I know its darn near impossible to buy a 488mk11 anymore so I was wondering if there is anyplace you can send your old tapes to and they will get your tracks off of them for you and maybe send them back in wav files or something like that without breaking the bank? I have several tapes that were recorded on the 488 and 424.
Tascam 488 Info
- Thread starter Brack
- Start date
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
A Google search reveals a number of places that do this. Prices vary. What is a not breaking the bank price in your mind and how many tapes of what length do you have to transfer?
Honestly, I dont know what that price would be because I was not sure how the process takes place. I didnt even know if it was possible to grab each individual track and create a wav file out of it. I was hoping that I could use a tascam 424 somehow (cousin has one) to get all the individual tracks but I dont think it would work or not sure how to do it.
I will revamp my search on google to try to find the sites you are referring to. If its ok to do so on this forum, could you share some of those sites you found?
Thanks for the reply.
I will revamp my search on google to try to find the sites you are referring to. If its ok to do so on this forum, could you share some of those sites you found?
Thanks for the reply.
sweetbeats
Reel deep thoughts...
Just Google “multitrack cassette transfer”.
Looks like maybe $30-80 per cassette.
It’s easy to transfer to .wav files. It’s done using a multichannel analog to digital converter/DAW interface. It just needs to have 8 simultaneous inputs, and then one has to have a DAW that records 8 or more tracks at once. Which pretty much is anything nowadays. And then of course you have to have a working Tascam format 8-track cassette machine with dbx to reproduce the tapes.
I have a refurbished 238, MOTU 8M and a suitable DAW.
How many tapes and of what length do you have?
Using a 424 will not work. The track spacing is totally off…the 4-track will only reproduce tracks 1, 2, 7 & 8, tracks 1 & 8 don’t land all the way on the heads for tracks 1 & 4 of the 4-track so there will be some loss of fidelity of those tracks…not sure if the dbx will decode properly, and because of the staggered head design of the Tascam 8-track format tracks 1 & 2 will not be in sync with tracks 1 & 8.
Looks like maybe $30-80 per cassette.
It’s easy to transfer to .wav files. It’s done using a multichannel analog to digital converter/DAW interface. It just needs to have 8 simultaneous inputs, and then one has to have a DAW that records 8 or more tracks at once. Which pretty much is anything nowadays. And then of course you have to have a working Tascam format 8-track cassette machine with dbx to reproduce the tapes.
I have a refurbished 238, MOTU 8M and a suitable DAW.
How many tapes and of what length do you have?
Using a 424 will not work. The track spacing is totally off…the 4-track will only reproduce tracks 1, 2, 7 & 8, tracks 1 & 8 don’t land all the way on the heads for tracks 1 & 4 of the 4-track so there will be some loss of fidelity of those tracks…not sure if the dbx will decode properly, and because of the staggered head design of the Tascam 8-track format tracks 1 & 2 will not be in sync with tracks 1 & 8.
Great Info. Thanks. I know I have a mix of some 4 tracks from a 424 and then I have some from my 488MK. I wish I would have taken better notes on these tapes for sure. Give me a few days to come up with that number and I will get back with you. I have a gig coming up this weekend and band practice a couple nights to get ready. I will try to make some time to pull them out and get a count then. Thanks a ton for all the info you provided. I really appreciate it.
