tascam 244 cue panning: help me understand

[christiandaelemans]

one of the things i’m still confused about regarding the 244 is the cue panning. when you pan 1 and 3 all the way to the right, you’ll end up with no signal. that’s fine, i won’t be doing that anyways. but is the goal to pan 1/3 left, and pan 2/4 right, and then record while the mixer pans are corresponding?? does this like, keep all the signal in each track? when i play back a track recorded this way and pan it to its “opposite” side in remix mode, it sounds more present on its L or R buss side.

i’ve made an ep a month ago and for every track, i recorded the cue pans at 12 o clock and just made everything panned on the mixer after-the-fact. did i do it wrong? are most of my signals like, technically only half there? i liked the results and i’m releasing it in a few weeks, but it’s just one of those things i can improve. feel like i understand most things about these dudes, but this is the one thing i haven’t explicitly understood.

 

[sweetbeats]

I can’t quite follow your post. Can you be more specific? Are you talking about the TAPE CUE panning, or the panning of the input channels 1-4 to the L-R main buss?

 

[christiandaelemans]

I can’t quite follow your post. Can you be more specific? Are you talking about the TAPE CUE panning, or the panning of the input channels 1-4 to the L-R main buss?

i believe both? i’m not quite sure what the right names are. i am definitely talking about the tape cue panning, but i’m wondering how those work in conjunction with the main mixer pans and also the L R buss designation that’s given to the tracks. 1 and 3 are L, and 2 and 4 are R. am i supposed to pan 1 and 3 left on both the mixer and tape cues before tracking? or does it matter? when i pan them right, i end up with no signal. this leads me to believe the closer they are to their “buss” side, the more signal i’m getting on tape. and vice versa for 2 and 4.

 

[sweetbeats]

You’re getting yourself allllll tangled up.

Give a day or so. I’ll make a walk-through tutorial video and put it up on YouTube.

But please understand everything you can learn from a video is all in the owners manual.

 

[sweetbeats]

Additional reply part 1 of 2…

You need to stop trying to figure out how the main mixer (input channels 1-4, the channels with the TRIM, EQ, and AUX controls and of course input faders) and TAPE CUE mixer are interrelated…they’re not. They are independent mixers.

I’ll say this in the video I’ll make, but, big picture, a multi-channel audio mixing console is a thing that receives multiple signals typically of multiple types (mic level, line level, etc.), converts them all to a common signal type (level-matches them for instance), typically allows the operator to shape and process those signals, and then assign or direct those signals to multiple outputs either individually, or by combining or “summing” 2 or more signals together. Typically we call the pathways of the console that receive signals as channels…input channels. There anre other types of channels, but for the sake of simplicity, focusing on the 244 input mixer, I’ll just refer to input channels. And then we typically call pathways that sum signals together busses…think of a bus that can carry multiple people to a common place.

The Tascam 244 is really 3 main components combined into one device. There is the 4-track multitrack cassette recorder/reproducer, and then, like many period devices made by Tascam, there are actually two mixers: an input mixing console on the left, and a return or monitor mixer to the right above the tape transport; the TAPE CUE mixer. Yes, together they form one mixing console, but it’s helpful to consider them separately because they can and do function independent of each other for specific purposes.

Let’s look closer at the input mixer in the left, which is a “4x2” mixing console, meaning 4 input channels and a 2-channel summing buss; 4 into 2. The 2-channel summing buss, which is labeled as the “L-R” buss, can be used as a single stereo summing buss, or like two separate mono summing busses. You assign or route the 4 inputs to the 244’s main L-R summing buss using the PAN controls on the 4 input channel strips. An input panned center will be assigned equally to both of the 2-channel summing buss’ channels. And of course partially panning an input more L or more R will place the input signal more prominently in that respective summing buss channel. In this way you can create a stereo mix. If you pan an input all the way hard L or hard R, the signal will exclusively be placed in only that one single respective summing buss channel. So this is how you would use the L-R summing buss as a pair of mono summing busses. Are you with me so far? In my mind when I’m using a “stereo” or two channel summing buss as two mono summing busses, I don’t think of the summing buss channels as “L” or “R”, I think of them as “1” & “2”. The 4x2 input mixer also, BTW, has an auxiliary summing buss, the 2-channel AUX buss that’s setup for stereo operation, but also, like the master summing buss, can be used as a pair of mono summing busses. So those are the summing outputs for the 4 inputs of the input mixer. There are also direct outputs for each input channel, but they have a dedicated purpose and I’ll talk about that later.

