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Exploring the Sound of the Tascam 424 Portastudio
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2024
- Ever wonder how cassette multitrack sounds compare to modern digital sounds? I did. So I processed a recent mixdown through a Tascam Portastudio. I was surprised - and pleased - by the results.
0:00 Intro
0:47 How I Made These Sound Samples
1:39 Digital Version (recorded and mixed via Tascam DP-03SD)
3:05 Cassette Test #1
4:04 The Problem with “Tape Hiss”
6:18 Perceived Volume and Tape Compression
7:27 OK, but… how does it sound??
8:00 Cassette Test #2
10:30 Cassette Test #3
11:28 What Is DBX Noise Reduction?
15:37 Tangent: “Starting Points Matter”
17:02 (Not) Choosing a Favorite
18:41 Closing Remarks
Listen to my music at:
jordanseal.bandcamp.com/
/ jordanseal
#recording #songwriter #dawless #tascam #portastudio #424 #analog #digital
so cool. thanks!
Thanks for watching!
WhiteTown had a number one hit in the UK with a record made on a 4 track cassette. He had plenty of digital options even back then but opted to use the 4 track. Needless to say the song was good and no one (outside of the recording fraternity) cared what it was made on. The vocals in this song remind me of it. I went digital in the early 90s and my brother had the 488 which did sound decent, if you knew what you were doing. At the end of the day these devices had their own sound and one could create great recordings bearing that in mind, so it’s not really about comparing with digital which everyone seems to be obsessed with when people like you post videos about cassette home recording. I’m more interested in what you can do with it and you’re doing that so thank you.
I used to use a tascam 404 back in the day. Everything sounded like garbage but was a lot of fun to make. Your song is stuck in my head now though.
Nah, I'll bet it sounds 100x better than you remember. The "songs" I recorded with a Playskool toy cassette player... not so much 🤣
The hiss isn’t the issues it’s the recording techniques used, there’s ways around that.
Try recording only the vocals or bass to tape then back to digital
Explain further? Curious.
👍👍enjoyed the vid 🙂
Thanks! And love the concept behind your channel, by the way. Subscribed.
Much appreciated 👍@@JordanSeal
Back in the before times I used a Tascam 488 which tracked 8... count 'em... 8 freakin' tracks on a cassette. One factor you didn't mention is the physical surface area of tape as it relates to hiss. The main reason pre-digital professional studio tape recordings sounded pretty good was because they used 2" tape, not cassettes. Greater surface area translates to more magnetic domains so that you could saturate the tape with a huge amount of signal. Of course, cassettes are 1/4 of an inch wide and subdivided into tracks to narrow the area even further. As you might imagine, recording 8 tracks to cassette meant that you were recording a signal that was barely above the noise floor. The 488 had built-in dbx as well, and because the tracks were so thin, it was unwise to ever turn that off. Thanks for this comparison. Cheers!
You're filling in the blanks in my video! I don't know anything about the relationship between tape width and noise... though what you're saying makes perfect sense. Great call out!
@@JordanSeal I mistakenly wrote that cassettes were 1/4”. I wish. More like half that.
@@jimbofet Yeah they're about an 1/8" or something
The results of the tests make sense. I use a Yamaha MT4X, and the manual specifies that when setting input levels, set the channel fader to the nominal level between 7 and 8. Then, adjust the gain on that channel so that it peaks at +9 dB when dbx is ON, or at +3 dB when dbx is OFF. I guess the idea is to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. I'm curious about what the manual of the 424 says regarding setting input levels.
Interesting! The manual for the 424 mkii gives similar instructions for setting the master and channel faders, but then tells you to set the trim so that the "monitor level meter reads around '0' on average."
Really cool video. Loved the song. Would love to hear the whole track :)
Thanks! I'm glad you found it! And I'm hoping to release the full song later this month... I just need to finish the cover art. I'll let you know when it comes out!
@@JordanSealgreaat!!
@@kalata9225 I'm a little bit late... but the full song is out (almost) everywhere! Here's a link to the song's video on YT, but you can also find it on Spotify and most other services. (It hasn't yet reached Apple Music or Deezer.) I hope you enjoy it!
I think the dbx is compressing the signal on recording and expanding it on playback
I think that's right. I still can't comprehend the "expansion" part... does that just mean "amplifying the compressed sound"? I need to study up...
There are two types of expansion: upward expansion and downward expansion. Downward expanders reduce the level of an audio signal below the threshold, making quiet sounds quieter. Upward expanders boost the level of an audio signal above the threshold, making loud sounds even louder.
Great job well done. On the quieter section instruments are definitely "fainter" on cassette. There is no separation. I believe in evolution, lets move on :)
How about the points that make the tape sound better than the digital? As a resident producer at WB's I hear quite a few.
Tell us what you hear! I mentioned a few things I liked, but I definitely struggled with a bias toward the sound I knew best (on this particular song).
how do you convert the tape recordings to a digital audio file?
The easiest way I know is to connect the outputs from the cassette recorder to the inputs of an audio interface, and then record the output signal to a DAW. Similar to the way you’d print your mix onto tapes (using a 2nd tape deck).
The digital version does not have the better quality, it‘s just different. Some songs need that that 90ies mixtape vibe with wow, flutter and hiss and sometimes the artist needs the analogue tape for the creative process.
try vhs player/recorder with hifi
I need to! I have a bunch of blank tapes, but haven’t yet gotten a VCR… it’s on the (long) list 😂
These may seem quaint to today's recordist. They will definitely give a Tape sound - but not a tape sound like you'd hear on records. Strictly lo-fi (though, as mentioned, better-fi than lots of others) and with plenty of hiss (though, to be sure, Less hiss than others).
The big 424 was the best barely-affordable 4-track in its day. But as soon as DAWs came out, Tascams got instantly mothballed.
They're fun to use, and limitations (like plenty of necessary ping-ponging) can be useful. But the miniscule 1/8-inch width of the cassette tape, split into four tracks - compared to 2-inch wide 24-track tape, or 1/4-inch stereo master tape) - gave a weak, low-resolution sound. (Recall, when these devices were used, in the 90s primarily, home recordists were making strictly Demos - to be played for A&R men at labels, who'd get an IDEA of what the song Would sound like if recorded in a real studio.)
This is good historic context, and you're right: if you're looking for power/control, features, and/or fidelity, these pale in comparison to a DAW with an audio interface. (The cassette multitracks have also gotten pretty expensive, for whatever reason... which makes budget a factor as well.)
I do all of my recording with multitracks (usually digital, sometimes cassette). I'm willing to give up some benefits of using a DAW because I vastly prefer the workflow I have with a multitrack. And because I generally ~like~ the sound that comes out of a portastudio. Now, if I could just write songs like Guided By Voices... 😅
Bro…. It’s pronounced Tass-Cam.
😅