TASCAM Portastudio 424 MK-1

[linzartrax]

Hi! I bought a TASCAM Portastudio 424 MK-I about a month ago. I don't know too much about analog tape recording outside of using one input/recording CDs or radio, but I'm learning more every day. So! I'm already having a million questions about what I'm doing. The manual is helpful, BUT...When I follow the manual and do everything just as it says, as I'm playing into line 1, the levels show on track 1 & 3.

Is that normal? I feel like the 1st time I played/recorded (about 1 week ago), the levels only showed on track 1.

Maybe my knowledge isn't sufficient to ask the question properly. I will experiment more tonight.

 

[j.harv]

Make sure your channel 1 pan pot is turned all the way to the left.And your track 1 select switch is on 1 also.
Then the signal should be routed to that track only.
If you want trk.3, keep the pan pot fully left and switch track selector to trk.3..
Maybe you had both switches for the tracks selected and the pan centered

 

[linzartrax]

Thanks for your help! I will try again tonight. A friend told me that after a while, some recorders can just be old and the tracks will start to bleed onto one another. Is that true? Relevant?

 

[famous beagle]

Thanks for your help! I will try again tonight. A friend told me that after a while, some recorders can just be old and the tracks will start to bleed onto one another. Is that true? Relevant?

Not really. That shouldn't happen, and if it does, it's a sign of a malfunction---not age. You may get some crosstalk if you bounce to adjacent tracks a lot, but generally speaking, crosstalk on cassette 4-tracks is negligible to non-extistent in my experience, and I've owned probably 10 to 15 cassette 4-tracks over the years. Every one of them (except the very first Fostex X-26 my parents bought me for Christmas when I was 15) was used and probably over 10 years old. The one I have now is 27 years old, and there's no audible crosstalk at all.

 

[TASCAM MAN]