Transferring Multitrack Cassette Recordings To Computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter cosmos021
  • Start date Start date
C

cosmos021

New member
Hello,

I am new to the forum, so forgive me if this has been answered already.

I would like to transfer some cassette recordings with 8 tracks on them recorded on a Tascam 488MKii Portastudio to my computer. What would be the best way to do this?

Thanks!
 
The first problem to solve is what deck to play the tapes. The 488 MkII doesn't have track outputs so you need to find an alternative. My first thought would be to track down a working Tascam 238, but that's without checking basics like tape speed and noise reduction.

If that works then you need an interface with 8 line inputs and a bunch of cables with the right ends to connect the deck to the interface. You would have that connected to a computer recording each cassette track to a corresponding DAW track.
 
Here's what I would do:

I don't have the manual, but I think there should be a way to get 4 individual tracks out at a time by using the monitor and FX sends. For example, it seems you could assign tracks 1 and 2 to bus 1-2 and pan them hard left and right respectively. Then in the MONITOR section, push only the GRP 1-2 button. Then send track 3 out of the FX send 1 jack and track 3 out of the FX send 2 jack. That should give you 4 distinct sends. Actually, I would think you could get 5 by sending track 5 through the tape cue jack, but that won't really help you, because you'll still have to make two bounces.

Anyway, so then you'd transfer tracks 1-4 to tracks 1-4 of the CPU using the above method. Then set it up for tracks 5-8 doing the same thing: tracks 5 and 6 to GRP 1-2 (panned hard left and right, respectively), track 7 to FX send 1, and track 8 to FX send 2. Then transfer those to tracks 5-8 of the CPU.

You'd need a 4-channel interface to do this.

After you get both sets of tracks transferred, you'll just need to align them and use a bit of time stretching to get the beginnings and end to line up. It's surprisingly simpler than it sounds. I've done it several times with a 4-track machine (transferring two tracks at at time and lining them up), and I couldn't notice any artifacts whatsoever.

I hear a lot of people saying that it's nearly impossible to get the tracks to line up, and you don't want to mess with that, etc. But I think that's probably just people parroting what they've heard, and they've probably never tried it themselves. I know from experience that it's a pretty simple task, and it works great.

Do you have an audio interface yet?
 
There is actually a way to simultaneously output the 8 tracks from a 488mkII...guidance can be found right here on the homerecording.com site:

https://homerecording.com/tas488tips.html

So the OP can use a 488mkII, 238 or 688 to playback the tapes (all three of those units feature the same fixed 3 3/4ips tape speed and dbx Type II noise reduction), and then the computer audio interface of his/her choice featuring at least 8-channels. That's the next step.
 
sweetbeats said:
There is actually a way to simultaneously output the 8 tracks from a 488mkII...guidance can be found right here on the homerecording.com site:

https://homerecording.com/tas488tips.html

So the OP can use a 488mkII, 238 or 688 to playback the tapes (all three of those units feature the same fixed 3 3/4ips tape speed and dbx Type II noise reduction), and then the computer audio interface of his/her choice featuring at least 8-channels. That's the next step.
Click to expand...

Oh, awesome. I didn't know that. I figured the FX sends were probably post fader, and so I thought that they would show up in the LINE OUT jacks. I see know the unit has many more routing possibilities than I thought. I also forgot about the insert jacks on 1 and 2.
 
famous beagle said:
Here's what I would do:

I don't have the manual, but I think there should be a way to get 4 individual tracks out at a time by using the monitor and FX sends. For example, it seems you could assign tracks 1 and 2 to bus 1-2 and pan them hard left and right respectively. Then in the MONITOR section, push only the GRP 1-2 button. Then send track 3 out of the FX send 1 jack and track 3 out of the FX send 2 jack. That should give you 4 distinct sends. Actually, I would think you could get 5 by sending track 5 through the tape cue jack, but that won't really help you, because you'll still have to make two bounces.

