Tascam porta 02 ministudio troubleshooting! Help please!

[ouchmytoe]

So I am new here, but I searched the forum just to see if there was someone else who was having a problem like this, so here it goes!

Got the porta 02 ministudio 4 track cassette recorder for uber cheap, everything seems to work fine except for one thing: when I am recording and I lay down more than 2 tracks, as I'm recording the 3rd track the monitoring volume is unbelievably loud in my headphones. Same goes for the 4th track. The actual recording level of the track is fine, it's just the monitoring levels in my headphones and ONLY when it's actually recording (ex. if I'm practicing a run through with an instrument while doing regular playback, the monitoring levels are fine).

Does anyone have a problem with this? Does this happen naturally? What are some ways around this, or maybe some ways to fix what I'm doing wrong. It's making it near impossible to do any sort of vocal work because the mic (especially if a condenser) feedbacks instantly when I press record.

Thanks! Love the site

 

[lonewhitefly]

If I recall correctly, channels 1 and 2 are for mikes, and 3 and 4 are line level -- don't plug a mike into those. I think there is a way to use the mike channels from 1 and 2 to record to 3 or 4 but I can't recall exactly the setup (been awhile since I used one of these).

The porta 2 is my favorite of the cassette 4-tracks ... I recorded a very cool album on one.