Tascam Cassette 4-track Appreciation Thread...Vote For Your Favorite!

What is your favorite Teac/Tascam cassette 4-track "Portastudio"?

  • Teac (Tascam Series) 144

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Tascam 244

    Votes: 17 15.5%
  • Tascam 246

    Votes: 22 20.0%
  • Tascam 414 series (414, 414mkII)

    Votes: 9 8.2%
  • Tascam 424 series (424, 424mkII, 424mkIII)

    Votes: 34 30.9%
  • Tascam 464

    Votes: 3 2.7%
  • Tascam 644

    Votes: 9 8.2%
  • Tascam Porta 02/03 series (02mkII, 03, 03mkII)

    Votes: 4 3.6%
  • Tascam Porta 05

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Tascam Porta 07

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Tascam Porta One

    Votes: 6 5.5%
  • Tascam Porta Two series (Porta Two, Porta Two HS)

    Votes: 2 1.8%

  • Total voters
    110
Voted 246 for having the best fader-feel in its mixer section...but the 464 is right there.
Most of the larger units are winners I'd be interested in owning/using.
 
I remember seeing the Amstrad
in Comet years ago in the UK always wondered if they where any good

NOTHING! Amstrad EVER did was any good! They could not even make a satellite tuner 50Hz power supply last more than 6 months.

Sugar must have paid an enormous sum to somebody (or more likely had the dirt on a Royal!) to get his gong.

Awful, awful man.

Dave.
 
I didn't vote, but...

Voted 246 for having the best fader-feel in its mixer section...but the 464 is right there.
Most of the larger units are winners I'd be interested in owning/using.
I think the 246 is best for it's 6-channel, 4-buss, 2-band sweepable EQ, vintage button/switch/large VU meter configuration. With very few serious shortcomings, it is the fullest package feature-wise. It also has excellent fidelity on tape & is pin-drop quiet.

I think the 2-band sweepable EQ is the best of the bunch (244/246) & is more flexible overall. Being a 6x4 mixer it's of higher utility than all the others (except the 644, but the 644 is sometimes too hi-techy for people). I think a higher quality & fuller feature set on a device will, to a certain extent, enable you to make better sounding recordings. I also think they made things with higher quality components back in the the 246's day, which I believe makes a subtle difference in sonics. YMMV.

I like them all, though. I abstained from voting, so far.
:spank::eek:;)
 
The earlier generation units (244/246) had vertical cards for each input strip on the mixer while the later units are all single horizontal PCB integrated designs...everything about the earlier units is a more rugged design...which is why they weigh more. I've done deep-dive work on the 488 mkI, 688, 644, and 424 mkII. There is a certain degree of *fragile* with each of these as far as handling them when you have them opened up and are working on them compared to the 244/246. I still say the 246 is my all-time fav even though I've never owned one, much for the same reasons you cite, Dave...classic analog VU's, push-switches, and the internal design I spoke of above...all through-hole component construction at the board level. But I've owned and used the 424 mkII for many, many years and am most familiar with it inside and out...an old friend...nice balance between bells and whistles and bare essentials...so its hard for me to think of using or owning anything different long-term when it comes to a cassette portastudio.
 
I need an audio interface with 4 inputs/outputs to transfer 424mkiii recordings into logic pro x. any advice and detailed info would be greatly appreciated
 
Behringer UMC404HD for $175. You might find it cheaper at Musicians Friend if you have one of their 15% off coupons, or if not, give them a call.
 
I voted for the porta 05. I learned on a 414mkii and replaced it with a 424mkiii and these days most of my cassette recording is on a Yamaha mt8x (fantastic machine and I don’t even use the built in mixer) and a fostex M80 and an Otari 4 track. Somewhere around the time I bought the 424 I found the 05 in box with manual mostly mint for sale from a fundraiser auction. MAN it sure isn’t as high fidelity as the 424 but I LOVE it’s preamps and how well it took virtually all signals on those first two channels. Bass direct in on it is a lofi dream. Sketchy DI guitar works. And it handles line level signals well. Great for drums or samples in beatmaking. It’s just REALLY grimey but with good technique you can still get as decent of a 1 7/8 mix off of it as any other mini studio I think. Lots of guys love the porta one and two which appears to be a better deck with more features and tape outs which I’d agree I’d appreciate, still I have always loved just stepping away from the mackie mixer and my other machines and monitors and just putting on headphones and working out stuff on that little machine. It takes me back to when I was a 13 year old kid learning on my 414. I don’t abuse it because I love it. Apparently they made a high speed porta 05 as well and some months back I saw a bunch of basically B stock ones for sale. I should grab more! It’s as bare and raw as it gets excluding 2 fader designs like fostex x15 or the smaller porta 03. It isn’t quiet it isn’t always clear sounding but it is really funky and mushy and colorful in a beautiful way I think only the 144 with its low speed and Dolby B might also be but I haven’t been able to try one. Anyways thanks for listening to my love letter to this grimey deck.
 
