A WILD month of home recording hoarding!!!

[Jzoha18]

Hello, im fairly new around here but i have a deep passion for home recording specifically on decks and formats that were considered rather low end or "pro-sumer" in their time. I kow the advent of lofi indie and electronic has flooded these forums with young guys trying to get very cheap uncared for decks to make magic lofi tape sounds and it becomes annoying for older guys who were around when the stuff was new and largely regarded the stuff as junk and i have been guilty of driving my tech crazy doing stuff like that!! When i was 13 i wanted to home record and my guitar teacher handed me a brand new Tascam 414mkii and thats how this whole mess started for me. that was a decade ago!. Anyways ive slowly built a prosumer home studio ala late 70s-late 80s and id like to share some of my recent grabs!. Firstly i finally got my hands on my dream deck which is a Tascam 238. The ease of 8 channels on such a available and user friendly format like cassette was the main reason. Its in the shop that sold me it currently getting a calibration but i also got two mixers to try with it. The first is a mint Mackie CR1604 which i am aware is not the best board but works flawlessly for a split console 8 track setup. my only complaint is the EQ is pretty garbage. I got it to replace a worn out and noisy Tascam M-208 which i love but could use some recapping but man the M-208 EQ ROCKS! I was so unsure the mackie would be good enough i also scored a mint Tascam M-30 from japan that i assume would be a step in a more colorful direction than the mackie. The mackie is nice because i dont ever have to wonder if the mixer is the cause of any signal issues as its so bright anything odd im hearing would be the decks its wired into. I also recently got a Teac A2340 which really suprised me for being so old it really works well! the sound quality is not so bad but it needs to be calibrated for ATR MDS-36 imo. with my 238 being in the shop in a pinch i also got my hands on a working Fostex A8 which is really cool! Im rambling but i have built a full on madmans lofi tape lab in this room. other decks include a 424mkiii and Porta 05 i found mint in box and my trust Tascam 112rmkii which i bought withoug knowing i needed a 3 head and i just accidently got the 3 head version of the 112 and mines one of the later ones so its heads and everything are close to new. I dont really have any outboard gear besides a microverb 2 and micro limitewr but im working on getting a rack together when the 238 is done and racking up that and the 112 and some EQ and a compressor. Id like anyone to show off any new toys they got and offer any advice to me on managing all this new equipment as im really excited to get to work. Could anyone offer tips on a good noise reduction for the A2340? ITs not a hiss factory but could be a little quieter

 

[jpmorris]

Welcome! That's a lot like how I started out, though I never really went down the cassette route. The A8 will ideally want RTM SM911 or LPR35, that's the modern equivalent.

I don't know the 2340 specifically, but options include:
1. Calibrating it for higher output tape - this can be awkward on older decks as they may not be able to bias that high without modification. This will make the recording louder, which means it will require less amplification and therefore the tape hiss will be amplified less too.
2. DBX. TASCAM made a 4-way noise reduction unit called the 4DX. This is designed for the TASCAM 34 series, but it can be modified to work on other decks too.
3. Noise gates. This is a bit of a heavy-handed way of doing it, but it can work. The idea is that it mutes the channel(s) below a certain signal level. When the signal is louder the hiss will be masked by the music. However this can give you an audible transition when things fade in or out, particularly reverb tails at the end of a song, so it needs to be used with care.

 

[Jzoha18]

Welcome! That's a lot like how I started out, though I never really went down the cassette route. The A8 will ideally want RTM SM911 or LPR35, that's the modern equivalent.

I don't know the 2340 specifically, but options include:
1. Calibrating it for higher output tape - this can be awkward on older decks as they may not be able to bias that high without modification. This will make the recording louder, which means it will require less amplification and therefore the tape hiss will be amplified less too.
2. DBX. TASCAM made a 4-way noise reduction unit called the 4DX. This is designed for the TASCAM 34 series, but it can be modified to work on other decks too.
3. Noise gates. This is a bit of a heavy-handed way of doing it, but it can work. The idea is that it mutes the channel(s) below a certain signal level. When the signal is louder the hiss will be masked by the music. However this can give you an audible transition when things fade in or out, particularly reverb tails at the end of a song, so it needs to be used with care.

Would you say lpr35 is better than mds-36? i tried both on my r8 but both werent working well as the deck was trash. id honestly prefer to get the decks set for whichever is cheaper as reels are a double expense vs cassette

 

[Jzoha18]

Also i see teac made a system for the A2340/3340 and this is that system. do you think this dolby unit would be adequate? whats the deal with all the DBX vs Dolby stuff? all the machines everyone likes run DBX but everyone claims the fostex stuff while being less reliable being superior for using dolby C. I havent had issues with dbx im not to crazy about my cassette stuff being perfect when multitracking but i can tell when its goofing the signal. dolby i find just stops hiss and sometimes muddies highs. i tend to mix down to type 2 cassettes with dolby b. I use C if needed or if the source used C in the case of the fostex stuff

 

[jpmorris]

Would you say lpr35 is better than mds-36? i tried both on my r8 but both werent working well as the deck was trash. id honestly prefer to get the decks set for whichever is cheaper as reels are a double expense vs cassette

LPR35 is the modern equivalent of Ampex 457, which is what Fostex recommended in the A8 manual if I remember correctly. I've never tried MDS-36, but I tend to treat ATR as very high output mastering tape, which isn't really what you'd want for a narrow-track machine as it would make the crosstalk between tracks worse.

As for DBX vs Dolby, I understand that DBX is a simpler design, which means that Dolby will get you slightly better performance, but the deck has to be perfect, whereas DBX is less sensitive to calibration errors. That's just what I've read, though - I've used DBX a lot as the integrated noise reduction on the TSR-8 and later the MSR-24 and it worked very well. Dolby I have less experience with.

One question about the 238, though - is that the Dolby S or DBX version? A lot of the Dolby S machines have problems with the noise reduction chips failing, and I think the 238S may fall in that list.

 

[Jzoha18]

LPR35 is the modern equivalent of Ampex 457, which is what Fostex recommended in the A8 manual if I remember correctly. I've never tried MDS-36, but I tend to treat ATR as very high output mastering tape, which isn't really what you'd want for a narrow-track machine as it would make the crosstalk between tracks worse.

As for DBX vs Dolby, I understand that DBX is a simpler design, which means that Dolby will get you slightly better performance, but the deck has to be perfect, whereas DBX is less sensitive to calibration errors. That's just what I've read, though - I've used DBX a lot as the integrated noise reduction on the TSR-8 and later the MSR-24 and it worked very well. Dolby I have less experience with.

One question about the 238, though - is that the Dolby S or DBX version? A lot of the Dolby S machines have problems with the noise reduction chips failing, and I think the 238S may fall in that list.

is just a 238 that had a capstan board recap that didnt do the job and was having speed problems on startup and pretty knarly wow and flutter. the shop who sold it is fixing it