Old school multi tracking | The Portastudio - workflow and tutorial Pt.1
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- čas přidán 11. 08. 2021
- How did old school 4-track tape multi tracking work?
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The first time I was working on a Portastudio it was like the heavens opening up. Finally I could put my dreams into action in a way that for me, at the time, was the end of the rainbow.
The Portastudio I use in this video was overhauled and donated to me, so a big thanks to you Jack Z!
Check out Jacks awesome Vintage synth repair videos here:
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Download (for free) the track in the video here: drive.google.com/file/d/1O5ip...
The Tascam 424 I use in this video is from the early 90s and although all Portastudios have their quirks and features, the workflow I demonstrate is pretty much the same for all Portastudios so any one will do basically the same.
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Growing up I listened to so much synth-pop and it's only natural that my own music takes inspiration from many of the acts I loved back then. I still love them and listen to them!
Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Erasure, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, The Human League, Propaganda. FGTH, Ultravox, OMD, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Alphaville, A-ha as well as loads of artists doing what is now called Italo Disco. And many more great acts like Nik Kershaw, Spandau Ballet, Wham, Dire Straits ++ - Hudba
I could almost smell that fresh cassette smell when you unwrapped the cellophane! So excited...
I really miss that about cassettes, plus despite the obvious shortcomings of the format its one of my favourites.
Me too :)
Wasn't that an AWESOME smell?? I mean I loved it. Before I put the cassette in my recorder, I used to sniff the tape for a good 30 seconds. LOL Memories, my friend. Memories!
That new tape smell meant new ideas and modes of creativity
@@scottcupp8129 It really did!
I sometimes use TASCAM 424 at a recording studio. TDK cassette 'SA' was my favorite. My heart was full of pleasure while making demos, feeling there is nothing impossible with the recorder. Dubbing the sound over and over again in my room, I imagined I was working at Abbey Road Studio. Good old days... late 80s through the early 90s.
I know the feeling. Cheers! :D
Sums up my experiences perfectly. Same era, same feelings.
This video took me back to my Tascam 246. I had the Alesis mmt-8 sequencer, and hr-16 drum machine. I used to dedicate track 4 to the FSK clock, and record vocals to tracks 1-3. It was a LOT of fun, and everything came out clean.
I wish cassette Portastudios would come back. After all, cassettes themselves
are supposed to be making a comeback.
You're not alone😂
I love the old cassette analog stuff
Yes!!! Love this! Glad you could put the 424 through its paces. Can't wait for part II!
Many thanks Jack! You're part of this too. :)
As someone who started on a very cheap DAW in the 2000s, I am incredibly appreciative of demonstrations like this. I never really recorded this way growing up, but I find this method endlessly appealing nowadays as an escape from the piano roll. It's actually really helpful to see how it was done step by step, and the patience that was required, and extremely inspiring.
Many thanks! :D
Love my Porta One in which I still have. I used to fill up all four tracks. 1 & 2 stereo Drums. 3 Bass. 4 Guitar. Then mix down to another cassette. This cassette will have the basic tracks on tracks 1&2… track three will have the main vocal… track four will have a guitar solo or harmony vocal… etc…
I've still got my Portastudio 424. This is the tutorial I needed back in the day!!
Back in the early 90s I experimented recording on hifi vhs tape and the sound quality just blew me away. I'm surprised no one released a 4 track hifi vhs recorder. The sound was better then even current 16 bit Adats at the time!
I also mastered to hifi stereo video for a few years until I got a DAT machine…
@limelight81 it was pure analog! And the compression it naturally had just made everything punch through the track from drums to bass.. you couldn't even get better on any Dat of the times
I think a lot of people did it. I too mastered on VHS hifi tape in periods.
I still have my 4-head Hi-Fi VHS machine that I also used for mastering. Lucky the tape duplicating firm accepted VHS for cassette duplication.
This is the best video showing people how to use a 4 trackCassette Portastudio. Great Job. Or recording on tape itself.