Next we have the TAPE CUE mixer, the set of 4 concentric knobs there above the transport. Again, this is another, albeit very basic, 4x2 mixing console, which also has a mono feed to the CUE monitor path. As I’ve mentioned earlier the output of the TAPE CUE section goes to two places…a mono sum to the CUE setting of the monitor select switch and then that goes to the BUSS MONITOR knob and then the headphone jacks…and the stereo sum to the TAPE CUE L-R output jacks. Again, the TAPE CUE PAN controls have no effect on the mono sum to the CUE monitor path to the headphones…they only have an effect on the stereo sum to the TAPE CUE L-R output jacks at the back of the unit. So that’s the output of it. The valuable distinction to absorb into your brain here is the inputs of the two different mixing sections, the input mixer and TAPE CUE mixer…the input mixer sources stuff from the outside world at the input jacks, OR the tape tracks depending on the setting of the input source switches for each channel (usually set to INPUT during tracking/overdubbing, and TAPE during mixdown), but the TAPE CUE mixer only sources the tape tracks, and, as noted in an earlier post, exists for the purpose of monitoring tape tracks while overdubbing. Again, as mentioned earlier, there are a couple other special purpose things you can do with the TAPE CUE mixing section, but at this point just wrap your head around its primary purpose as a cue monitor mixer for tape tracks. Again, if you’re using the headphone jacks to monitor the TAPE CUE mixer, the PAN controls don’t matter because you are monitoring in mono using the CUE setting on the monitor select switch…which is a mono sum of the L-R buss and the TAPE CUE mixer output.

To be continued…

 

[sweetbeats]

