Got a Tascam 44 4 track reel to reel

T

The Great Cobb

New member
I just got a Tascam 44. Not the model with the NR or the one with the inputs, but im still pretty happy because it was 135 bucks and it was local. The dude even brought it to my house. So far the belt looks good, the pinch roller looks good, the heads look good, and everything lights up. I tested it out with an old crappy tape and it plays and records, i just wont know the full extent of its sound until a better tape arrives in the mail in a few days.

I had a few questions however:

1. What kind of 1/4" NAB hubs should i be looking for and how do they mount?

2. Does the standard remote that works with the 30 series work with the 44?

3. Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?

4. What years were these made?

So far even with the bad tape test i can tell that im going to like the sound of it. It reminds me of my old 38 but slightly more "vintagey". And for me its a really nice feature to be able to go 7.5 or 15 ips since im a big fan of tape manipulation for sound effects.

Thanks for any information you might be able to give.

Oh and btw, its this older 44, not the newer ones:

http://www.angelfire.com/electronic2/vintagetx/Teac-Tascam44.html

All i could find so far is that these are the non-teac version of the 40-4, and that they dont have as solid of a transport. Also, these ones have a pitch control knob (thank god).
 
Last edited:
If it has the sort of missile looking twist locks, I have a set of nab hubs and two 10.5" metal reels I would be more then willing to sell you at a much cheaper price then you could get elsewhere... let me know
 
Welcome, and congrats on the purchase!

Sounds like you know a bit about it already...more than me, but I'll try to help fill in a couple of the holes.

1. I'd be talking to duddyguy. :)

2. Dunno. Did you get a manual with it? Can you post up a picture of the remote connector on the back? I would assume that you could use the same remote as a 30-series deck (the RC-71 or RC-90), but it would be better to be sure and the manual would tell you. There is a case where there is he same connector type on some Teac or Tascam deck but it utilizes a different remote model and it can cause damage to connect the wrong remote.

3. Not me...what kinds of things do you want to know from other's experiences? I might be able to offer some information that might be transferrable.

4. Hm...0 for 4 here. Its a transitory model basically...like you said it is a Tascam skinned 40-4 (which is Teac branded). The trick here is that the rest of the 40-series came along later (the 42 and 48) and I'm not sure how long this early version of the 44 lasted before the updated 44 came along with its siblings the 42 and 48. Because the 80-8 was succeeded by the 58 in (I think) early 83 as well as the 38 (which came a bit earlier) I'd guess the 40-4 was "replaced" by this early version of the 44 around the same time (82-83), and wheher or not it was made continguously until the rest of the 40-series family came out I don't know.

Here are a couple jpegs from an 80-8 and 40-4 brochure much of which I'd bet applies to the early 44:

https://www.torridheatstudios.com/documents/Teac/80-8%20Brochure.jpg
https://www.torridheatstudios.com/documents/Teac/80-8%20Specifications.jpg

where did you hear that the 44 transport wasn't as solid as the 40-4? I'd bet they are very much the same...the 80-8 and 40-4 were both designed by Tascam, Teac's professional audio division.
 
Thanks for the info

Thanks for those scans!

I googled it and 99 percent of the returns are for the newer and more "pro" 44, not this one, so its tough to find anything. I found some discussion on a forum or something, and one of the guys was saying that the 44 had a lower quality transport than the 40-4. He didnt say why, and i dont know what his credibility might be, but either way thats about all i found out about it.

I might have to check if Tascam has the manual. I bought a 7 inch reel of RMGi a few days ago so when it arrives ill be able to test it out more. Im going to be using it with a Tascam M30 that ive had for a really long time. I like M30s man, i wish they would have made a 16 channel version. I should photoshop two of them together just for the hell of it.
 
Welcome to the forum Cobb. Sounds like you got a good deal for the money. You couldn't have found a better forum to discuss anything analog. The guys on here are very knowledgeable about a wide array of things and will go out of their way to help you. Good luck. I'll be looking for detailed pics in the near future.
 
so far

I was listening to the outputs of this recorder, not with any sound coming through it, just the noise from that machine itself, and its pretty damn loud. Im used to some of my older equipment having some "sssssssss" in the background, but this thing is like "SCHSSSSSSSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHHSSSHS". Now keep in mind, this is without the tape playing, just hooking the line outs into the line ins of a mixer and listening to the noise level.

Does this sound like the machine itself just has some old capacitors that need to be replaced? If they were to be replaced, how much of a reduction in noise would occur? When i took a peek inside the machine, i couldnt see any corrosion or caps that looked anything other than new. It looks nice inside. I know things can look nice and not be, but im just saying it so that you are aware that its not trashed inside or anything.
 
Last edited:
nah

No its not the pots, there arent any on this recorder, its just rca jacks on the back. I ran some cable from the recorder line outputs to my Tascam M30 and the noise was pretty bad. So i tried running the outs into the ins of my Tascam FW-1804 and it was exactly the same result, even the same "tone" of hiss, so its not the M30.
 
well

I got the new tape, just tested it out. It sounds alot better than the old tape, which is a relief to me. Still, the overall noise level of the mixer and recorder seems a bit high to me. The tape itself barely seems to add hiss, its the electronics of the machines thats adding it i believe.

