i want more tracks

[hardcore guy]

hey, i have a tasman 424mkIII and its been really good to me. i like it a lot but when i record my band i have trouble routing everything and fitting it to 4 tracks then bouncing it and everything so i wanna get a 488 8 track. i looked em up on ebay and on most of em there are only 1/4 inch inputs. i need xlr mic inputs (my 4 track has four of em). i heard that using the adapters makes it sound crappy. what should i do? why does tascam make the 8 tracks like that? any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks...

 

[El Barto]

If I remember correctly, the 488MKII has 2 XLR inputs...still not that great. And yes, without mic preamps, the sound isn't as great. Assuming you want to stick with analog cassette recorders (good choice I might add), take a look at the 238, which is a rackmountable 8 track recorder, which requires an external mixer...this will be less convenient, more costly, but it's a great unit and if you got a nice mixer (Mackie 1604VLZ PRO, $980) you'd get better sound than you would with a portastudio, plus with that Mackie mixer you'll have 16 channels. There is also the 688, which I have. It's a great unit...VERY nice, and it sounds VERY good. I just did some recordings with it this week and I'm still in shock at the quality. I have no grudges with this unit, as it has everything I need. It's got 20 inputs (10 XLR, 10 1/4") which sure as hell is fine with me, and records all 8 tracks at once. If you wanna stick with the portastudio design, go for the 688. If you wanna spend some extra money and have more gear, and most likely slightly/a lot better quality, check out the 238.

 

[Gear_Junky]

If you get 488, make sure you get the mkII. Yes, it only has 2 XLR-ins. If you use impedance-matching adapters, it's the same. It still won't sound very good w/o preamps. I have 4 mic preamps (2 Presonus Blue Tubes) and they're routed through patchbay to 488's 1/4-s. W/o pre-s it doesn't really matter if you plug through XLR, it won't be VERY good.

488 mkII is VERY nice! And you can sell your 424 on ebay for good money.