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

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
**Disclaimers**

  • Sorry if I'm duplicating if this been done before...
  • I'm not intending to leave out fans of other brands of 4-track cassette multitrackers (i.e. AMR, Akai, Audio Technica, Fostex, Korg, Vestax, Yamaha, etc.) I'm just much more familiar with Tascam units, and the poll would be more general unless I drew the line somewhere. Each company has brought unique features and innovations to the market. If Tascam is not your favorite, then by all means put up a pic and celebrate your favorite cassette 4-track!
  • I don't mind if this becomes a celebration of cassette 4-track units in general, but I'd like to keep it focused on 4-track units just because I believe there are some fundamental differences in how you approach 4-track production vs. anything with higher track count (i.e. 6 or 8, which are the only two other cassette multitrack formats of which I'm aware). The 4-track genre is sort of a special institution of its own, and Teac set this corner of the world (i.e. personal music production) on its ear when it introduced the 144.
  • I'm limited to 12 poll options. All in all I've found 21 Teac/Tascam cassette 4-track units! :eek: So I've had to do some omitting and grouping of models which I wish I didn't have to do, but I do nonetheless, so the poll is focused solely on mixer/transport combo "Portastudios", and not the standalone transport models (134 and 234). Also, I've excluded the MF-P01 from the poll...that poor thing gets slighted every time. :o I had to make some tough decisions and the MF-P01 is simply the most basic of the bunch and less popular so, my apologies all you MF-P01 fans, but don't hesistate to speak out in the thread. I've done my best to label the poll options in such a way as to spell out what is included in each option and hopefully I'm not grouping units that are fundamentally different.
  • I don't know if I got them all. PLEASE post up if I missed one in the list below.

Why do this??

No reason really...cjacek and I were loosely discussing some 4-track cassette units off-list and it just got me thinking. He's doing some really great things with his 244; I have a 234 refurb project awaiting attention at some point and I think they're neat-o; I've used a 424mkII quite a bit; A Reel Person has done more than anybody I can think of to promote the 4-track cassette format...many others have done neat stuff on them...Technoplayer put up a wonderful cover project done with his wife some time back...so I started Googling images and started counting and it was just like "I wonder what people like best and why?"...that sort of thing.

Most of us started out or have had some exposure to a cassette 4-track. Lots of nostalgia involved here, so have some fun with this thread...share your anecdotes both past and present, etc...Tell us about your favorite and why! ;)

So, here they are in all their glory whether in the poll or not; a graphical representation of all the Teac/Tascam cassette 4-track units I could find/know of in alpha-numeric order (pictures are sniped off the web...put up your own better quality pics please...in fact, as long as I'm able, send me a link to a better pic and I'll replace the low-quality pic in this post with the better one!):

Tascam 134 (couldn't find a bigger picture of this rare bird...)
Tascam%20134.jpg



Teac (Tascam Series) 144 (started it all)
Teac%20144.jpg



Tascam 234
Tascam%20234.jpg



Tascam 244
Tascam%20244.jpg



Tascam 246
Tascam%20246.jpg



Tascam 414
Tascam%20414.jpg



Tascam 414mkII
Tascam%20414mkII.jpg



Tascam 424
Tascam%20424.jpg



Tascam 424mkII
Tascam%20424mkII.jpg



Tascam 424mkIII
Tascam%20424mkIII.jpg



Tascam 464
Tascam%20464.jpg



Tascam 644
Tascam%20644.jpg



Tascam MF-P01
Tascam%20MF-P01.jpg



Tascam Porta 02mkII
Tascam%20Porta%2002mkII.jpg



Tascam Porta 03
Tascam%20Porta%2003.jpg



Tascam Porta 03mkII
Tascam%20Porta%2003mkII.jpg



Tascam Porta 05
Tascam%20Porta%2005.jpg



Tascam Porta 07
Tascam%20Porta%2007.jpg



Tascam Porta One
Tascam%20Porta%20One.jpg



Tascam Porta Two
Tascam%20Porta%20Two.jpg



Tascam Porta Two HS
Tascam%20Porta%20Two%20HS.jpg
 
Nice collection!

The only experience I have is with my 234, but I can't vote for it, as it's not listed so I'll just state it in this reply ;) Recently changed the belts and now it's running ok again :) It's the infamous 234-L low speed version and you can disable the third track for slide presentations. I thought about converting it to high speed again but I haven't got around to it yet.

Cheers
Tim
 
Yep, I bet Dave has every single one of those in triplicates!:D

I love my 424mkII, but I would love to get my hands on a 234 or a Porta Two (not the Porta 02).;)

Ah hell, who am I kidding....I'd take 'em all!:drunk::laughings:
 
You have a 234??

