Mixdown Cassette Suggestions

  • Thread starter Thread starter sackbutcharlie
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sackbutcharlie

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Hi everyone.

Thanks to a lot of great suggestions from many of you, I ended up finding a great used TASCAM 246 4-track. Now I am ready to go on the scrounge for something to mixdown to.

#1 - There seem to be quite a few good "home entertainment" decks on the market such as the high end Kenwood, Nakamichi, Pioneer, etc. What are your thoughts on these vs. the TEAC/TASCAM decks that are advertised as professional cassette decks?

#2 - What is your view of a single vs. dual well?

#3 - If I must eventually put some things into a digital format (to stick MP3 on the web, etc.), do you recommend mixing directly from my 4-track to the computer? And are you aware of any good freeware that I can run on my laptop for this?

Thanks!
 
Analog, good cassette decks still have a place in this world for the recording musician.

If for no other purpose then submitting tapes for copy-write purposes, they still serve a need and a good 3 head deck from the names you mentioned would all be suitable candidates.

I, myself, use a Teac V800X, 3 head cassette deck that has dolby B & C and dbx noise reduction.

I have several stereo masters on TDK MAR60's that sound wonderful to this day.

Recording to the computer or an external stand alone CD recorder would be the more popular choice these days and I do use a Pioneer CD recorder deck most of the time but, the good old reliable cassette is still a viable format to work in, especially if you are multi-tracking from a cassette based Portastudio.

Cheers! :)
 
I use a Tascam 102 MKII. it's a pro deck with the same high quality as the 122 and 112 without some of the bells and whistles.

I had a 112 many years ago. The 102 sounds every bit as good. Auto selects tape type - normal, Cr02 and metal. Has Dolby HX pro and a choice between dolby B or C for noise reduction.

Frequency Response
25 - 19,000 Hz, Metal tape
25 - 18,000 Hz, Cr02 tape
S/N better than 79 dB w/Dolby C

About anything Teac or Tascam is a good bet.

I prefer single-well.

I use TDK SA, SA-X or SM SM-X tapes. All good choices for your 246 as well.

I would also recommend a stand-alone CD recorder to convert things into digital. They are generally superior to most PC/sound card rigs.

In that area I'm a die-hard Pioneer fan. The Pioneer PDR-555RW is sweet. Pioneer builds the pro decks for HHB and Fostex. Once you use the higher quality converters on the CD burner to do your conversion you can then dump the files to your PC.



:cool:
 
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I bought a Teac cassette deck at a rummage sale for $2.50 and I like the way it sounds for mix downs better than my Tascam burner
 
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