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Nearly everyone with a 4-track has done track bouncing at one time or another. If you're extremely careful with levels and
balance, your results can be acceptable. I'd not look to track bouncing as a magic bullet, tho. Having done this (I think) from end to end, currently I'd tend to be conservative with track bouncing and generally only bounce minor parts in behind more major parts.
If you record-in a live part to the target track each time with the tape based parts and take it to the max, (do the math), you will end up with a 4-track tape recording that contains 10 "parts", (the 'internal' bounce). This can boost the utility of the basic 4-track recorder, and/if you keep your submixes judicious it can produce decent results, keeping in mind that you will always incur a sonic penalty when you bounce tracks.
Alt., using the "external bounce" method out then back in to/from an external stereo recorder, the math changes a little & the production value may go up a fraction, but you're still in the same bucket.
The other considerations are that a purely "internal" (collapse) bounce destroys the primary tracks as the recording progresses, and the "external" bounce preserves the primary
tracks, in case you want or need to revisit the submix at any time later. It's something to consider in advance, I think.
My current philosophy is either to (sorry/redundant) bounce minor parts in behind major parts, or if track bouncing is a prominent and regular part of your productions, just step up to an 8-track going forward.
F/I, a raw 1st Generation 4-track cassette recording will sound more robust than a comparable 1st Generation 8-track cassette recording (
Tascam 488/mkII/238/688), but a raw 8-track recording as such will always sound better than a 4-track recording that incorporates bouncing to achieve 8 (or more) "parts", with all other factors being equal (which they almost never are).
To cap it off, I'd virtually never recommend track-bouncing on an 8-track cassette format, which almost speaks for itself. (Larger 8-track formats would be more amenable to track-bouncing schemes).
I know this is a bit of an apples/oranges comparison, for many reasons, (different songs, different recorders, different years), but:
Tascam 424mkII with no bouncing
Tascam 424mkII with no bouncing
Tascam 244 with maximum bouncing
Tascam 244 with maximum bouncing
Tascam 488mkII with no bouncing
Tascam 488mkII with no bouncing


