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I think we have different goals here - or different versions of a similar goal.:) I'm not interested in correcting things at the level you're describing. But good to have all this info in the thread! Oddly, it doesn't seem like very many of the people who post regularly in this forum are big...

I feel like either we're talking about different things or (more likely) I'm not clear on what y'all are referring to there.:) The idea is to retain exactly what was originally recorded, not "stretch" or automatically "quantize" anything. I certainly don't want the software making decisions...

My process goes like this: record first 4 tracks, transfer those to the DAW. Then record the next 4 (for me these are usually multiple takes of vocals or instrumental solos). For each of those 4 new tracks I am both recording to tape and to the multitrack in the DAW. The tracks in the DAW are of...

I should add that the first 4 tracks are always the rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar) so that everything else is arranged in time with those first 4. It's much easier to quickly line up a vocal track say, than it would be to add, say, a drum track as the 5th (or 6th or 7th, etc.) track. And I...

Haha - Yeah, that's a decent metaphor, that isn't far off from my relationship with cars.:) I detest modern vehicles and smartphones, and although my cars don't have screens, I do appreciate the GPS on my wife's smartphone when we go on trips.:) It's actually very easy to quickly line up the...

Just thought I'd add an update to this in case anyone else was dealing with similar issues, since I've hit on an interesting way to utilize both digital and analog in what I'm doing. After playing a lot with other tape formats, I've continued to be drawn back to the 4 track cassette format for...

I love Nebraska but I always thought it was an odd one to point to in order to affirm the status of the Portastudio. Bruce's original tracks sound like exactly what they were: home recordings, which totally worked for those tunes (after a good bit of mixing and mastering). But I've heard many...

Hi all - I've resolved this one fortunately. I'm now very happily using a Tascam 488, which is plenty of tracks for what I'm doing. I still am doing a wee bit of tweaking to the final stereo mix once I get it to the DAW but I think I can live with that - I mainly didn't want the puter involved...

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, I'm hoping that maybe the issue is just my kinda budget level interface. And that getting - as you say, "out of the basement" might help. The slightly disturbing thing is that I don't recall ever thinking there was anything particularly displeasing about this...

Well, I had a very sobering experience here. I recently went back to recording/mixing on tape with no computer, using a Tascam 488 and a 22-4 and I'm ecstatically happy. However, of course I still do have to get these tunes into the digital domain at some point if I want to share them with...

Yeah, I got it for $500, which was actually kind of a steal, especially considering how thoroughly this guy refurbished the thing... I really got lucky. It feels brand new. Many of the ones online that *claim* to be refurbished are close to 1k, and almost all sellers I found were in Japan and...

Even short-lived adventures are worth having.;) Often it's the short-lived ones that are the most clarifying in fact. But it's impossible to know where the journey leads until you take the journey. You gotta follow what compells you... not necessarily what "makes sense" to others. This much I've...

This has all been super helpful, y'all - thanks again. It was more of a puzzle I was trying to get my head around than a long-term solution, really. But it has also verified what I was coming to anyway: namely, that getting off the DAW entirely is going to require a machine with more tracks. I...

Ah, I get you. That makes sense. Thanks, Scott - you've been super helpful.

Interesting! Thanks for that, Rich! I appreciate the time you took, man. It looks to me like you got more variation than I did when I did a similar test, but I'd bet that you're correct: if I were to do a test that was the length of an actual song (rather than a few seconds) I would have results...

Thanks for the further responses, Scott and Farview! It's much appreciated. Ok, if my tiny brain is grokking this correctly, what it seems like is that there are two ways to go as far as this "bouncing to the DAW" thing: 1) You record tracks on the 4 track, bounce them all to the DAW, mix them...

Thanks much for the further info Scott and Farview! So, trying to get my head around these 2 bits of info: and So, wouldn't that mean that even lining up everything to the sharp hit (a la the movie slate) there would still be drift/variance over time? In which case it would seem that my idea...

That's cool man - if it doesn't resonate for you, that means you're on a different path, one that's right for you. Awesome! It may not necessarily be the same path you're on 20 years from now... or maybe it will be. It's all good either way.:)

Hi all - Thanks very much for the input! So am I correct in assuming that means the "variance" issues in terms of tape playback are all around where it *starts*? As in: if there is a clearly defined sound (like a snare hit) that everything starts from, the tape will unroll or whatever at the...

Hi all - Say I have 4 tracks on a tape based recorder (in my case a cassette portastudio) and I then output the stereo mix of those 4 tracks to an eternal source - say, a DAW. Then I send a mono version of that mix back to a single track on the portastudio as a reference. Now I have 3 tracks...