Anyway, so then you'd transfer tracks 1-4 to tracks 1-4 of the CPU using the above method. Then set it up for tracks 5-8 doing the same thing: tracks 5 and 6 to GRP 1-2 (panned hard left and right, respectively), track 7 to FX send 1, and track 8 to FX send 2. Then transfer those to tracks 5-8 of the CPU.

You'd need a 4-channel interface to do this.

After you get both sets of tracks transferred, you'll just need to align them and use a bit of time stretching to get the beginnings and end to line up. It's surprisingly simpler than it sounds. I've done it several times with a 4-track machine (transferring two tracks at at time and lining them up), and I couldn't notice any artifacts whatsoever.

I hear a lot of people saying that it's nearly impossible to get the tracks to line up, and you don't want to mess with that, etc. But I think that's probably just people parroting what they've heard, and they've probably never tried it themselves. I know from experience that it's a pretty simple task, and it works great.

Do you have an audio interface yet?
Click to expand...

I have a simple 2-channel interface. Any recommendations as to what I should get? And thank you!

---------- Update ----------

sweetbeats said:
There is actually a way to simultaneously output the 8 tracks from a 488mkII...guidance can be found right here on the homerecording.com site:

https://homerecording.com/tas488tips.html

So the OP can use a 488mkII, 238 or 688 to playback the tapes (all three of those units feature the same fixed 3 3/4ips tape speed and dbx Type II noise reduction), and then the computer audio interface of his/her choice featuring at least 8-channels. That's the next step.
Click to expand...

This blows my mind! Thank you!
 
That's a great solution. I'd heard about it but had forgotten about it. I had a feeling all the Tascam 8-track cassette was similar. If I didn't already have a 488 I'd be looking for a 238 to make it all simpler.
 
So with your interface you will need to get something different; something that has at least 8 channels. There are scads of options.

What kind of computer do you have, and do you have any other specific interface needs (such as ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI, wordclock, etc.)?

If you are looking at the used market, here are some examples I believe get the job done (note I'm not endorsing any particular seller nor do I have any connection with any of the examples below...just grabbing these off a quick eBay search):

Tascam FW1804 Audio MIDI Multichannel Interface | eBay
PreSonus Firepod FP10 8 Channel Audio Recording Interface Firewire Fire Pod | eBay
MOTU 828 Firewire Recording Interface | eBay
 
Before you buy a bunch of gear, you might try transferring the tracks in several passes and then lining them up manually, compensating for any inconsistencies in playback speed. Not fun, but your DAW has tools that should make it doable, I would think. Worth a try.
 
Robus said:
Before you buy a bunch of gear, you might try transferring the tracks in several passes and then lining them up manually, compensating for any inconsistencies in playback speed. Not fun, but your DAW has tools that should make it doable, I would think. Worth a try.
Click to expand...

Yes, I concur. You could even do them two at a time, and it wouldn't be a hard job. It would probably take you about 10 minutes to line them up once transferred, if that. Took me about 2 minutes to line up a pair of stereo tracks when I did it.
 
Agreed. That is another alternative that is free. One challenge with this though: I don't know how you guys usually do it, but if I'm having to transfer something in such a way as to require lining the tracks up, I normally arm all tracks on tape and record a percussive sound or something so there is a clear consistent marker on the tracks to make the lining up easier and more accurate. The 488mkII only records up to 4 tracks simultaneously. How would you guys do that? Or am I just too damn picky? :D
 
If you have a friend with an 8 channel interface, you wouldn't have to buy one. Unless you plan on doing this a lot.
 
sweetbeats said:
Agreed. That is another alternative that is free. One challenge with this though: I don't know how you guys usually do it, but if I'm having to transfer something in such a way as to require lining the tracks up, I normally arm all tracks on tape and record a percussive sound or something so there is a clear consistent marker on the tracks to make the lining up easier and more accurate. The 488mkII only records up to 4 tracks simultaneously. How would you guys do that? Or am I just too damn picky? :D
Click to expand...

I have done that before, but the first time I did it, I didn't think it through that much. So I just found a clear beat where everything hit at the same time toward the beginning of the song and again near the end of the song. Once I lined those up via time stretching, it was a snap.

