This is exciting. I bought my first 244 Tascam in 1982. In fact l bought the exact same recording rig that George Harrison bought. My first recording blew away my friend's Teac 4 track reel to reel. But l never ever used Type ll chrome or metal tape. Word got around they put too much wear on the tape heads, so we used Sony Black Magnetite. The 244 ran at double speed so the Type ll was going to be harder on the heads. And we slammed the meters. No need to rebias. We also only ran 90 minute tapes because the thinner recording tape hugged the heads better. Especially when we upgraded to the cassette 8 tracks in the late 80's. We bought a 388 too. There were concerns with the 90 min tapes stretching but we never had that issue.
I pretty much did nothing but digital recordings since 1996, although we recorded our 1998 CD on 1 inch 486. But about 10 years ago we found a Marantz deck in a Goodwill, bought a $1 brand new type l and recorded our gig that night. We used all digital processors and electric drums and the recording came out Fantastic. Its on youtube if you care to listen. But after that l decided to go back to tape. While l sold the 244 in the 80's l still had a Yamaha MTX8 and MTX4. So l put all new belts and rollers etc. This was back in LA and l was able to find NOS parts for both, but decent tape has been a problem since.
While this new tape is not true Type ll, and it is not Sony Magnetite, it is said to be Cobalt which is the next best thing. And you dont have to rebias, just trust you ears, not your meters. Slam those and get as much signal on the tape as possible. I also hope Tascam makes it in 90 inch lengths but that may be asking too much. We never had issues with the 4 Tracks, but on the 8 Tracks we found with 60 inch tape sometimes we would lose Track-8. And it really was all the tape. Once we switched back to 90 minute tape that problem went away.
This is how we record: guitar and bass through processors into a COSM amp simulator, then into a tube preamp directly to a tape channel. Vocals into a VX300 directly to tape. The processor has great preamps and eq so thats all you need. V-Drums into a COSM amp simulator to tape. V-Drums cymbals to a tube preamp to tape. You want your lead instruments to go directly to tape. Keyboard can be added in the DAW. When your done recording to tape you dump all 4 or 8 tracks to the DAW. While it isnt good practice to record everything to tape wet, the tape takes the digital edge off and brings your sound to "Life". Hence we record everything wet.
But this is exciting. I hope Tascam is listening to us.
tascam.com
