Tascam Porastudio 414 Problems

A

AnalogDimitri

New member
Yes, I am the same guy from the other Portastudio post. I recently bought a used portastudio and it does some wonky things. I'll try and explain it the best I can:

-First off, when I turn it on and press play, with or without a cassette inside, there are these pulses of sound across all the channels. Its as if it were picking something off of a cassette but there is no cassette inside. The pulses even show up on the level meters

-Secondly, it won't record. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I'm pretty sure. The meter shows a good level, the input is set to mic/line, it is armed to the track number, then during playback it won't play.

-When I play a cassette with stuff already on it, it does play it. But Those weird pulse things cut in and out the volume

I was wondering if anybody else had some of these problems?
 
Hmmm ... these issues are beyond my abilities for sure. It if were me, and you just bought it, I would return it and get a refund. (Hopefully that's still an option!)
 
Ya hopefully! I remember when I bought a Fostex R8 8-track from a pawn shop it wasn't perfect. So we took it back to the pawn shop and he offered to pay for a repair man to fix it. The best customer service i've ever had! I'll try and get this shop to do the same, but they probably won't. They'll take it back for sure but MAN I just want a easy lo-fi 4 track!!!
 
The 414 is a good bet. It's not too vintage, so it's likely you can find a good one on ebay. That's what I would do. They show up on there all the time. I know it's kind of a pain to send something back if it doesn't work, but I've bought several Tascam 4-tracks from the 90s from eBay and never had a problem. As long as they list it as "used," it's guaranteed to work as it should. Even if they say "no returns" in their listing, or if they allow returns but say "buyer pays return shipping," they will have to take it back and pay for the return shipping if it doesn't work, because of the "item doesn't match listing" rule.

Yamaha is a good option as well, as is Fostex. Here are some current options that would all fit the bill (IMO):

Tascam 414 MK2 Portastudio Multitrack Cassette Tape Recorder MKII U038847 | eBay

Tascam 424 Studio Recorder | eBay

Tascam 424 | eBay


Just be patient and watch several auctions. You'll be able to snag one for a good deal before too long. Good luck!
 
What he said. :D

The noise pulsing you are talking about sounds like DC motor noise bleeding into the audio path. Maybe bad filter caps; a power supply problem or some such thing. It sounds like the unit is troubled. I hope you can return and get a refund and find a working solution!

I've never owned a 414, but I think they are the bees knees for simplicity but with a very usable set of features; hi speed, onboard dbx, two band eq (hey...hi and low shelving can accomplish a lot), and a monitor/cue mixer onboard. Beagle has done some fantastic sounding stuff on one.
 
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