One thing I did learn, though, while doing this was that if you have at least two tracks with drums on them, don't transfer them at the same time. Do one drum track with the first set and another drum track with the second set. That way, it'll be easy to align those when you're stretching them and all of the other tracks will go along for the ride. In other words, it's easier to align a left drum track with a right drum track than it is to align a guitar and bass with a drum track.

So, for example, let's say you have 8 tracks as such:

drums left
drums right
bass
elec. guitar
acoustic guitar
keyboard
vocal
harmony vocal

If you were able to transfer four tracks at a time, I would put the drums left track in one batch and the drums right track in the other batch.
 
Makes sense.

Time stretch makes me itch...jacking with the analog tracks. I know it's minor...so that IS me being too damn picky. I'd be finding a way to get all tracks dumped at once, but I understand sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
 
All at once. Thats the only thing that makes sense to my pea brain.

Stretching, aligning, etc. Just sounds like a headache to me. And all this complexity for only 4 tracks.

I'm going to have to do 16. And I want them all at once. In time and aligned to each other just like they were on tape.
 
Time stretching causes phase issues. Transferring a stereo drum track in two passes is a really good way to get goofy phase and imaging problems.

A better way would be to transfer the drums at once. Then, if you can transfer 4 tracks at once, make one of themy a drum track. Then you can use these drum tracks to line up the time stretching of the rest of the tracks, the delete the extras.
 
Farview said:
Time stretching causes phase issues. Transferring a stereo drum track in two passes is a really good way to get goofy phase and imaging problems.
Click to expand...

RFR said:
All at once. Thats the only thing that makes sense to my pea brain.

Stretching, aligning, etc. Just sounds like a headache to me. And all this complexity for only 4 tracks.
Click to expand...

Yes, these are the kinds of things I heard after I'd already done it. I didn't know any better, so I just thought, "Let's see if it works." Really, it was so incredibly easy. And if there were any phasing artifacts or others of any kind, I certainly couldn't hear them. No one else for whom I played the track could either.

Farview said:
A better way would be to transfer the drums at once. Then, if you can transfer 4 tracks at once, make one of themy a drum track. Then you can use these drum tracks to line up the time stretching of the rest of the tracks, the delete the extras.
Click to expand...

This does sound like a good way to be sure, though. Good idea.
 
+1 to what Farview said ^^^.

I think that's what really bothers me about the whole aligning/stretching thing and Farview put my finger on it...the phase issues...if you even have drums bleeding into your guitar cab mic (for instance), minor fluctuations from the original alignment will cause phase issues. And tiny shifts can cause really noticeable outcomes via the comb filtering that goes on as a result.

I'll go as far as to say dumping all of the tracks at once is the right way to do it. Again, I totally get having to be creative if the necessary gear isn't available, or time is of the essence, or funds don't exist to get the gear, but I'd only go there if the tracks being dumped in phases were totally isolated from each other when tracking. In other words if you have 8 tracks that were tracked simultaneously and there is some bleed from track to track, dumping the tracks in groups and stretching/aligning is a bad idea. Even if the tracks were recorded totally isolated from each other, like at different times, think about this...there is still crosstalk. Yes, depending on the machine, the setup and the recording levels, that crosstalk is typically very minimal, but it's there, and when you dump the tracks you dump the crosstalk too, and stretching/aligning tracks will invite unintended effects. Maybe it'll sound good. :D

Anyway, I'll stop now.

Hey OP where are ya? Can you afford an 8+ channel interface? :)
 
I'm with the above.
For me, the whole purpose of dumping tracks to a daw is to get an exact copy of what was on tape for storage and editing.
 
The point of stretching would be to compensate for minute differences in the playback speed when you export the individual tracks. If it works, you should be resolving the phasing issues caused by those differences. The easiest route would be to export them all simultaneously. But since the OP doesn't have enough inputs, it could be worth trying before he goes and buys gear. If it doesn't work, nothing's lost.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top