Ill post more after i test it out more. One thing that really makes it hard to know what youve got for people who dont really have a ton of experience with things like this, is knowing if the results you are getting are normal. For example, when i turn on this mixer, if i hear some hiss, do i believe that thats just how vintage audio is? Or is it this particular mixer? Or is it that i need a more expensive one? Or is it that it needs to be fixed? Or is it just the headphone amp in the mixer?

Its a bit tough to know what youve got to know where to start cutting off your expectations and start striving for the sound you think you should be getting.
 
the noise is coming through all outputs? source, sync, and repro? evenly distributed across all four tracks?
 
DuddyGuy said:
the noise is coming through all outputs? source, sync, and repro? evenly distributed across all four tracks?
Click to expand...

As far as i can tell, yes.

Another thing i just found out is that the playback signal coming off the tape is significantly less volume than what went in. What might be causing this? I am using RMGi LPR35 btw.
 
That tape should be fine for this unit (I believe... I'm not an expert on tapes or machines but this is where I would start...), If you haven't all ready make sure your heads are clean as a whistle using 91% or higher alcohol and cotton make up removal pads, q-tips are not generally recommended, beyond that it seems to me the volume issue could be due to calibration.. but someone else would have to confirm.

I'm just trying to run through my diagnostic procedure here:

So all sources output noise to all channels at an even level

You've isolated individual tracks and compared and found the noise to be evenly distributed.

You've tried a separate mixer with the same result

Have you tried different inputs on the mixer?

Are all the devices your using sharing a common ground?

Could something magnetic be near the unit causing interference? (tv, speaker, cell phone, etc)

Is it possible your trim levels on the mixer are set fully up towards a mic level rather then the line level?

uhmm that's about all I can come up with at the moment... I hope you can get this resolved.
 
Heheheh...yep. :D

I'd rather think RMGI SM911 or any 456 equivalent would rather be the tape to use...don't think LPR35 is going to be any problem. Its thinner, and the transport was probably designed for 1.5mil tape rather than the 1.0mil stock of the LPR35. You'll be fine. I don't think the tape is your problem, I just thought I'd mention it.
 
ya

sweetbeats said:
Heheheh...yep. :D

I'd rather think RMGI SM911 or any 456 equivalent would rather be the tape to use...don't think LPR35 is going to be any problem. Its thinner, and the transport was probably designed for 1.5mil tape rather than the 1.0mil stock of the LPR35. You'll be fine. I don't think the tape is your problem, I just thought I'd mention it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i wondered if maybe this machine was designed for the other tape, but i bought this one because i also have a 388 that im trying to get working, and i wanted a tape i could test on either.

What are the benefits/etc of using SM911 vs LPR35 for this type of machine sound/function wise?
 
DuddyGuy said:
That tape should be fine for this unit (I believe... I'm not an expert on tapes or machines but this is where I would start...), If you haven't all ready make sure your heads are clean as a whistle using 91% or higher alcohol and cotton make up removal pads, q-tips are not generally recommended, beyond that it seems to me the volume issue could be due to calibration.. but someone else would have to confirm.

I'm just trying to run through my diagnostic procedure here:

So all sources output noise to all channels at an even level

You've isolated individual tracks and compared and found the noise to be evenly distributed.

You've tried a separate mixer with the same result

Have you tried different inputs on the mixer?

Are all the devices your using sharing a common ground?

Could something magnetic be near the unit causing interference? (tv, speaker, cell phone, etc)

Is it possible your trim levels on the mixer are set fully up towards a mic level rather then the line level?

uhmm that's about all I can come up with at the moment... I hope you can get this resolved.
Click to expand...

Yeah everything checks out. I wonder if this stuffs just "old". Im amazed that everyone here seems to be getting such low noise performance from their equipment. All ive ever gotten is mass noise. But ive never calibrated or had anything serviced either. Ive always been afraid to simply because im not sure if dropping a couple hundred bucks on getting it serviced and then getting it back sounding exactly the same is a good idea. It would feel like someone punched me in the gut. Maybe its getting to the point that there is no other choice though.
 
I

When i first got this machine i cleaned the heads what i thought was pretty well. But the head still looked like it had been corroded or something. I was pretty sad about that. But today i had another look and it turned out to be just really caked on old tape residue. I mean it was ON there man. But i used some head cleaner and it all came off. Now they look completely shiny and there isnt a trace of anything left.

The tapes are recording and playing back much cleaner sounding now. It was a little garbled and murky before. But they are still playing back very low volume compared to what went in.

So far ive come to realize that whatever i put in volume wise, plays back at around 6 db less than what went in (on all tracks). Is this just a calibration problem? Or is it the tape im using (LPR35)?
 
I can't say for sure that it is, but it definitely could be. Getting it calibrated or doing it yourself would probably be a good idea, there's a lot of resources in here on diy'ing it, start off with the stickied calibration thread and go from there. Good to hear you've managed to get the performance of it improved at least a little.
 
btw

BTW im still considering your generous offer for the hubs and reels, im just balls to the wall as far as money goes right now and i wont know if i need those until i figure out whether or not this thing is worth keeping and using.

So dont worry its in the back of my mind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top