Tascam 388 on the way/plunging into analog/some questions

H

hithere1

New member
hey guys, to anyone who was reading my last Teac thread, I am taking the plunge on a Tascam 388. Hopefully it is in as great as condition as the guy says it is.

1. When it comes to the unit being worked on, can guys who work on studio tape machines still work on these? I know two studios that have tape machines so probably have guys work on them.

2. Where is the best site to get my tape ( cant find the site I saw it for around 20 bucks) 7' 1/4 tape I believe.

I need two rolls to get started right?

thanks guys. Will keep this thread updated with some pictures and recordings if anyone is interested. thanks!
 
Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on scoring the 388. I've never owned one (though I've wanted to), but my friend did, and I had the chance to record on it a few times. It's a really sweet machine. To answer your questions:

1. Yes, the same people who work on most tape machines should be able to service the 388. However, if you're the DIY type at all, there are many members here who will probably be able to talk you through just about any maintenance issue you have.

2. RMGI and US Recording Media are two sites I know of that are currently selling new tape. Others may be able to offer more information on this.

RMGI Americas - Distributors of Analog Recording Tape
Pro Blank Media and Recording Supplies

Otherwise, people buy tape off ebay a lot. Sometimes it's new old stock; sometimes it's one- or two-passes. You just have to be careful. You can find some great deals on there though if you're a little educated. I'd recommend reading the Sticky Shed Help thread for more info on certain years of tape to avoid.

3. You only need one reel of tape to get started (assuming you buy a reel of tape and not a pancake, which is shipped on a hub but not on a reel), but you'll also need a take-up reel. Make sure you get the right size for the 388, which is a 7" reel.

Would love to see some pics and hear some recordings. Good luck! :)
 
Yes, you need one spool of tape and an empty spool for it to transfer into.
The 388 is a nice machine to start with because it has the inbuilt mixer. Be aware that the capstan belt often needs to be replaced on these, though.

I believe LPR35 is the recommended tape for these - it was Quantegy 457, but that's out of production now, unfortunately.
 
thanks guys

yeah ordered the lpr35. Another question. If I track some drums at the studio and bring them home. Can I do something simple as mic a monitor playing the drum tracks into the tape machine,

So I can take a track off the 8 so that I could then have 7 more tracks to lay down some more stuff, so when I dump them into the computer it will be easier to sync if I take the tracks back to the studio?

is there a more elegant way to do this?
 
hithere1 said:
yeah ordered the lpr35. Another question. If I track some drums at the studio and bring them home. Can I do something simple as mic a monitor playing the drum tracks into the tape machine,

So I can take a track off the 8 so that I could then have 7 more tracks to lay down some more stuff, so when I dump them into the computer it will be easier to sync if I take the tracks back to the studio?
is there a more elegant way to do this?
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that you'll be bringing the drum tracks in digitally?

I really, really wouldn't use a mic to do that unless you're deliberately trying to get a particular effect. It's called 're-amping' and it's usually used on guitars to add more distortion or a particular cabinet/room sound.

What you'd be far better off doing would be mixing the drums to mono and dumping that track to one of the ones on the tape deck via the line input. There should be a way to bounce the tracks to a mono track inside your DAW software, or if you're using an 8-channel interface or something, you could use a sub-mixer and mix down to one track of the tape machine.

As for synchronising, you could in fact stick them on track 8 and use that as a guide when importing it back into the computer. If you're not actually going to use them off tape in the final mix, putting them on an edge track is best because those are more prone to blips and dropouts.

There is another way - if you have a synchronizer, you can record a timecode on track 8 (there's a switch to turn off DBX just on track 8). This is fairly advanced stuff, though, and there are two ways of making that workj. The easiest way is to have the computer follow the tape deck - most synchronizer units will do this, they output a MIDI stream which any professional DAW package should be able to chase.
The other way is to have the deck be controlled by the computer, and I believe the 388 can do that. But having the deck as the slave requires a high-end synchronizer, special cables, lots of luck and endless patience. It's not for everyone.

If you're going to edit on the computer, it's probably simplest just to use the drums as a guide track and try to line it up inside the DAW when you've digitized the tape.
 
hey

thanks for the help.

