Zoom MRS-4 vs. Tascam Porta414mkII

  • Thread starter Thread starter SymphonyX
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Tascam Porta414mkII or Zoom MRS-4?

  • Get the Tascam Porta414mkII

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Get the Zoom MRS-4

    Votes: 3 100.0%
  • Total voters
    3
S

SymphonyX

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The tascam is cassette, the zoom is digital they are both the same price new at $230. (link for the zoom - http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1599&brandID=4 )

Which do you think would be the better buy? The tascam would have more ins and outs and possibly a better interface for mixing down, but would the Zoom have a lot better recording quality? One of my biggest gripes about the Zoom is the lack of an effect send to an external device. Though this wouldn't affect me directly right now, I feel it might limit me in the future.

How do the quality of recordings of these 2 units compare? I would think the Zoom would be better, since it is digital, but the Tascam also has noise reduction for the cassettes. Which would be better?

I would usually only be recording one track at a time, since I don't have a band. I would be micing a guitar amp, and getting drums/bass from a drum machine/computer.

The only other thing is that i can get the Tascam for about $150 used on ebay, where as the Zoom is newer and much harder to find used.

Which one do you think would be better for me?
 
MRS-4

Actually has 8 tracks (four track faders) and 32 virtual tracks.

You can record stereo in or two tracks at once.

MIDI control.

Digital on the spot editing.

Records on cheap and convenient smart media cards!

And it's digital which will make you much happier during mixdown than any cassette porta studio.

Carl
 
I have a question about bouncing down within the MRS-4 (it says in the online manual that you can bounce down to a virtual track so that you basically have unlimited tracks) but my question is, would there be loss in sound quality the more tracks you bounce down (assuming you don't run out of card space) I know with cassettes the more tracks you bounce down the more the sound quality is degraded, but is that true with digital? (yes, I realize that you lose control over individual tracks when you bounce down)

Also, how does the sound quality of a cassette recorder with dbx noise reduction compare to digital?
 
Unlike analog, digital has no generational degradation. In other words, you aren't introducing detramental sound degredation with digital no matter how many times you bounce it because in the end all the 1's and 0's are still hanging tough in their respective positions.

No new noise (like tape hiss).

Carl
 
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Digital being no loss is actually quite true. Can't speak for these two specific machines, but I have had a Porta-Studio... old Yamaha, if memory serves. You could bounc tracks all day, and every one of them picked up just a little bit more hiss.

While it's true Bruce Springsteen recorded a project on one, once, he also had a LOT of "real" studio back up to do his final overdubbing, mixing and mastering in.
 
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