cassette recording problems

crimsonclover

crimsonclover

Member
hello, have the tascam688. I understand the assign main, assign effects and input LCD displays as far as I know, spent all night getting familiar with it.

I am using a 110 tape and when recording everything works fine. when I try to re-record another take the previous recording is still present but the quality is down graded. The more I re-record and repeat it keeps building up.

Sam in Chicago think it's probably not the tape, and before I understood the assign main page on the LCD I managed to patch over my problem with track 5 or 6 with no faint previous recording and I double checked it multiple times to make sure the other track was patched over (somehow I still think maybe I messed it up). I had just used the rubbing alcohol to clean everything a second time and it patch over the recording at the level I wanted it to be at.
Now that I pretty much understand the LCD programming matrix or whatever, buttons and stuff for the most part to test it out, I am having the same issue.

I messed with the meters on the flip panel with the light up sound bars and turned them down and recording real silent sounds thinking the signal was to strong and that didn't seem to work.

I found a thread on here and forgot to book it but it didn't really have any answers.

I could wire it through my scarlet audio interface but the whole point of the damn thing was not to be on my computer unless I was equalizing stuff or something and it would be cool to collect master copies on cassette.

If anyone knows how to correct this issue because I know it happens would be just nifty. thanks
 
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Sounds like you should post this in the Analog recording sub-forum. I stopped using cassette muti-trackers over 15 years ago, largely because of computers, but this is the kind of thing that makes using cassette multi-trackers, um, frustrating, to say the very least. I have to ask, what's the rationale for using cassette tape?
 
TimOD said:
Sounds like you should post this in the Analog recording sub-forum. I stopped using cassette muti-trackers over 15 years ago, largely because of computers, but this is the kind of thing that makes using cassette multi-trackers, um, frustrating, to say the very least. I have to ask, what's the rationale for using cassette tape?
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not a seasoned musician or anything but it seems more intimate rather than on a computer where I do basically everything else and old school is hip I was kinda going for. So when I make a hit they can say, "he used the good old tascam", lol, and then I get do commercials for reverb.com and stuff well after the capital one commercials also, but i'll do reverb out of the kindness of my heart. : )

It seemed like a newbie question but I will post in analog if you would like in the future.
 
Yes, jump over to the tape people. Could just be a dirty erase head, or tape 'weave' or a misaligned transport.

Whenever any kind of tape recording is involved, cotton buds and a bottle of ISOPROPA should always be at your elbow and clean before every take.

Dave.
 
I wonder how using a cassette is more intimate than using something like a Zoom R24 or DP24SD? Maybe because I never went down the multitrack cassette path, it holds no romance for me, but I did use multitrack reel to reel and it holds no allure for me.

When I got my AW16G, I was astounded that I didn't have to work around the problems with tape noise, wasted time rewinding, alignment and all the other things that audio tape involves. One box, no fancy screens or meters. The only problem with the 16G was that it only had a 40G hard drive and backing up was a pain. I have even gotten stuff to convert it to SDHC cards, so I could swap them out, just like a tape. Instant unlimited storage.

I've got boxes of old MXLII UD, SA90, BASF CrO2 cassettes in the basement. I recently played a few, and if that's old school sound, then I'm ready for new math!

Maybe I should bulk erase a couple dozen of them and post them for sale on Reverb.
 
I think I figured it out. It's bleeding over to other tracks. If I arm all 8 tracks and overdub on the track I just recorded on . I don't hear anything. That's pretty much what I need to do, I just tested it out.

I tried to mute THE OTHER tracks but that didn't work the other day. Still heard the previous recording faint sound. I don't know why it builds up like that either.

I'm a bit confused still but this method at least cleans things up.
I'll start a thread in ANALOG . thanks for the comments.
 
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