Additional reply part 2 of 2…

The last section is, of course, the tape section. And it’s a 4-track setup, so we have 4 channels in, and 4 channels out. The output side always goes to three places: 1. the input mixer channels 1-4 (when the source select switches are set to TAPE), 2. the TAPE CUE mixer channels 1-4 inputs, and 3. the TAPE OUT jacks 1-4. Now to what I see as the crux of your confusion…how signals get TO the tape. The 244 can be a little confusing because there are two different record modes, which are selected using the top switch of the three switches in the RECORD FUNCTION section above the master buss L-R fader: “SYNC”, and “4 CH REC”. Let’s talk about SYNC mode first, which is basically a mode that allows recording of up to two tracks at a time to any two tape tracks from ANYTHING assigned to the L or R busses. Using the bottom two switches in the RECORD FUNCTION section you can record track 1 OR track 3, AND track 2 OR track 4. Tracks 1 & 3 can ONLY source the L summing buss. Tracks 2 & 4 can ONLY source the R summing buss. This is where it’s important to understand and think about the master L-R buss as either a single stereo summing buss (where you have multiple sources panned across the stereo field), OR two mono summing busses, where you have one or more sources assigned to either the L buss or the R by using the input mixer PAN controls panned hard L or hard R. Any input 1-4 can be assigned to the L or R buss using the PAN controls on the input mixer channel strips, right? Or of course both L & R busses at the same time if panned center…or anything in between. But if you want to get a source printed to just one tape track, let’s say a bass guitar connected to input 3 and you want to get that on track 2, track 2 sources which summing buss? The R buss, correct? So sweep the input 3 PAN control hard R, set the top switch in the RECORD FUNCTION section to SYNC (the mode that lets you record up to 2 tracks simultaneously using the L-R buss), leave the next switch set to SAFE (because we’re not recording to tracks 1 or 3), and set the bottom switch to the left which record enables track 2 (“TRK 2”). If you wanted to put that bass guitar on track 1 or 3 you would set the input 3 PAN control hard L, set the middle switch in the RECORD FUNCTION section to either TRK 1 or TRK 3 (depending on whether you want to record to track 1 or track 3), and the bottom switch to SAFE. Here’s another example…let’s say you have a kick drum mic on input 1, a left overhead mic on input 2, and a right overhead mic on input 3, and you want to record a stereo mix of those three mics to tracks 1 & 2 with the kick drum in the center of the mix and the overheads in stereo…so, input 1 PAN is set to center, input 2 is hard L, input 3 is hard R, and then in the RECORD FUNCTION section the bottom two switches are to the left to record enable TRK 1 and TRK 2. The kick is going to both buss L and buss R because the kick mic input channel (channel 1) is panned center, and as a result it will record to both tracks 1 & 2, but this is a stereo pair of tracks…a stereo mix, and the kick drum will be in the center of the stereo pair of tracks, and the left overhead mic is assigned to the L buss and will record only on track 1, and the right overhead mic is assigned only to the R buss and will record only on track 2…stereo mix on two tracks of the three input sources. Or let’s say you have a guitar on input 3 and a vocal mic on input 4 and you want to record those to tracks 3 & 4 respectively…yep…you’re starting to get it now…input 3 PAN hard L, input 4 PAN hard R, the bottom two switches in the RECORD FUNCTION section are set to the right to record-enable TRK 3 and TRK 4. And remember, for all of the above actions, the intention is, if monitoring using headphones, you have the monitor source select switch set to CUE, so you can hear all L-R buss signals while recording, but in mono…and now you’re understanding why the CUE setting is mono, because during tracking you’re not using the L-R buss as a stereo summing buss necessarily, but more so typically as two mono summing busses and it can be distracting during recording to monitor, as in the last example for instance, your guitar in the left ear and your voice in the right. The L-R channels are more often during tracking and overdubbing being used to assign sources to specific tape tracks, and not necessarily to create a stereo mix. So the CUE monitoring is setup to be in mono. When it’s time to mix down and you set your input channels to TAPE, you set the monitor select to REMIX which monitors only the L-R buss but in stereo so you can create and hear your stereo mix. At the mixdown stage the input channel PAN controls are used to create that stereo field mix, as opposed to primarily being signal routing controls to get signals to desired tape tracks. And to expand one of the above examples and include using the TAPE CUE mixer, let’s say you recorded your drum mix from inputs 1, 2 & 3 to tracks 1 & 2, okay? And now you’re going to record that guitar and vocal performance to tracks 3 & 4, but you want to play along with and record to the drum tracks in sync…remember with the monitor select set to CUE it is not only a mono sum of the L-R buss, but ALSO includes a mono sum of the output of the TAPE CUE mixer channels 1-4 (and remember the PAN controls only feed the TAPE CUE L-R output jacks on the back…no effect when monitoring the TAPE CUE mixer via the CUE monitor path using headphones)…so setup the input mixer channel 3 & 4 PAN controls and RECORD FUNCTION switches as described above for the guitar and vocal overdubs. You should be able to hear these sources in the headphones. Rewind to the beginning of the drum tracks, press PLAY, and turn up the TAPE CUE mixer channels 1 & 2 LEVEL knobs; remember, these source tape tracks 1 & 2 and our hypothetical drum tracks we previously recorded. You should be able to hear the playback of the drum tracks in the headphones and rehearse the guitar and vocal performance, also hearing that in the headphones. Once you’re ready, rewind and hit REC/ PLAY and record the new guitar and vocal performance on tracks 3 & 4 while hearing the previously recorded drum tracks from tracks 1 & 2.

The last piece is the second record mode, 4 CH REC. This mode records directly to all 4 tape tracks at once from the correspondingly numbered inputs. Input 1 to track 1, input 2 to track 2 and so forth. Remember earlier I mentioned each of the 4 inputs on the input mixer has a direct out? And maybe you looked all over the 244 but couldn’t find the direct out jacks. This is because they are special direct outputs that are internal and only patch directly to the 4 tape tracks. They are only functional when using the 4 CH REC mode. All 4 tracks erase and record, which is why there’s a red LED that turns on when you’re in this mode to alert you and make sure it’s what you really want to do. If you record, say, guitar on track 4 using SYNC mode first and then have a drummer and bass player come in to track drums to tracks 1 & 2 and bass to track 3 and, because it’s more than 2 tracks at once you use 4 CH REC mode, you’ll wipe out your previously recorded guitar track on track 4. So you have to plan ahead if needing to track 3 or more tracks at once using the 4 CH REC mode.

I know this is a lot of info and really just echoes a small portion of what’s in the operation manual, but hopefully this helps to at least start sorting out the various PAN controls, what they do, how they’re used, how to get signals to where you want on tape and monitor them as needed and desired.

