trouble with a 4 track cassette recorder

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senileanimal5

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i have a tascam portastudio 4 track cassette recorder.
i know i can only do mono recordings, but when i play it back through my stereo it only comes through one speaker. is there something busted? i was under the impression it should double the signal through two speakers.
im not too savvy on this stuff so any help would be great
 
Are you playing back straight out of the 4 track to the stereo or are you playing back your final mixed master.
If you are playing straight out of the 4trk it could be a bad cable.Either the left or right could be bad.

Also,you are not just limited to mono recordings with a 4 trk.You can do stereo mixes too.
 
when i play from the four track with headphones, it comes through both headphones. when i take the cassette out and play it in my stereo, it only plays through the left speaker.
 
The cassette in the 4 track is not afaik compatible with your hifi cassette....

A 4 track cassette stripes audio i 4 "lanes" in 1 direction
A domestic HIFI sees 2 sides of audio - 2 tracks in each direction.

You need to "master" the 4 track onto a domestic cassette player.
 
how would i go about doing that?
im kind of a dumbass with this stuff
thanks
 
L/R output from 4 track to 'Rec' input on a consumer tape deck.
 
so what youre saying is i have to find a way to plug the recorder into my stereo and record it, as opposed to just taking the tape out? because my stereo has two tape decks, and ive taken the tape out and recorded it to a second tape on my stereo and the second tape only plays through one speaker as well.
 
The cassette used by your 4 track, is not playable in a consumer deck. Don't take the tape out. Play the tape from the 4 track and send the output to one of your stereo tape decks. The same RCA to RCA cable that connects your tape decks to your stereo will work.
 
i have a 4 track casette recorder to.
what i use to do it use the line out and direct it to my pc.
than you use a simple daw as audicity and record what you hear.
when you hit rec on your pc and play on the tascam you can actually master/mix it (doing fade in/out adjust volume levels etc)
that's how i normally would master my recordings...but that was like 7/8 years ago..things might have changed :-)
 
You should only need to record your mix to a separate cassette deck if you set the speed to "high" for better quality. For your recording to even be audible when recorded on "high" you would need to record it to a separate cassette deck. Also the "normal" is for if you don't mind a little bit less sound quality and don't want to deal with a separate cassette deck. One more thing is that the first four channels should be stereo, because the machine has 2(4) additional channels marked as mono.
 
m.g. eddie said:
You should only need to record your mix to a separate cassette deck if you set the speed to "high" for better quality. For your recording to even be audible when recorded on "high" you would need to record it to a separate cassette deck. Also the "normal" is for if you don't mind a little bit less sound quality and don't want to deal with a separate cassette deck. One more thing is that the first four channels should be stereo, because the machine has 2(4) additional channels marked as mono.
Click to expand...

This isn't true. If you record something on track 1 of a 4-track recorder and take the tape out (as the OP did) and play it in a standard deck, it will only come out of the left side. It doesn't matter if he records in high-speed mode or not.

I know what you're saying about high-speed mode, but your statement that "You should only need to record your mix to a separate cassette deck if you set the speed to "high" for better quality" is just not true. If you record at high speed on track 1 of a 4-track and play that tape in a standard cassette deck, what you'll end up with is a half-speed garble on the left channel only.

On the 4-track deck, the tape works as follows:

TRK 1 = L
TRK 2 = R
TRK 3 = L
TRK 4 = R

The reason your headphones sound correct on the 4-track is because your 4-track has a built-in mixer. So you're able to "pan" any track to anywhere within the "stereo spectrum" --- i.e., all the way left, all the way right, or anywhere in between (mostly left, etc.). If you're hearing the music in both sides on the headphones, then the pan knob for track 1 is in the 12 o'clock position (in the middle).

As has been said, in order to hear this music outside of the 4-track the way you hear it on the 4-track, you need to "mix down" to a stereo recorder. This could be a standard cassette deck, a DAT machine, a computer DAW, etc. You just need to run RCA cords out of your 4-track's "line out" jacks and into the recorder's "line in" jacks.
 
famous beagle said:
This isn't true. If you record something on track 1 of a 4-track recorder and take the tape out (as the OP did) and play it in a standard deck, it will only come out of the left side. It doesn't matter if he records in high-speed mode or not.
Click to expand...

The normal setting is for people who don't want to have to mix down to a stereo cassette deck. I have this very same tascam portastudio and have done it numerous times until I started recording digitally. When you play back a tape that hasn't been mixed down (thats still in high speed mode) it sounds sped up, hence high speed mode. If you don't believe me then email me(eddiecurbside@gmail.com) your mailing address and i'll mail you a tape thats been recorded in high speed mode that hasn't been mixed down yet and hear it for your self.

The rest of what you said is all accurate though.
 
m.g. eddie said:
The normal setting is for people who don't want to have to mix down to a stereo cassette deck. I have this very same tascam portastudio and have done it numerous times until I started recording digitally. When you play back a tape that hasn't been mixed down (thats still in high speed mode) it sounds sped up, hence high speed mode. If you don't believe me then email me(eddiecurbside@gmail.com) your mailing address and i'll mail you a tape thats been recorded in high speed mode that hasn't been mixed down yet and hear it for your self.

The rest of what you said is all accurate though.
Click to expand...

You misunderstood him dood. Stop arguing. And I'm not sure what the hell your talking about anyway. High speed is for increasing the quality of recording. Mixing down to another tape or CD or MP3 is the eventual result of using a four track. Try not to make comments in the forums when you are not confident you are correct or are giving opinion. This is not the first time I have heard such from you. Not trying to be a dick but confusing someone that is trying to learn is not good for anyone.
 