Believe me, I had a hard time omitting the 134 and 234 from the list as the 234 is my personal favorite.

It'll be fun to make a good unit out of the two I have. I'll do some recapping in the process and *maybe* socket some of the opamps to selectively try some conservative options at some point.
 
Cory, this is a fantastic and probably the most thorough poll to date on the subject (noting your exceptions and limits with the poll choices). Something tells me tho, that most will choose the 424 just because there's more in operation and it's newer. No slight intended to anyone who cherishes this model or others but to me there's no better 4 track TASCAM portastudio than the 244 / 246, when all rubber components are replaced tho. The reason is simply the over-design and quality components. Period.

I've used the 424MKIII, 414MKII, 244 and 246 and even the cool little MF-P01 and probably a few others. There is simply no comparison to the 244 / 246. I voted for the 244 'cause it's the one I use often, it's more simple and has those cool switches and knobs. Heck, I'm biased toward it. :D

The 246 is basically a 244 but with more features and a streamlined look. Both are similar quality tho. It really comes down to the simplicity and more of a retro look and feel that I'm partial to the 244. I feel that with music you need to have fun and the gear is of great importance to put you in a mood for recording. That is also the reason why I dislike digital. It doesn't motivate or make me happy.

The 244 / 246 are the ultimate 4 track portastudios from TASCAM, IMHO.:)
 
I chose the 246. It was my third and last portastudio, and I still have it. I also owned the original 144 and 244 in the order they were introduced. I looked at others that came out after the 246 and nothing at the time was quite up to the standards, construction and performance of the 246.

Sonically I consider the 244 as equal to the 246. However, the 246 has many more features that were very usfull to me. I’m still amazed at some of the stuff I composed with that thing. Sometimes I even wonder how I did it.

I’ve thought about picking up a 424 MKII/III just to have something a bit more portable to listen to old tapes. I’m sure I will sooner or later.

:)
 
I recently read the manual for the 244 and if this poll was about the best manual for a Tascam cassette Portastudio I think it'd be the 244 manual hands-down. So thorough, well laid out and it efficiently goes into some pretty deep technical info and theory but it is also setup well for the less technical user and has lots of really good application information. Wow. I'm impressed. And I can see why fans of the 244/246 are just that...those are pretty heavy duty cassette-based machines. The 246 footprint is very close to the size of the 424mkII for instance, but the 246 weighs about twice as much! The 244 isn't far behind. Not good if you have to carry them around alot, though we are talking about 20lbs...not a deal breaker.

Anyway, neat stuff.

The manual for the 246 is laid out very much like the 388, which isn't too surprising because the labeling conventions on the 246 are patterned after the 388. Not sure how much time there was between the introduction of the 244 and the 246 but the manuals are worlds apart in how they are written and frankly the 388 manual, though it has a wealth of information, and I can see massive efforts to try and present things in a digestible fashion, misses the mark.

The 244 is more like a "144mkII" and the 246 is more like a baby 388.

I often think of the 644 as the king of Tascam cassette 4-track Portastudios (okay...it was a "MIDIstudio...:rolleyes:), but I can see there are really two kings: the 644 for its MIDI sync and logic patchbay features, but the 246 for classic heavy-duty build as well as comprehensive mixer features. The 246, with its BUSS OUT connections can serve very well as a standalone 6 x 4 x 2 mixer with a separate 4 x 2 monitor mixer. The 244 mixer section is a little more tied to the tape section like most of their Portastudios. Not a bad thing...good choice of engineering economy as most people aren't going to buy a Portastudio just to use as a mixer, BUT it is a neat feature of the 246.

Back to the 244 for a sec...I think it is really cool the way Tascam handled the AUX busses on that thing...they put AUX 1 and AUX 2 in a stacked pot so it can easily serve as a stereo AUX buss (to a stereo effects unit or for a stereo cue feed) OR sweep it hard L or hard R and you have two mono aux sends...and over in the MONITOR section there are options for how you monitor the AUX busses so you can listen to them in mono (for when you are using them as two mono sends) or in stereo. And it is really cool that the AUX busses are switcheable (as a pair) pre, post or off...in essence the off selection is a mute. On first glance the 244 seems to be really basic, but its not. Very cool.
 
I've never owned a cassette portastudio, but I voted for the 244, because I like the stylings. Also, I think it would be handy to have 4 VU meters, and analog at that! When I find a cassette 4-tracker, I hope it's a 244!
 
Although I don't own one, I voted for the 644 (hope that isn't cheating) 'cause it looks just like a 688.

What a great layout...tons of routing options, really pretty comprehensive eq, but sadly...it looks like it lacks the big meter bridge :(.

