Tascam 388 tapes playable on Fostex XXX ?

lonewhitefly

lonewhitefly

Active member
Anyone know if I can play a 388 8-track tape on any of the small format Fostex machines?

I have a friend sending me a 388 1/4" 8-track tape that I would like to transfer to another deck for overdubs and mix. I could borrow a 388 from a friend, but I'm thinking it might be easier for me to pick up one of these little Fostex units if the format matches close enough. Is there any particular model that could play back fairly closely? My concern is possibly the noise reduction wouldn't match (not sure if my friend used NR or not, but I assume he did and will double check to confirm).

Thanks for any tips.
 
No...

In general, the 388 records @ 7.5 ips & dbx NR. The Fostex line of recorders are 15 ips & Dolby C. There was supposedly a version of the A8LR that was made for 7.5 ips (Dolby C), but would be very hard if not impossble to find. Your simplest solution would be to find or borrow a 388.
:spank::eek:;)
 
ah ... thanks for the info. So, basically all of these Fostex decks run only 15 ips? For some reason I thought they had a 7.5 option. PS -- found out the tape was cut with no NR, so that's not an issue.
 
And on top of that, I'm not sure if the track width and spacing is 100% compatible. The Fostex data is available, but the Tascam data is elusive.
 
sweetbeats said:
And on top of that, I'm not sure if the track width and spacing is 100% compatible. The Fostex data is available, but the Tascam data is elusive.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that too ... thanks for the info!

+ my limited experience w/ Fostex equipment is that it does not sound anywhere near Tascam stuff ... but I really just need to transfer one recording, so I thought it might be easier to pick up one of the smaller units on eBay or something since they go for cheap. 388 prices are getting kind of out of control. Though I do know a couple local guys that have them. It's the getting one of them to drag the thing to my place that's going to be the hard part!
 
...

In context of the time, Tascam and Fostex were designed to be incompatible, kind of like a pissing contest.
:spank::eek:;)
 
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