 

[christiandaelemans]

wow!!! your replies never cease to amaze me. i’ll spend the rest of my work shift reading this in small parts. thanks!

 

[sweetbeats]

Take your time. Usually the long replies are composed over the course of days here and there so it looks like more than it is. I’m not trying to overwhelm you or task you, just hopefully breaking down the sections of the 244, how they relate to each other, and how you use them during the different stages of recording. I would still like to make a video, I’ve just not had opportunity yet.

 

[N3rves]

Take your time. Usually the long replies are composed over the course of days here and there so it looks like more than it is. I’m not trying to overwhelm you or task you, just hopefully breaking down the sections of the 244, how they relate to each other, and how you use them during the different stages of recording. I would still like to make a video, I’ve just not had opportunity yet.

Additional reply part 1 of 2…

You need to stop trying to figure out how the main mixer (input channels 1-4, the channels with the TRIM, EQ, and AUX controls and of course input faders) and TAPE CUE mixer are interrelated…they’re not. They are independent mixers.

I’ll say this in the video I’ll make, but, big picture, a multi-channel audio mixing console is a thing that receives multiple signals typically of multiple types (mic level, line level, etc.), converts them all to a common signal type (level-matches them for instance), typically allows the operator to shape and process those signals, and then assign or direct those signals to multiple outputs either individually, or by combining or “summing” 2 or more signals together. Typically we call the pathways of the console that receive signals as channels…input channels. There anre other types of channels, but for the sake of simplicity, focusing on the 244 input mixer, I’ll just refer to input channels. And then we typically call pathways that sum signals together busses…think of a bus that can carry multiple people to a common place.

The Tascam 244 is really 3 main components combined into one device. There is the 4-track multitrack cassette recorder/reproducer, and then, like many period devices made by Tascam, there are actually two mixers: an input mixing console on the left, and a return or monitor mixer to the right above the tape transport; the TAPE CUE mixer. Yes, together they form one mixing console, but it’s helpful to consider them separately because they can and do function independent of each other for specific purposes.

Let’s look closer at the input mixer in the left, which is a “4x2” mixing console, meaning 4 input channels and a 2-channel summing buss; 4 into 2. The 2-channel summing buss, which is labeled as the “L-R” buss, can be used as a single stereo summing buss, or like two separate mono summing busses. You assign or route the 4 inputs to the 244’s main L-R summing buss using the PAN controls on the 4 input channel strips. An input panned center will be assigned equally to both of the 2-channel summing buss’ channels. And of course partially panning an input more L or more R will place the input signal more prominently in that respective summing buss channel. In this way you can create a stereo mix. If you pan an input all the way hard L or hard R, the signal will exclusively be placed in only that one single respective summing buss channel. So this is how you would use the L-R summing buss as a pair of mono summing busses. Are you with me so far? In my mind when I’m using a “stereo” or two channel summing buss as two mono summing busses, I don’t think of the summing buss channels as “L” or “R”, I think of them as “1” & “2”. The 4x2 input mixer also, BTW, has an auxiliary summing buss, the 2-channel AUX buss that’s setup for stereo operation, but also, like the master summing buss, can be used as a pair of mono summing busses. So those are the summing outputs for the 4 inputs of the input mixer. There are also direct outputs for each input channel, but they have a dedicated purpose and I’ll talk about that later.

Next we have the TAPE CUE mixer, the set of 4 concentric knobs there above the transport. Again, this is another, albeit very basic, 4x2 mixing console, which also has a mono feed to the CUE monitor path. As I’ve mentioned earlier the output of the TAPE CUE section goes to two places…a mono sum to the CUE setting of the monitor select switch and then that goes to the BUSS MONITOR knob and then the headphone jacks…and the stereo sum to the TAPE CUE L-R output jacks. Again, the TAPE CUE PAN controls have no effect on the mono sum to the CUE monitor path to the headphones…they only have an effect on the stereo sum to the TAPE CUE L-R output jacks at the back of the unit. So that’s the output of it. The valuable distinction to absorb into your brain here is the inputs of the two different mixing sections, the input mixer and TAPE CUE mixer…the input mixer sources stuff from the outside world at the input jacks, OR the tape tracks depending on the setting of the input source switches for each channel (usually set to INPUT during tracking/overdubbing, and TAPE during mixdown), but the TAPE CUE mixer only sources the tape tracks, and, as noted in an earlier post, exists for the purpose of monitoring tape tracks while overdubbing. Again, as mentioned earlier, there are a couple other special purpose things you can do with the TAPE CUE mixing section, but at this point just wrap your head around its primary purpose as a cue monitor mixer for tape tracks. Again, if you’re using the headphone jacks to monitor the TAPE CUE mixer, the PAN controls don’t matter because you are monitoring in mono using the CUE setting on the monitor select switch…which is a mono sum of the L-R buss and the TAPE CUE mixer output.