I'm not arguing. I'm telling him the same thing as you.
"You should only need to record your mix to a separate cassette deck if you set the speed to "high" for better quality."
"This isn't true. If you record something on track 1 of a 4-track recorder and take the tape out (as the OP did) and play it in a standard deck, it will only come out of the left side. It doesn't matter if he records in high-speed mode or not."
"you need to "mix down" to a stereo recorder."
Also the default for each channel is mono unless you pan it left or right. Normal speed just means that the tape you record to can be removed and played elsewhere without mixing it down.
 
Ok, I misunderstood you there. You will always need to bounce down the recording on the four track at some point to get a stereo mix. I think the OP was confused as to why the tape just didn't play on a normal cassette deck. It sounded unclear when you said "The normal setting is for people who don't want to have to mix down to a stereo cassette deck."

Sorry for calling you out.

Jimmy
 
A portastudio is a 4-track tape recorder combined in one box with a 4 (or more)-channel mixer.

What a 4-track recorder is for: making a 4-track recording, and playing back all 4 tracks at once.

What the mixer is for: mixing the 4-tracks being played back into stereo (as well as routing and mixing signals when tracking).

What a stereo recorder is for: making a stereo recording and playing back the left and right tracks at once.

A 4-track recorder is not really intended to make a stereo recording. If the tracks line up, it's possible to use it do that, but that's not really what it's for. It's approximately useless to try to use a 4-track to produce a stereo recording by bouncing ... you can't play a track and record to it the same time, so all you can do is play 2 of the tracks and record them on the other two.

Incidentally, the tracks don't exactly line up, at least not using the standard Tascam 4-track spacing. They're close, but they don't exactly line up with the "one-direction-at-once" stereo format.

If you want some really interesting results, try playing an 8-track from a 488 (or 688 or 238) in a stereo cassette deck.
 
m.g. eddie said:
The normal setting is for people who don't want to have to mix down to a stereo cassette deck. I have this very same tascam portastudio and have done it numerous times until I started recording digitally. When you play back a tape that hasn't been mixed down (thats still in high speed mode) it sounds sped up, hence high speed mode. If you don't believe me then email me(eddiecurbside@gmail.com) your mailing address and i'll mail you a tape thats been recorded in high speed mode that hasn't been mixed down yet and hear it for your self.

The rest of what you said is all accurate though.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid you're still confused. Here are some direct quotes from a Tascam 424 MKIII manual:

Two tape speeds offer HIGH for greater fidelity, and NORMAL for compatibility with standard cassette tapes.

Note that this means you can play standard cassettes on the portastudio---not that you can play cassettes that were recorded on the portastudio on standard tape decks. This next paragraph elaborates on this.

Tapes recorded on stereo cassette recorders can play back properly on the 424 MKIII if you set the track playback, tape speed, and noise reduction type correctly. Tracks 1 and 2 roughly follow the standard "stereo" format, but tracks 3 and 4 use the "Side B" (reverse side) tracks. So you must turn off Track 3-4 playback to avoid hearing the flip side playing backwards.

For the same reasons, tapes recorded on the Portastudio 424 MKIII will not play back properly on stereo cassette recorders. Material recorded on the 424 MKIII must be mixed down to stereo for final distribution.

Note that it doesn't say "unless they're recorded at normal speed." It doesn't matter whether you have the 4-track set to high speed or not; you still can not play that master tape on a standard cassette deck and have it play properly. If you do, the material on TRK 1 will appear hard left, and the material on TRK 2 will appear hard right. If you've recorded something on TRK 3 or 4, that will play backwards.

And you're wrong about this statement:

"When you play back a tape that hasn't been mixed down (thats still in high speed mode) it sounds sped up, hence high speed mode."

That's incorrect. If you record something on high speed mode on a 4-track, and then you take that tape out and put it in a standard deck, it's not going to sound high speed like chipmunks. It's going to sound half speed. It's going to sound like slow motion. Think about it. The standard tape deck is playing the tape back at a slower speed than what you recorded at. It's the same as just adjusting the pitch control wheel on the portastudio to a slower setting, but at a much more drastic rate. I think the pitch wheel (and I'm talking about the wheel---not the high/normal speed switch) will normally only let you speed up or slow down by 12 or 15%. The standard tape deck is playing back at a full 100% slower than the portastudio when set to high speed.

I don't mean to go on and on here, but I'm afraid you're not giving correct information. Either that, or you're just really not saying what you mean to say very clearly. I've worked with cassette portastudios for .... oh I don't know ... over 20 years, and I've had first-hand experience with all of this.

The bottom line to all of this is simple: In order for material recorded on the 4-track to sound right on a standard deck, you need to mix it down to a standard deck. There are two main functions of the HIGH/NORMAL speed setting on the 4-track:

1) The HIGH speed will have a higher fidelity. NORMAL speed can be used if you're not terribly worried about quality and you need twice the tape running time. It has nothing to do with whether or not you want to mix down! You ALWAYS have to mix down if you want the song to play properly in a standard deck!

Ok, there is one exception to that last statement I suppose: if you had the 4-track set to NORMAL speed when you recorded, you've only recorded on TRKs 1 and 2, you've panned them hard left and hard right, respectively, and you haven't used any EQ or effects. IF all of those are true, then you should be able to take the master tape out and play it in a standard deck and hear pretty much the same thing. But that is rarely the case.

2) If you have a normal cassette (i.e., a cassette of Michael Jackson's greatest hits let's say), you can play that tape in the 4-track if you do the following:
Set the speed to NORMAL
Mute TRKs 3 and 4
Pan TRKs 1 and 2 hard left and hard right, respectively.

That's all there is to it.
 
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