Recent content by Chilljam

In my opinion, a 4 track cassette recorder is still the quickest way to capture your song ideas and riffs down. I think of it as the perfect musical sketch pad. There have been countless famous and very talented artists recording their demos and ideas on cassette since the 80s and some still...

Whether it's a trend or not, I'm not sure. Maybe there is an untapped market for locally released CDs but the majority of bands I've seen in the last few years are choosing to sell cassette or vinyl copies of their music from the merch stand at their gigs.

A lot of major label releases are still offering cassettes as an option for the consumer. Cassette releases have increased in the last few years. There is a cassette label local to me that can supply cassettes, artwork and duplication services for quite cheap, so you can arrange your own...

Agree - although myself and many others on this forum have a similar approach/mentality as described in this video.

Denon DN-790R is the one I have that has the auto setup. It is in my opinion the best of the best in terms of cassette decks in my opinion and can never understand why the Teac/Tascam counterparts fetch substantially higher prices on the used market.

In my opinion, if you aren't using DBX on an 8 track cassette format, I wouldn't bother using it on the mixdown to VHS HiFi format. You will have a (relatively) high amount of audible hiss from the 8 track cassette format and the additional hiss added in the mixdown process to VHS will be...

:facepalm:

What tape are you using? Unless it's something physical (like dirty tape heads or worn heads), excessive hiss is a byproduct of either your repro/record levels being out or your record bias. You'll need a calibration tape (MRL sell these for about US$140 new) and calibrate the machine as per...

15ips vs 7.5ips shifts the machines EQ curve by an octave. For some music genres, I actually prefer 7.5ips for tracking. When I had my Tascam MSR16 (and now a Otari 1/2" 4 track) both sound very good at 7.5ips when properly setup for that speed.

Eddie Kramer has been constantly doing new mixes of the music he recorded with Jimi Hendrix for the last 40 years.

Just test it thoroughly before handing over the money. Great machine though, hopefully you get a lot of use out of it.

If it has separate record and playback heads you can record to tape then record the monitor off the playback head into your DAW. That way you can get infinite number of multitracks in the DAW while still recording to tape for the sound and they all line up exactly as you are monitoring off the...

Also a very excellent way of saving money on tape and machine costs. Multitracking to a 16/24 track 2" machine then dumping all the individual tracks to DAW is essentially the equivalent of recording through a pro 1/4" 2 track machine like a Revox or Otari and you save bucket loads on tape.

I had the same problem (60Hz hum) with a Tascam MSR16 using a cheap eBay step down transfer 240v - 120v. For me, the key was to get an isolated transformer. I got exactly this one from Jaycar https://www.jaycar.com.au/250w-240-120v-isolated-stepdown-transformer/p/MF1082 Pin drop silence as...

3 steps that worked for me to put an end to the constant acquisition of gear. 1. No browsing eBay/CL/Facebook/Gumtree at all. 2. Put together a simple, robust, flexible and portable setup strictly with working gear that you already own. 3. Sell everything else that isn't 100% required to make...