Best sounding cassette 4 Track?

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Rickson Gracie

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Is it safe to say that the vintage TASCAM 246 is the best cassette multitrack sonically both past and present?

is the 388 a big jump up??

ALSO can i use my Blue Robbie mic pre with the 246? How would I use compression? What is a good compression unit that will work well with this?

I also found a Tascam 464 on criagslist locally. Is that unit comparable in sound qaulity to the 246? Thanks.
 
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Rickson Gracie said:
Is it safe to say that the vintage TASCAM 246 is the best cassette multitrack sonically both past and present?
Click to expand...

Yes, the 246 along with the 244 and 234.

is the 388 a big jump up??
Click to expand...

YES.

ALSO can i use my Blue Robbie mic pre with the 246? How would I use compression? What is a good compression unit that will work well with this?
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the Blue Robbie but I would think so. You'd use compression by using the inserts on the 246. Any unit would do, like the RNC for example.

I also found a Tascam 464 on criagslist locally. Is that unit comparable in sound qaulity to the 246?
Click to expand...

I don't know, I never used the 464 but I'd imagine the sound to be fairly similar. Your biggest issue with these 'vintage' units would be how worn they are and how bad the rubber parts got, namely capstan belt and pinch roller.

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thanks for the replies -

i am probably going to go with the 388 (someone PM if they want to sell theirs:)


So i just hook up a RNC or reverb to the inserts of the 388 and then I can use compression on the channels simultaneously while mixing??
 
Rickson Gracie said:
Is it safe to say that the vintage TASCAM 246 is the best cassette multitrack sonically both past and present?
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure how safe it is. I had an Audio Technica RMX-64 (assuming I recall the name right) that ran at 3 3/4 ips and had Dolby B or C and it sounded pretty good for a cassette multitrack, plus it had a pretty decent little mixer.

I also had a J37 for a while but it had transport issues I could never quite resolve, so I sold it to Mitch Easter some years back and he basically just brought it on line in his studio within the last year with the help of Fred Hill, IIRC. Truly an amazing beast, regardless! I think it weighs about 350 pounds. And no VU meters, though Mitch has threatened to change that. You also have to figure out how you want to deal with the tape speed issue, since they were built to run 7.5/15 ips on 50 Hz AC. My plan was to just run it at 18 ips (on the 60 Hz line voltage) and be happy, but as I say, the capstan issues were beyond my capabilities.

My 3M M-79 1/2" 4-track is pretty amazing, too, and runs at 30 ips, which the J37s generally did not do, but again, we were talking about cassette machines at first, weren't we? :)

Cheers,

Otto
 
Hello, all! New here. May I cut in? :)

How does the 424 MKII compare to the 246 as far as sound quality goes? I've recently snagged a 424 MKII off eBay, and I love it!

Six
 
To me, the best 4-track cassette machine ever made was the Marantz PMD 740. Too many features to list.
 
It is safe to say that to be able to say that The 4-track Cassette Deck XXX is the Best Sounding 4-track cassette deck ever, one MUST have had at one time all the other 4-track cassette decks ever been made and have a real good use of all of them so to be able to compare.

Yet, people can do more than they able to do and are gladly doing so :)

btw, the deck I had - is pretty amazing ;)

:D:D:D
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cjacek said:
Your biggest issue with these 'vintage' units would be how worn they are and how bad the rubber parts got, namely capstan belt and pinch roller....
Click to expand...
YES!
...And plus the condition of all the rest of the parts / electronic components / control pots.
*************
/respects
 
Okay,...

So let's each have no opinion at all,... but instead let's write posts that are cryptic, hard to understand and yet say nothing of substance.:eek:;)

I'll admit, no one could reasonably have each and every cassette 4-tracker out there, but with a broad experience with enough different ones, a person could make valid judgments about units, or groups & classes of 4-trackers out there, based on real experience and a trained assessment of each 4-tracker on it's own merit.

For instance, it's easy for any moderately experienced user to determine a Tascam 246 works and sounds way better than a Fostex X-12. That's just common sense.

When it comes to the relative differences between a group of similar units, either high end or low end, it often gets down to features and capability, but on sound quality you're really splitting hairs.:eek:;) Based on specs alone, they all sound very similar.:eek:;)

In the turnaround, it's also reasonable to assume that a better equipped unit or more sophisticated set of features would enable you the opportunity to make a better sounding recording or mix.:eek:;)
 
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After reading all of this I'm starting to miss my Tascam 488 which I sold about 5 years ago... :(
I wasn't aware that so many people still record using cassette multitrackers. I used to sync it to a Roland mc303 groovebox and a Akai s2000 sampler which worked fine but was rather complicated, so I was glad when I switched to a DAW. But now I'm kinda starting to want it back...
 
Yeah,...

That one's a trip!:eek:;)

I've thought of it as MF-P01-enhanced-meets-AX10-efx-meets-boom-box!!:eek:;)

It has it's own charm, I suppose.:eek:;)
 

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On the Korg site, that first demo sounds like asses, but the second one actually has enough top end on it. Not bad.
 
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