To be continued…

I've seen some tape cue pcbs being sold on both reverb and ebay, do these "go bad"and need replacement? Or can these be used independently as a mixer or preamp? I'm wondering because I have a couple portastudios that got messed up in a flood and no longer function as recording devices but the preamps and mixers still work on both when plugged in, I just can't record or do anything else with it. I was thinking of maybe trying to turn the preamps into pedals by trying to take them out and rehouse them. Dumb idea? Possible? If possible, not worth it? The tech I took them to said the repair bill would be just about the cost of a new one (new used one).
Thanks for any response and sorry for hijacking the main thread topic

 

[sweetbeats]

I've seen some tape cue pcbs being sold on both reverb and ebay, do these "go bad"and need replacement?

No. Not that I know of. It’s a simple 4x2 line level summing mixer with input buffer and output driver stages, and then a summing stage. Input coupling and output resistors are onboard…it’s pretty self-contained, which is not always the case. Of course it needs power to work.

Or can these be used independently as a mixer or preamp?

I mean, yeah, in the case of the TAPE CUE amplifier assembly in the 244 it’s a 4x2 active line level summing mixer. Line level…not mic or instrument, so it’s not a “preamp”…but like I said above it needs power…bipolar power rails so you have to add a power supply. In the 244 it’s +/-12V which is lower headroom… I’d have to look at the cap specs to see if it could take +/-15V…it probably can.

I'm wondering because I have a couple portastudios that got messed up in a flood and no longer function as recording devices but the preamps and mixers still work on both when plugged in, I just can't record or do anything else with it. I was thinking of maybe trying to turn the preamps into pedals by trying to take them out and rehouse them. Dumb idea? Possible? If possible, not worth it?

I’m confused…by pedal you mean like a guitar pedal? What would you do with a mic preamp or line amp in a guitar pedal? And what Portastudios are we talking about? The TAPE CUE assembly in the 244 is unusually self-contained. But that’s not the case with other models or sections of the mixer…so what is it you’re wanting to build?

 

[N3rves]

yeah like a guitar pedal,

No. Not that I know of. It’s a simple 4x2 line level summing mixer with input buffer and output driver stages, and then a summing stage. Input coupling and output resistors are onboard…it’s pretty self-contained, which is not always the case. Of course it needs power to work.



I mean, yeah, in the case of the TAPE CUE amplifier assembly in the 244 it’s a 4x2 active line level summing mixer. Line level…not mic or instrument, so it’s not a “preamp”…but like I said above it needs power…bipolar power rails so you have to add a power supply. In the 244 it’s +/-12V which is lower headroom… I’d have to look at the cap specs to see if it could take +/-15V…it probably can.



I’m confused…by pedal you mean like a guitar pedal? What would you do with a mic preamp or line amp in a guitar pedal? And what Portastudios are we talking about? The TAPE CUE assembly in the 244 is unusually self-contained. But that’s not the case with other models or sections of the mixer…so what is it you’re wanting to build?

Yeah I was thinking like a guitar pedal, the preamp makes for some nasty fuzz, Ive seen some pedals based off the 4 tracks preamp, which could be cool but I don't know much further than that. the two portastudios I have are the Tascam MF-P01 and Porta 02. I'm just trying to find a way to use what's left of these decks if possible.

 

[Papanate]

I mean, yeah, in the case of the TAPE CUE amplifier assembly in the 244 it’s a 4x2 active line level summing mixer. Line level…not mic or instrument, so it’s not a “preamp”…but like I said above it needs power…bipolar power rails so you have to add a power supply. In the 244 it’s +/-12V which is lower headroom… I’d have to look at the cap specs to see if it could take +/-15V…it probably can.

How do you power the Bipolar Power Rails?