My understanding is that, all things being equal, a cassette 4-track will have better fidelity than a similar cassette 8-track, correct? Mostly in high end frequency reproduction stemming from the fact that there is more tape surface to work with? If so, maybe I should try to pick one of these up some day....
 
Man, I loved all the Tascam stuff I had.

* Porta One MiniStudio
* PortaStudio 424
* Porta 02 mkII

Of the three, I think I liked PortaStudio 424 the most. I recorded the most music with it. I even sold it to a friend that still has it. Last I heard, he still recorded with it.

My brother still has a 234, I think. He's big into Reason (and Record lately) so I doubt he's fired it up in years. Still sitting in the rack above his computer.

A friend once loaned me his 246. Don't know what it was, but I -could not- figure this device out. I know he had made some cool recordings on it, though.
 
This thread/poll definitely isn't about voting just for something you own, though that is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. :)

Yes, no hurkin' meter bridge on the 644, though there are "meters" in the LCD display. The lack of the meter bridge and the configuration of the jack panel affords the 644 a much smaller footprint than the 688, so there's the advantage to balance the compromise.

Also, yes, on paper and in general a cessette 4-track will have better crosstalk and noise specs as well as a "better" frequency response particularly in the high-end. That being said I've heard many that say the performance is pretty indistinguishable. They are both pretty amazing sounding formats especially when you consider what's getting packed onto that small strip of embedded oxide...so you can get some arguably better sonic performance out of the 4-track at the cost of 4-tracks right? That's a major compromise depending on what you are wanting/needing to accomplish. If running a 4-track means you are bouncing to get all the tracks included then an 8-track makes sense. Me? I just really like the idea of the ultimate cassette multi-track format in terms of sonic potential (i.e. the track width on the 4-track format) and after being inspired many times over by what people have done with the format its just a favorite. So I'm biased toward the 4-track.
 
I have to excuse myself from voting, for now.

A brilliant man named sweetbeats said something that I echo completely:

4-track cassette is a real fine format, and fun too, that sounds pretty good, but if you're contemplating track-bouncing to achieve your production goals, you're really better off with the cassette 8-track, with all other things being equal.

Thank you.

I'd probably have to vote: 246. Maybe later. I'll give it more thought.:eek:;)
 
I think....

the main difference between 4-track cassette and 8-track cassette would be in headroom, not HF response./DA

... that certain thud or whomp that drums and bass guitar contain lots of... is captured better on 4-track cassette vs. 8-track cassette, due to track width specs.
 
I voted for the 644. I have a 644 424 mk 3 porta 02 and mpfo1. I like the 424 for recording live gigs because it is so much smaller than the 644. I just love the feel of the 644 at home though it is just so awesome to be able to save the track routing and not have to switch a lot of things around.
 
I have to say the origional 424. 2 FX sends, 2 stereo returns, EQ, trim, pan, 4 tracks, bounce down... but this was the thing that stood it out: the assign bus section of the recorder. So many creative ways to route your signal. Tack on the slow-mid-fast selector (instead of just mid/fast) made for some wild fun making sound effect tracks. That machine really got me started being creative with my home studio. So many many options.
 
tascam424mkII.jpg
TascamPorta05_fourtracker.jpg


These are the two models I've got. I like the routing and display and layout of the 424 compared to the porta 05 of course, but the simplicity of the porta and the "kachunk" mechanical transport buttons are endearing as well.

Hardly relevant to sound quality, but I think the 424 MK II with its banked face, sunken lcd display and the in/outs configured at the top to be the best looking/layed out of the 424 bunch:cool:
 
The 424 was essential when I was first learning recording and writing songs. I still have my original 424 and always think of the great times I had with it when I see the box in the closet. I really should break it out and record something.

I also loved the later 424mkII and mkIII. I knew a few guys who had them and they worked and sounded just as good as the original but with the added flexibility, etc.

The 488mkII 8 track is my favorite PortaStudio of all time though. It was like a 424 on steroids and even though I get Cory's reasoning about the sound quality benefits of just 4 tracks on a cassette, the 488mkII's 8 tracks sounded damn good.
 
I voted for the 644, just because it's close to the 688. I've never owned a portastudio, but I still have a copy of Electronic Musician from the early 90s that included a guide to the major cassette portastudios. The 688 always amazed me, cramming 8 tracks on a cassette head! I didn't have an extra 3 grand to spend on one back then.
 
It's truly an amazing unit,...

and it's a bargain at only ~$300 today!

Of course, I paid $400 over 5 years ago for mine, but it's mint!

Say all you want about how tiny the format, but it sounds surprisingly good!
:eek:;)
 
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