick and easy that way. Plus, I don't have to worry about cranking amps and/or getting my children's yelling/etc. on the take. When I do stuff for fun, though, I try my best to use a mic.

I'm not sure why you would be having gain problems in your scenario with the AT 2035. You don't have any pad engaged, do you (on the mic or the 244)? And you have the 244 input set to "mic" and not "line," right? I don't mean to insult with these questions or anything, so please forgive me if I did.

Other than that, assuming:
1) Your PP supply is working properly and providing full power to the mic and all
2) Your mic is working properly
3) Your 244 inputs are working properly

My only suggestion would be to get an external pre, which would provide you with plenty of level for sure. I got a Presonus TubePre on ebay for $45, and it sounds really nice.
 
Hammerstone said:
I agree with you, I think, though I've read that a passive DI will sound better than a transformer. Whether this is true or not, I dunno, but it's more heavy-duty, probably more reliable. And I'd have the option of using it for more than one application, which would be nice. There is the part where you have to have the female-female adapter, which personally, I'm not a fan of, that's why I've been trying to find some kind of passive DI/direct box that actually has XLR-in and unbalanced TS-out. Oh well.

Anyway. A multi-channel preamp's next on my list of things to buy, followed by a compressor and spring reverb.
Click to expand...

The only thing inside of a passive di box is a transformer, two TS plugs and a male xlr jack. . AIt's the same thing, without the box and with a female xlr.
Of course, if you are good with a soldering iron, you could get any passive di and swap the male xlr for a female one and have what you want.
 
Naturally, the best 4-track cassette recordings one can get are by bypassing the portastudio mixer altogether, which is why everyone that owns a Tascam 234 also owns a Neve console... ;)
Click to expand...

People are buying Neve desks so they can record on a cassette 4-track?
 
famous beagle said:
I'm not sure why you would be having gain problems in your scenario with the AT 2035. You don't have any pad engaged, do you (on the mic or the 244)? And you have the 244 input set to "mic" and not "line," right? I don't mean to insult with these questions or anything, so please forgive me if I did.

Other than that, assuming:
1) Your PP supply is working properly and providing full power to the mic and all
2) Your mic is working properly
3) Your 244 inputs are working properly

My only suggestion would be to get an external pre, which would provide you with plenty of level for sure. I got a Presonus TubePre on ebay for $45, and it sounds really nice.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the input. When I first purchased the At 2035 I also got a Behringer 'Tube Altragain, MIC100' mic preamp because it had phantom power. It boosted the gain so much that I couldn't seem, between the gain and output controls on the MIC100 and the controls on the 244, to get a level that was not either to low on or pegging the 244's VU meter in the red. I did engage the -10db pad on the 2035 and the limiter on the MIC100 and it help a little. That is when I found a phantom power box to use instead of the MIC100. Since external mic preamps are not covered in the 244 owners manual, I did not realize that the output of the MIC100 was a line-level signal, I will have to do some more playing with the MIC100 and see what I can do.
Again, thanks for the input.
 
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