488 MKII ???
- Thread starter Snowdog
- Start date
A Reel Person
It's Too Funky in Here!!!
Yes, the 488 is obsolete.
Yes, $499 is a pretty good price, for a 488, new. I've seen them listed for about $800.
Yes, the 414 tape will play in the 488, and you can dub 4 new tracks onto that tape.
Anyone who has a Tascam Portastudio manual might have the page where it details the record head/track configuration.
According to the Tascam manual, the 488 has 2 groups of 4 tracks, 'staggered', or offset from each other. The 488 will drop 4 new tracks 'between' the 4 existing (414) tracks.
The hit you take on the 488 is on signal to noise ratio, and crosstalk, since the track width of the 488 is 1/2 the width of the 414.
Anyhow, with the dbx it should give acceptable sound quality for home use. 8 tracks is a lot to try to squeeze into a (1/8" width) cassette tape.
A larger format 8 track, like the obsolete 388/Studio 8 (1/4"), or a 38 (1/2") 8 track, or even a digital, would give you a higher signal to noise ratio, and therefore a bigger- punchier sound.
If you can find a used 388, with low hours and in good condition, you would have a better unit than the 488.
The 388 has a better mixer section, 8 busses, can record on all 8 channels at once, and uses 1/4" tape, and dbx. All this adds up to is a better signal to noise ratio, and an overall bigger sound. Unfortunately, the 388 is very very obsolete (sold in the late 80's), and cannot be found 'new'.
Yes, $499 is a pretty good price, for a 488, new. I've seen them listed for about $800.
Yes, the 414 tape will play in the 488, and you can dub 4 new tracks onto that tape.
Anyone who has a Tascam Portastudio manual might have the page where it details the record head/track configuration.
According to the Tascam manual, the 488 has 2 groups of 4 tracks, 'staggered', or offset from each other. The 488 will drop 4 new tracks 'between' the 4 existing (414) tracks.
The hit you take on the 488 is on signal to noise ratio, and crosstalk, since the track width of the 488 is 1/2 the width of the 414.
Anyhow, with the dbx it should give acceptable sound quality for home use. 8 tracks is a lot to try to squeeze into a (1/8" width) cassette tape.
A larger format 8 track, like the obsolete 388/Studio 8 (1/4"), or a 38 (1/2") 8 track, or even a digital, would give you a higher signal to noise ratio, and therefore a bigger- punchier sound.
If you can find a used 388, with low hours and in good condition, you would have a better unit than the 488.
The 388 has a better mixer section, 8 busses, can record on all 8 channels at once, and uses 1/4" tape, and dbx. All this adds up to is a better signal to noise ratio, and an overall bigger sound. Unfortunately, the 388 is very very obsolete (sold in the late 80's), and cannot be found 'new'.
Thanks RP for shedding light on 488 track expansion. I did own a 488MKII and we did put a tape from a 424 in it for the purpose of adding tracks.I found that after you did your dub and the tape would resume playing the section of your original 4 tracks,the music would "jump" out at you.apparantly from the wider original tape width. I suspected the 414 was the same but I didn't know for sure.Still an amazing machine that produces nice sounding tapes. Snowdog,if you want to stay in the cassette realm,Go to ebay and find a 238 or 688. Many of these decks were hardly used, Sat in racks or tables or whatever. The previous owner of mine said it had about 40 hours on it,it looks brand new and I got the remote for 335.00 shipped.The best sound reproduction in a cassette 8 track. But you have a tough choice,A Brand new 488MKII with a built in mixer.Put it this way,You won't go wrong if you get it.it is a great deck and will always have a use as a portable studio. Once in a while you will see a 388 on ebay that will make one drool.a few times brand new with the box,Wild considering they stopped making them in I think 1990. I think it sold for over a grand without shipping. I love mine.
Thanks guys,, I've been using a 414 for about a year now and loading my mix downs into my CPU via wavlab lite for limited editing and then burning to CD with pretty decent results. The problem is 4 tracks are not enough and the review I read about the 488MKII spoke of it in rather glowing terms. I want the most cost effective way to get to 8 tracks until I get my CPU up to snuff to run the Cubasis VST thats installed and comfortable enough with the Cubasis(and the whole PC recording thing) to make adequate use of it. Am I making sense here? Also, at this point I think I'd always like to have analog recording capabilities(as usual I want the best of both worlds
) and thought that the 488 might be one of the better machines to grab seeing no one seems to make an 8 track analog machine anymore. Is my thinking wrong ?
My genre of music is 80's Metal. I'm using an Alesis SR16 for Drums and all guitars and Bass are run through a Pod 2.0 if this info helps. Excuse my rambling, any info or opinions would be appreciated.
) and thought that the 488 might be one of the better machines to grab seeing no one seems to make an 8 track analog machine anymore. Is my thinking wrong ?My genre of music is 80's Metal. I'm using an Alesis SR16 for Drums and all guitars and Bass are run through a Pod 2.0 if this info helps. Excuse my rambling, any info or opinions would be appreciated.
Tascam 688
Do yourself a favor and get a Tascam 688. It's much better and more powerful than the 488. The mixer is a ton better, and it has a nice little meter bridge, among other very great features. Just do a search for it on this BBS. It's great. I love mine, Prism loves his...
Do yourself a favor and get a Tascam 688. It's much better and more powerful than the 488. The mixer is a ton better, and it has a nice little meter bridge, among other very great features. Just do a search for it on this BBS. It's great. I love mine, Prism loves his...
Great machines all of them. You are making perfect sense. Why not have'em both. You can't carry your computer around.The 488 is light and mobile for visits with your buds and jams.I used mine to record a few gigs too.. I like the fact that it's brand new.That is becomeing rare since this model is now discontinued so that in itself is cool.I think it boils down to what you find when you find it. El Barto got a deal on his 688 as did I on my 238.Both of those produce tapes just a cut above the 488. I'm not knocking the 488,it's just that the 688 and 238 produce a little bit better of a tape. They spec out better. I had a 488 and sold it to get my 238 so I know 1st hand that it's a great 8 track but my 388 has mixer that lines up perfectly with my 238 and I wanted the 8 track simultaneous feature. As far as having one 8 track, The 488MKII is a super "all in one" unit. It produces great sounding mixes and at that price for a new one you can't go wrong. Hey,If your not satisfied or want to get a 688 or 238 at some point, You can sell it on ebay.the tapes you make in the 488 will play in a 238 or 688.
The machine will be used primarily for my own arrangments.
What do you mean by stereo outs? My 414 has line level L&R RCA outputs wich I hook directly to my HP now and record mixdowns to WavLab lite and that works fairly well. The editing is very limited that way though, can anyone suggest a better editing software that will remove unwanted tape noise?
What do you mean by stereo outs? My 414 has line level L&R RCA outputs wich I hook directly to my HP now and record mixdowns to WavLab lite and that works fairly well. The editing is very limited that way though, can anyone suggest a better editing software that will remove unwanted tape noise?
He's talking about Tape Outs...Track Outs...whatever you want to call them. An output for each track, so you'll have 8 outputs for the tape outs...then your other outputs. You'll obviously need a sound card with that many inputs...unless you wanna record one track at a time. If you were just looking to use the mixer with your PC, you might as well just save up for a nice Mackie mixer. The 1604VLZ Pro is the choice 16 channel mixer, and they are built like tanks.