The Tascam just came, I have never threaded tape before but I believe I did it right, yet the load button is flashing and not moving the tape and allowing me to progress through the steps in the manual

It also seems I am not getting any signal from my mic
 
so here is a video, no dbx lighting up, no movement on the reels, should there be movement without tape even in?
 
hithere1 said:
so here is a video, no dbx lighting up, no movement on the reels, should there be movement without tape even in?
Click to expand...

There should be no movement without tape.But you can make the reel tables spin without tape by lifting the tension arms up and pressing play,rrw,,ffw at the same time you do this.
 
i can't quite tell from the video, but it looks like you might need to pull the tape a little tighter (so the guides go up a little higher).
 
hey

a fuse and other slight problem was the case. now everything is fixed, thanks so much guys excited to learn some more from you once I get my hands dirty with the manual and using the unit thanks!
 
hey

jpmorris said:
I'm assuming that you'll be bringing the drum tracks in digitally?

I really, really wouldn't use a mic to do that unless you're deliberately trying to get a particular effect. It's called 're-amping' and it's usually used on guitars to add more distortion or a particular cabinet/room sound.

What you'd be far better off doing would be mixing the drums to mono and dumping that track to one of the ones on the tape deck via the line input. There should be a way to bounce the tracks to a mono track inside your DAW software, or if you're using an 8-channel interface or something, you could use a sub-mixer and mix down to one track of the tape machine.

As for synchronising, you could in fact stick them on track 8 and use that as a guide when importing it back into the computer. If you're not actually going to use them off tape in the final mix, putting them on an edge track is best because those are more prone to blips and dropouts.

There is another way - if you have a synchronizer, you can record a timecode on track 8 (there's a switch to turn off DBX just on track 8). This is fairly advanced stuff, though, and there are two ways of making that workj. The easiest way is to have the computer follow the tape deck - most synchronizer units will do this, they output a MIDI stream which any professional DAW package should be able to chase.
The other way is to have the deck be controlled by the computer, and I believe the 388 can do that. But having the deck as the slave requires a high-end synchronizer, special cables, lots of luck and endless patience. It's not for everyone.

If you're going to edit on the computer, it's probably simplest just to use the drums as a guide track and try to line it up inside the DAW when you've digitized the tape.
Click to expand...


hey if i would like to bounce the drums to one track to send it the 388 through the line out, how would I actually go about doing it?

I can plug into the line in from my line 6 interface and do that, but how would I actually record that onto the track on the tape machine?
 
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I have no experience with the 388, I'm afraid. Though I wouldn't have thought it would be much harder than arming the track, holding down 'record' and pressing 'play'...
 
hithere1 said:
hey if i would like to bounce the drums to one track to send it the 388 through the line out, how would I actually go about doing it?

I can plug into the line in from my line 6 interface and do that, but how would I actually record that onto the track on the tape machine?
Click to expand...

I'm a little confused as to what your ultimate goal is here, but let's say you have a mono drum mix from a computer (or other digital device) ...

take a 1/4" line output from the digital device, plug that into the LINE-IN on a track on the 388, arm the track to record, press record and go. You'll want to experiment with getting the right volume going into the machine.

You'll likely want to download and read the manual, or at least experiment. But there are some very basic things you'll want to familiarize yourself with before you get started on your project. I would recommend grabbing a microphone and recording some speaking into each track, and then overdubbing etc. to try out how everything works. maybe grab a friend to come help you as well. I remember being really confused the first time I was trying to patch my Teac mixer into my 80-8. the early recordings came out pretty well considering we had no idea what we were doing !
 
As stated above......line out from what ever your drum track is on to line in of 388,arm track,record.
 
All 8 tracks on the back of the 388 should a line in, an XLR mic in, and a d-out. The line in is 1/4 inch and can be used for this. You use the stereo out from your line 6 interface to two of the line in tracks on your 388. You probably want to use 3 and 4 or 5 and 6 because the tracks in the middle will have a wider range for a full drum mix. It's not really noticeable wider but the outside tracks can sometimes have lower volume and so the middle tracks are good if you are bouncing something stereo into there. It's been a while since I used a 388 but I think there is a button or switch below the meter for each track that defines whether you are using the mic in or the line in. You'll went these set to line in. Then there should be a button above the fader for each track that actually arms the track (so to speak). Like I said, it's been a while and I'm sure someone will correct me, but I still have a M308 mixer and the board elements are about the same. So, I think this is all correct.
 
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