I voted for the porta 05. I learned on a 414mkii and replaced it with a 424mkiii and these days most of my cassette recording is on a Yamaha mt8x (fantastic machine and I don’t even use the built in mixer) and a fostex M80 and an Otari 4 track. Somewhere around the time I bought the 424 I found the 05 in box with manual mostly mint for sale from a fundraiser auction. MAN it sure isn’t as high fidelity as the 424 but I LOVE it’s preamps and how well it took virtually all signals on those first two channels. Bass direct in on it is a lofi dream. Sketchy DI guitar works. And it handles line level signals well. Great for drums or samples in beatmaking. It’s just REALLY grimey but with good technique you can still get as decent of a 1 7/8 mix off of it as any other mini studio I think. Lots of guys love the porta one and two which appears to be a better deck with more features and tape outs which I’d agree I’d appreciate, still I have always loved just stepping away from the mackie mixer and my other machines and monitors and just putting on headphones and working out stuff on that little machine. It takes me back to when I was a 13 year old kid learning on my 414. I don’t abuse it because I love it. Apparently they made a high speed porta 05 as well and some months back I saw a bunch of basically B stock ones for sale. I should grab more! It’s as bare and raw as it gets excluding 2 fader designs like fostex x15 or the smaller porta 03. It isn’t quiet it isn’t always clear sounding but it is really funky and mushy and colorful in a beautiful way I think only the 144 with its low speed and Dolby B might also be but I haven’t been able to try one. Anyways thanks for listening to my love letter to this grimey deck.
Ahhh the Porta 05…I have only one experience with the Porta 05, and while I wouldn’t ever buy one for myself (mainly because for cassette multitrack I have a 244), the Porta 05 sits in a special spot for me. Over a quarter century ago I enjoyed a number of spontaneous jam sessions in the basement with guitarist and bassist friends of mine at the bassist’s house…amazing musicians. It was all improvised, instrumental, grunge/surf/jazz and other flavors, and shortly after we started jamming the first time we grabbed whatever was in the room to record the session, which was a Porta 05, some used normal bias cassettes, and a single Unidyne 57 hanging from the ceiling by the mic cable on a nail. It wasn’t a big basement…like big bedroom sized, low ceiling, egg cartons and moving blankets on the walls. But all the sessions have this particular ratty ambiance to them that the room didn’t even have. And I can hear some kind of ducking compression or something…it’s weird. But I love these tapes, and I’m pretty sure the kind of ratty greasy sound, but still with a decent amount of fidelity to it, has something to do with, in part, the Porta 05. It’s like there is some kind of reverb. But there was none. Anyway, I remember for sure it was a Porta 05 because they have a distinctive appearance. Here’s a sample of one of the sessions:

 
Ahhh the Porta 05…I have only one experience with the Porta 05, and while I wouldn’t ever buy one for myself (mainly because for cassette multitrack I have a 244), the Porta 05 sits in a special spot for me. Over a quarter century ago I enjoyed a number of spontaneous jam sessions in the basement with guitarist and bassist friends of mine at the bassist’s house…amazing musicians. It was all improvised, instrumental, grunge/surf/jazz and other flavors, and shortly after we started jamming the first time we grabbed whatever was in the room to record the session, which was a Porta 05, some used normal bias cassettes, and a single Unidyne 57 hanging from the ceiling by the mic cable on a nail. It wasn’t a big basement…like big bedroom sized, low ceiling, egg cartons and moving blankets on the walls. But all the sessions have this particular ratty ambiance to them that the room didn’t even have. And I can hear some kind of ducking compression or something…it’s weird. But I love these tapes, and I’m pretty sure the kind of ratty greasy sound, but still with a decent amount of fidelity to it, has something to do with, in part, the Porta 05. It’s like there is some kind of reverb. But there was none. Anyway, I remember for sure it was a Porta 05 because they have a distinctive appearance. Here’s a sample of one of the sessions:

Just listened to a little bit, but it sounded as good as any of those bootleg Grateful Dead concert tapes floating around in the 70s
;)
Remember those days when you’d pull in to a gas station and get bootleg 8 track tapes on the cheap? :)
 
I had to vote for the 424. My first multitrack was the original formula 424, and having stupidly sold it and later realizing I still had unmixed masters on cassette, I picked up a Mk III. Of course, now I can't find where the 424 masters got packed away.
 
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