Tascam 688 re-mix

[hairnomore]

Hello all. New to this sight. I have posted this same question on several different forums with no or very complicated results. I am a child of the 80's. Traveled around the world playing in bands, to much excess and all that. I was in a band and we recorded 30 plus songs using a tascam 688. I need a simple or as simple an answer I can get. I play music not record it. If you are gonna tell me that I need a 24-5a warp drive with a scizzel cut-paste over/under with a reach around please dont respond. I know enough but I am not a freak about what is hot at this second in time...Sorry about being this way but when you ask for a simple answer and get some 12yr old at home who just blew 12,000.00 at Best Buy on Pie Run 332.4v or some crap like that it gets old....Here is my question:

I would like to take the tracks off the cassetts on the 688 and run them through another 8 track(some type of computer program-not gonna go buy a 6000.00 mixer) because the 688 is old and the sliders are popping and crackling and I wana play with the songs and see what I get. Not gonna sell them or even burn them to CD (well, I might do that). Just wana get them off the 688 and onto a clean board that I can tweak and have fun. Please help me with this....I would even go as far as talking to some one on the phone so they know what I mean. Not your local puke at Guitar Center...

Thanks and sorry for the long post
Lewis S

 

[KineticSound]

Lewis,
Two options: 1. If the 688 has any of its tracks striped with SMPTE or MIDI, you could pick up a 2-channel interface (that would likely come bundled with some basic software) and sync the two machines up to transfer the tracks 2-at-a-time to a PC or Mac. It's a bit of work, but its cheap and relatively easy.

2. If none of the 688's tracks are striped, you're probably looking at an 8-channel interface. Since the 688's have direct outs for each track, you could transfer them all at once using something like a TASCAM 1641 and an RCA-to-XLR snake (I think the 688's direct outs were phono plugs). This is little bit more expensive, but much easier. You connect the two devices, connect the interface to your computer and software, hit record on the computer, play on the 688, and voila - your tracks transfer themselves individually.

Or you could ship me the 688 and your old tapes for me to transfer for you... for a fee, of course!

 

[hairnomore]

David
Thanks for the reply. Few questions for ya ta chew on. What do you mean by striped? They are songs recorded directly to the 688 and that's it. I want to send them to a comp program that will let me play with them in their basic form. Then maybe mix them down..If the 688 wasnt so crusty I would do it that way but its old and moldy sorta...Plus you can only play them cassetts so many times before they wear and these things are 14 yrs old.....Any suggestions on what type of comp software that would give me total access over the mix? Any other suggestions would be helpful.

If I shipped it to you I would miss out on all of the fun tweaking the guitars and voc. etc but thanks nyways..
Lewis

 

[KineticSound]

If it was striped, you would know. When I used an old Portasudio, I would "stripe" a track with MTC using a JL Cooper box. It was almost a sort of "MIDI click track" that would allow me to play back the Portastudio in sync with a MIDI sequencer. Before computer recording, striping a tape track was the way to sync up multiple devices.

So you're left with transferring all eight tracks at once. Since you're not dealing with tracking or editing (just simple mixing), you can use just about any software. If you purchase an eight-channel interface, it'll come with some sort of software bundled with it. Most of the TASCAM's come with Cubase LE, which is fine for what you're doing and easy to use.

 

[andrej]]

thought someone might need it:

midistudio 688 manual
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/120201/Tascam688.pdf

a working link. please, pass the file around and mirror it!