Followup: Will Cassette Portastudios be manufactured again?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blue Jinn
  • Start date Start date

Will Cassette Portastudios be mfgd in the future?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 12.5%

  • No

    Votes: 28 87.5%

  • Currently existing units repair supported by new parts

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • Total voters
    32
I...

I have dozens of cassette Portas and thousands of Type II cassettes in stock, hoarding them for the apocalypse. A couple brand NIB 424mk3's, a 414mkII and many like-new-in-box Portas such as the 688 and 644. I keep a 424mkIII, 424mkII, 488mkII, 244, 246 and MF-P01 out & covered on tables for that spontaneous moment. 1500 new Type II cassettes at last count, and maybe a thousand more with stuff on them, in boxes, bins & racks.

You could say I'm a fanatic. You could say I'm cracked. I'll be an avid cassetteer til my dying day.

Got reel too. That's another post.:eek:;)
 
I used to have this Yamaha MT 100 Mk.2 ... they had an MT100 and got trashed for some shortcomings so they released a Mk2 in order to have something available at the Music messe in Frankfurt (was that 1992?) and the 120 was not finished yet. Boy was that fun! As long as six tracks was enough ... used to mixdown on my Sony RtR (TC 850) and record back onto two tracks. Then, all of a sudden, hard disc recording became available for my kind of money ... sorry I´ll stop ranting about senselessly now!
 
If there was a sonic advantage to a cassette Portastudio then perhaps there could be a continuation of the breed. However there simply isn't any advantage to them. Quality reel to reel on the other hand is IMP still the finest method of audio reproduction so they hopefully will be around for a while. I recently purchased a professional cassette recorder and while it is quite good it isn't in the same league as my digital equipment or my reel to reel machine.
 
Lance Lawson said:
If there was a sonic advantage to a cassette Portastudio then perhaps there could be a continuation of the breed. However there simply isn't any advantage to them. Quality reel to reel on the other hand is IMP still the finest method of audio reproduction so they hopefully will be around for a while. I recently purchased a professional cassette recorder and while it is quite good it isn't in the same league as my digital equipment or my reel to reel machine.
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I disagree. For me cassette has a nice character that works for me and my clients. Sure it's not hi-fi, but one can make a very decent recording on cassette when used right. Also, a portastudio is very nice way to homerecord and this is homerecording.com. cheers, Hermann
 
Sure it's not hi-fi...
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"hi-fi" is a dangerous term...used to mean something different than how I see it being used these days. Don't sell yourself or the medium short. I'm sure you weren't trying to do either, but cassette is every bit of "hi-fi" IMO. Wellll...yeah okay there are, for sure, cassette decks out there that are lo-fi...plenty of them. There are digital units that I'd call lo-fi too, but what happens at Casa Cassette on those 688's (and many other places on quality cockroach spoolers) is hi-fi. Yup.
 
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Bobby Darko said:
I disagree. For me cassette has a nice character that works for me and my clients. Sure it's not hi-fi, but one can make a very decent recording on cassette when used right. Also, a portastudio is very nice way to homerecord and this is homerecording.com. cheers, Hermann
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for the most part, I agree. Depends on what you are going for. if you are looking for that hi-fi sound than cassette recording really doesnt make sense campared to reel-to-reel or digital. cassette recording really is a conscious choice if you like the quality or the character, but that is really what cassette vs. anything else will boil down to, what kind of character are you and/or your client looking for.
 
The ironic thing about "hi-fi" is that, in large measure, many of the listening devices environment aren't. There is ***NOTHING*** remotely hi-fi about a mp3 played through "ear buds" smaller than a eurocent.

BTW, I voted for option 3 in my own poll here. I don't think cassette portastudios will be made again, but I think there is enough of a market for repair parts which for the most part aren't that sophisticated (belts other rubber parts etc.) and cassette heads don't wear as fast apparenlty as their open reel counterparts. Even then, I suspect that somebody will license the designs from Tascam or whomever and make replacements at some point. Which I think will also be true of the open reel multi-tracks. It may not make economic sense to mfg an entire machine, (although I would bet that if U2 wants a 2" 24 track U2 gets a 2" 24 track) the price point indicated in the other thread for an offshore based machine is roughly what one cost in 1972 if adjusted only for inflation (i'm not an economist i just play on e on tv)) it certainly could be economic to license and mfg replacement parts. The big question is will the "pro-sumer" narrow gauge market be as supported?
 
guys,
agreed hi-fi/lo-fi/mid-fi it's all subjective and marketing blah blah. The thing is, every session my skills are improving a little bit (still a noob, will be for a long time!) and I am still amazed sometimes how good a cassette can sound. It's all in the source of course, but still...

Sadly, I'm afraid cassettes will vanish completely between now and 10/15 years. I guess we will betaping over old sessions :cool:
 
Right...and not only that but thanks to you the used market is drying up too...:D
 
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