4-track to 8-track?

[Masters Of War]

Hello, I have a tascam 488 and was wondering if a pal of mine records a drum track on a 4-track recorder can I record guitar onto that 4-track casset or is there no way, maybe a casset which records on both 8 and 4-track recorders? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks much.

 

[Beck]

Yes and no. If the speed of the decks are the same you can record tracks with either machine and have it play back on either machine, but… The sound will be unpredictable because one track on the 4-track will cover two tracks on the 8-track, and one track on the 8-track will only cover half a track on the 4-track.

You can expect levels to be too high or too low, frequency cancellation, distortion and the noise reduction behaving badly. If you just want to collaborate to work out some parts you can probably tolerate it. I wouldn’t recommend it for a demo.


-Tim