Need help mixing old 4-Track tapes

[Darkhorse]

Basically my question is rather simple. A few years ago I had a Tascam porta 464(i think that is what it was called). It was a grey machine with a built in mixing board. Then I decided to move up to an 8-track machine. So I got a Tascam 484. Of course I sold the 4-track. MY BIG MISTAKE - I had about 20 some unmixed tapes. The 8-track records and playsback at a much higher speed than the 4-track did. So when you put a 4-track tape into the 8-track even adjusting the speed with the speed dial doesn't get the speed to where it needs to be. I want to be able to mix those old tapes and be able to use EQ's and stuff and put it on my standalone CD-R. So my question is - Do I have to buy that same model again just to mix those tapes? Or is there some other way around it. Can I buy one of those cheap little black 4-tracks for 100 dollars or so - and some how send the signal through the 8-track's mixer - And even if that were possible, would it sound just as good? I really hate the idea of buying that 4-track just to mix those old tapes to CD.

 

[SPINSTERWUN]

Try to rent one from your local electronics store.

Or buy it and return it.


Sorry about the negative answer.....

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Well... you need to worry about 3 things on another unit...

Tape speed - some 4-tracks record at double the standard cassette speed (improved freq.resp.), so if your originals were recorded at the faster speed, any new unit you get would have to be capable of that...

Noise Reduction - every Porta used some sort of NR - Dolby B/C or DBX (and no, Dolby HX Pro is NOT noise reduction) so a new unit would have to have the same NR...

Direct Tape outputs - you'll want to avoid going the cheapie electronics in a Porta unit, so you need to get a unit that is equipped with 4 direct tape outs to get the signal right off the tape heads, bypassing the internal mixer completely..........

Bruce

 

[Brad]

I wanted to do the same thing a while back, but with tapes made on a different porta model. I contacted TASCAM about it and in my case, I was told I needed to use the same model of porta because TASCAM had changed up the head allignment from the porta I recorded the tapes on to the one (cheapest) I wanted to buy to remaster those old tapes.

So, in adding to what Bruce said, I would also contact TASCAM [www.tascam.com] and see what other machines would match the head configuration of the 464, just in case it is an issue.

Brad