 

[sweetbeats]

yeah like a guitar pedal,

Yeah I was thinking like a guitar pedal, the preamp makes for some nasty fuzz, Ive seen some pedals based off the 4 tracks preamp, which could be cool but I don't know much further than that. the two portastudios I have are the Tascam MF-P01 and Porta 02. I'm just trying to find a way to use what's left of these decks if possible.

Well you need to understand if people are using “preamps” in pedals for fuzz or distortion, that means it is likely truly a “preamp” circuit intended for a low level signal like a microphone. So…that is a mic level circuit. The TAPE CUE circuit is not a “preamp”. It is a line level amplifier. Your passive guitar is not likely to drive a line amp to clipping (in order to elicit fuzz or distortion). So you would want to extract any mic preamp circuits out of your Portastudios, only the circuitry on those two models is all on one larger PCB. You’re not going to fit that in a pedal case. You’d have to identify the specific components of the preamp circuit and output driver and pull those off that main PCB and install them on proto board or something. But I think the “preamps” on those two models, like the 244, were designed to handle mic to line level as well as instrument level. I’m not sure you would even be able to drive those to distortion with your guitar. Try it. If you can’t plug your guitar into either device and get it to distort it’s not going to be any different in a pedal box. And even if you like the sound it’s going to require re-engineering. And if it doesn’t distort and you want it to, same thing…re-engineering. Each to their own but I think you’re looking for different droids than what’s in your Portastudios. Can you share a link to any additional info where people have taken “preamps” and made them into a stompbox?

 

[sweetbeats]

How do you power the Bipolar Power Rails?

With two unipolar power supplies and reference the 0V rail of one to the positive rail of the other…that creates your +/- and the 0V /+ rail bonded together is your overall 0V reference for the +/- rails, or buy a power supply module that is +/-12 or +/-15V…Power One…Lambda…or you can find small ones, like a pre-fab PCB assembly like on eBay or whatever…or you could also just use a unipolar wall wart, but it would need to be +24V or +30V…the +output goes to the + inputs on the active devices and the -output goes to the - inputs on the active devices. But then you’d have to deal with the system and audio ground would float and I’m not sure that would work well at all in a stomp box setup. But this is not really my wheelhouse and I’m sure there are forums where this kind of info is a-plenty. Or I don’t know…maybe you want super low headroom so you power it with a unipolar 12V supply and with the ground floating it’s like +/-6V to the active devices. These are things I don’t know because I don’t dabble in stompboxes.

 

[N3rves]

Well you need to understand if people are using “preamps” in pedals for fuzz or distortion, that means it is likely truly a “preamp” circuit intended for a low level signal like a microphone. So…that is a mic level circuit. The TAPE CUE circuit is not a “preamp”. It is a line level amplifier. Your passive guitar is not likely to drive a line amp to clipping (in order to elicit fuzz or distortion). So you would want to extract any mic preamp circuits out of your Portastudios, only the circuitry on those two models is all on one larger PCB. You’re not going to fit that in a pedal case. You’d have to identify the specific components of the preamp circuit and output driver and pull those off that main PCB and install them on proto board or something. But I think the “preamps” on those two models, like the 244, were designed to handle mic to line level as well as instrument level. I’m not sure you would even be able to drive those to distortion with your guitar. Try it. If you can’t plug your guitar into either device and get it to distort it’s not going to be any different in a pedal box. And even if you like the sound it’s going to require re-engineering. And if it doesn’t distort and you want it to, same thing…re-engineering. Each to their own but I think you’re looking for different droids than what’s in your Portastudios. Can you share a link to any additional info where people have taken “preamps” and made them into a stompbox?

4-Track Fuzz

Lo-fi fuzz tones from gentle to total splattery horror, built to sound like pushing a portastudio input. Lots of ground can be covered with the Bass and Treble controls, making this a fun fuzzy fella. An hour or so simply disappeared when trying out the test build... The kit is supplied with...

£30.00

shop.pedalparts.co.uk

ScratchTrack PCB – Inspired by Demo Tape Fuzz – Rullywow DIY Guitar Pedal PCB Store

rullywow.com

https://reverb.com/item/82472409-mid-fi-electronics-demo-tape-fuzz-2024-various

Here are some links, but it seems like I probably won't be able to do what I'm thinking. The guitar does distort when pushed through the mic/line inputs but if it's all mounted to the same board then it would just be like a tascam deck sized pedal lol.

