Villain S Deeds
Member
I own an ancient TASCAM 244 Portastudio, with very dirty-sounding pots. A couple years ago, it stopped being able to record on track 1. Last year, the belt slipped off, and when I put it back on, it would play a tape, but not record on ANY track but then the belt slipped again anyway. I'm still using it as a mixer.
I replaced this unit with a TASCAM 564 Digital Portastudio. Unfortunately the disc drive was knocked out of whack during shipping (it came by land from South Carolina, to the west coast of Canada; that's one long ride), so once more I'm left with a fully functioning mixer at least.
Until last year, I was using a crappy old desktop PC as my mixdown deck, but it too stopped working. I'll be getting some parts from a friend to try to piece something together.
Lately all I'm left with is a TASCAM Porta07 Ministudio (I preferred the 244 by far when it worked). Years ago, a friend was servicing the power supply, and when the unit came back to me, it was going at standard 1 7/8 ips instead of its original 3 3/4 ips. It still works, but doesn't sound as good. I have a really nice TEAC cassette deck to mixdown to now. My studio is pretty lo-fi, though my skills have developed to compensate somewhat.
I'm definitely going to try and get the 564 repaired locally, but that 244 was made in the early 80s and has had one problem after another. Anyone here think it's worth it to get the old tape machine fixed? I'm also toying with the idea of getting the Porta07 back up to speed, though I do enjoy playing regular tapes backwards occasionally. Any thoughts?
I replaced this unit with a TASCAM 564 Digital Portastudio. Unfortunately the disc drive was knocked out of whack during shipping (it came by land from South Carolina, to the west coast of Canada; that's one long ride), so once more I'm left with a fully functioning mixer at least.
Until last year, I was using a crappy old desktop PC as my mixdown deck, but it too stopped working. I'll be getting some parts from a friend to try to piece something together.
Lately all I'm left with is a TASCAM Porta07 Ministudio (I preferred the 244 by far when it worked). Years ago, a friend was servicing the power supply, and when the unit came back to me, it was going at standard 1 7/8 ips instead of its original 3 3/4 ips. It still works, but doesn't sound as good. I have a really nice TEAC cassette deck to mixdown to now. My studio is pretty lo-fi, though my skills have developed to compensate somewhat.
I'm definitely going to try and get the 564 repaired locally, but that 244 was made in the early 80s and has had one problem after another. Anyone here think it's worth it to get the old tape machine fixed? I'm also toying with the idea of getting the Porta07 back up to speed, though I do enjoy playing regular tapes backwards occasionally. Any thoughts?
