B
Beck
Guest
Whoa, he says. How did I miss this poll? Then I saw it started before I was a member (which is also known as the good old days to some of you). 
I owned the first three Tascam portastudios -- buying them new, TEAC 144, Tascam 244 and 246. Still have the 246.
The 246 is my favorite and my vote for best ever, as I think they started cutting corners shortly after to compete with the flood of cheep portable studios from more companies than I can name. They started coming out before, but just kept coming.
I wasn't completely happy with the eq though -- almost like leaving off the top. Like the 244, it has a 62 Hz-1.5k parametric and a 1k-8k parametric. By conventional thinking that’s a low and mid.
It wasn't a deal killer though you just had to get a feel for subtractive eq.
So, my best ever portastudio was never quite invented.
My idea was for a 246 MKII with an added 10k shelving eq. The 246 had some redundancy that wasn't necessary. If you look at the channel strip there are four channel buttons in a row labeled L/1, R/2, 3, and 4. Four buss assign buttons aren’t needed – only two. That’s because the record enable buttons and pan knobs take care of it by themselves. Even for recording four tracks at once with four separate channels doesn’t take four assign buttons.
They could have used only two assign buttons, labeled 1/2 and 3/4 like you find on the 200 series mixers, then used the freed up space for a 10k shelving eq right below the trim knob and moved everything down. For any benefit there may have been to four buttons, I would have rather had the eq.
Unfortunately, my dream MKII was not to be. For years mostly what we saw were cheap and chincy cassette toys (not all, but most). It just wasn’t financially realistic for Tascam to put quality first – no one cared.
Most of my friends had something – the Yamaha MT something or other, a smaller X-something Fostex and Vesta Fire that I can remember. Every single one of them needed major servicing or replacement within a few months - no more than a year. My 246 still has never failed after 18 years. I’ve replaced the belts and pinch roller once myself. Every tape machine made will need that at some point (even digital ones).
So there’s my vote and my long-winded reason why. – complete with pros and cons, just so you know I’m not just a semimetal fool for the old days.
-Tim
I owned the first three Tascam portastudios -- buying them new, TEAC 144, Tascam 244 and 246. Still have the 246.
The 246 is my favorite and my vote for best ever, as I think they started cutting corners shortly after to compete with the flood of cheep portable studios from more companies than I can name. They started coming out before, but just kept coming.
I wasn't completely happy with the eq though -- almost like leaving off the top. Like the 244, it has a 62 Hz-1.5k parametric and a 1k-8k parametric. By conventional thinking that’s a low and mid.
It wasn't a deal killer though you just had to get a feel for subtractive eq.
So, my best ever portastudio was never quite invented.
My idea was for a 246 MKII with an added 10k shelving eq. The 246 had some redundancy that wasn't necessary. If you look at the channel strip there are four channel buttons in a row labeled L/1, R/2, 3, and 4. Four buss assign buttons aren’t needed – only two. That’s because the record enable buttons and pan knobs take care of it by themselves. Even for recording four tracks at once with four separate channels doesn’t take four assign buttons.
They could have used only two assign buttons, labeled 1/2 and 3/4 like you find on the 200 series mixers, then used the freed up space for a 10k shelving eq right below the trim knob and moved everything down. For any benefit there may have been to four buttons, I would have rather had the eq.
Unfortunately, my dream MKII was not to be. For years mostly what we saw were cheap and chincy cassette toys (not all, but most). It just wasn’t financially realistic for Tascam to put quality first – no one cared.
Most of my friends had something – the Yamaha MT something or other, a smaller X-something Fostex and Vesta Fire that I can remember. Every single one of them needed major servicing or replacement within a few months - no more than a year. My 246 still has never failed after 18 years. I’ve replaced the belts and pinch roller once myself. Every tape machine made will need that at some point (even digital ones).
So there’s my vote and my long-winded reason why. – complete with pros and cons, just so you know I’m not just a semimetal fool for the old days.
-Tim