 

[Papanate]

With two unipolar power supplies and reference the 0V rail of one to the positive rail of the other…that creates your +/- and the 0V /+ rail bonded together is your overall 0V reference for the +/- rails, or buy a power supply module that is +/-12 or +/-15V…Power One…Lambda…or you can find small ones, like a pre-fab PCB assembly like on eBay or whatever…or you could also just use a unipolar wall wart, but it would need to be +24V or +30V…the +output goes to the + inputs on the active devices and the -output goes to the - inputs on the active devices. But then you’d have to deal with the system and audio ground would float and I’m not sure that would work well at all in a stomp box setup. But this is not really my wheelhouse and I’m sure there are forums where this kind of info is a-plenty. Or I don’t know…maybe you want super low headroom so you power it with a unipolar 12V supply and with the ground floating it’s like +/-6V to the active devices. These are things I don’t know because I don’t dabble in stompboxes.

So you just solder the Power Supply into the circuit? That seems a bit wonky.

 

[sweetbeats]

So you just solder the Power Supply into the circuit? That seems a bit wonky.

Mmmmnnoo. You asked how you power the circuits and I gave some examples of power supplies. I said nothing about how to mechanically mount or incorporate different power supplies into the project.

 

[sweetbeats]

4-Track Fuzz

Lo-fi fuzz tones from gentle to total splattery horror, built to sound like pushing a portastudio input. Lots of ground can be covered with the Bass and Treble controls, making this a fun fuzzy fella. An hour or so simply disappeared when trying out the test build... The kit is supplied with...

£30.00

shop.pedalparts.co.uk

ScratchTrack PCB – Inspired by Demo Tape Fuzz – Rullywow DIY Guitar Pedal PCB Store

rullywow.com

https://reverb.com/item/82472409-mid-fi-electronics-demo-tape-fuzz-2024-various

Here are some links, but it seems like I probably won't be able to do what I'm thinking. The guitar does distort when pushed through the mic/line inputs but if it's all mounted to the same board then it would just be like a tascam deck sized pedal lol.

So, after taking a look at those links, first of all, they all utilize a standard 9VDC wall wart power supply or battery…just like any standard stompbox. And the circuits are NOTHING like your Porta 02 or MF-P01 machines, or the 244. Completely different circuits. I’m not sure how they correlate that the circuit designs create over-driven cassette portastudio preamp fuzz…I think its not a deliberate design, but something somebody did, and when they listened to the result somebody said, subjectively, it sounds like an overdriven cassette 4-track. But I’m not even sure how you could get any kind of substantial distortion on any of the above Tascam inputs unless you cranked the trim, and fed the input with a high level input like a +4dBu line level source, also boosted. My point is, with a source connected to the Tascam that is within the design parameters (like a passive electric guitar, for instance), you’re not going to achieve substantial distortion…not some kind of yummy fuzz. Maybe if you cranked every stage and had a mix of electronic clipping and some tape saturation you might get something interesting, but that involves all stages of the Tascam machine…input stages, record stages, playback and mix stages. So maybe the stompbox is trying to emulate that. I don’t know how that would sound. That’s not how I’ve ever used a Tascam 4-track cassette machine. The low headroom of the power supply of the stompbox and the fact the circuits are designed for boost is how the stompbox creates drive and distortion to the signal. You can’t get that just by taking the input preamp of either of your machines (and definitely not the 244 TAPE CUE circuit you mentioned). So your best option if you want to have something like that stompbox in your signal path is to buy one of the kits. That’s my opinion.

 

[sweetbeats]

I watched the video in the Reverb listing. It sounds like a fuzz/distortion box. Maybe it’s a thing I’ve not heard of that people are in some way bringing an old cassette 4-track on stage with them and are using it in some way to get a fuzz/distortion effect, but my hunch is the correlation to a cassette 4-track is a subjective marketing initiative. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good product, but I don’t believe you can get anything near the same result by using just any circuit block or blocks from a cassette 4-track, or even the whole machine. At least not with the easy control of tones and fuzz/distortion level. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Papanate]

Mmmmnnoo. You asked how you power the circuits and I gave some examples of power supplies. I said nothing about how to mechanically mount or incorporate different power supplies into the project.

How do you mechanically mount a power supply?