Many thanks for saying!
Ah the memories. I remember the magic of first overdubbing with a Fostex four track in the 90s. I used to love playing with the speed afterwards too.
I started some years before, but it was pure magic being able to overdub. I can still remember how "pro" we felt during those first sessions. Later when we started syncing up to a sequencer we felt the exact same thing all over again. :P
I go through sync, tape speed, reverse and all that in a couple of days. ;-)
@@EspenKraft Very much looking forward to it.
@@EspenKraft oh, the joy of flipping the tape over to do reverse recording … and half speed and varispeed too … great times ! I started in ‘89 with a vestax mr100fx with its own built in reverb - luxury !
Nice walk down memory lane. Back in the day, we would record the cassette multitrack to a stereo cassette "master". If we sold cassettes at gigs for instance, we would usually dub these from the stereo cassette. So three generations of analog grime (and noise, more than three if you did some bouncing). Espen's result here are quite hifi by 80s/90s home studio standards!
I might add cassette multitrack was the standard between about '80 and the late 90's. Before this, 4 track reel to reel was the only (very expensive) way to record at home. In the late 90's, digital Portastudios became available (like the Roland VS-880) and recording to PC harddisk too. I bought a Yamaha MT8X 8 track Cassette from a guy upgrading to the VS-880 in about '98. I used this until about 2005, which by that time I had moved on to PC based recording.
True, true!
Yes!
Cheers!
We are a rock band of brothers from Tiberias & we love this mixer so much. It reminds us of The Doors
I have the same Portastudio! If I remember right, there were 3 generations of the 424. This is gen 1.
Beautiful unit! Never knew these original 424's lacked Mid EQ controls like my beloved 414's. Still can't get enough of this stuff, in fact just about to delve into 8 tracks now that my 238 is ready to go :) Thanks for showing this beauty doing what it was meant to do, and for another excellent video! 🙏👍
The 2nd and 3rd generation 424’s had mid EQ.
Cheers!
I got into tape multi-tracking from the very early age of 4. My first 4 track cassette
recorder was a Tascam Porta One although it did have some problems. I did also
borrow a Porta 424 from time to time. Many of the recordings I did on the
Porta 242 are almost CD quality. I started recording digitally at home around 2002
using the computer and haven't really gone back since.
Best Video I've seen yet on the steps of recording a song. I use keyboards, Mic and pedal with chorus, Beat Buddy mini 2 (Drums). Thanks for all the Detailed steps!! I have a Tascam 424 MK 2 that I use. Bought it new years ago, stayed in the box for years. Just took it out about a year ago. Was raising my son 24/7 (stop music making. And my wife passed almost 2 years ago, also no music making as of yet. Now watching these vids to get me motivated again. I miss doing this. Yours was the BEST I cam across out of about 15-20 videos. I also bought many Cassettes at the time they were being phased out due to cd recording switching over (new recording technology). But I went to many big box stores and got many dirt cheap, high bias mostly, a few in packs of 5!
Maxel, TDK, other brands......Thanks again Sir!!
Cheers!
I have like 30 tapes made with the 424! I was 20 or so, and I didn´t care about anything but making music and buying the best cassette for multitracking. Some tracks have instruments impossible to hear, but was so much fun and inspiration.
That 424 recorder was pretty modern in comparisation to the 244 i used....way way back in the day. Some nice features added.
I love the experimental creativity that the pitch control unleashes here...
Ask Prince lol
I love the sound of cassettes. Really excited about this series!
Cheers!
Love this way of working. In a way we’re spoilt with today’s tech. I used to have two video tapes from SOS Editor Paul White, which taught home recording using a 4 track then reel to reel. Wish I could find them. I learned a lot from them which still applies today.
Cheers!
Espen Kraft - Sounds really great. fine job.
Very fun to watch, I've never used one of these recorders, but knew how the worked. I must also say that it makes me grateful for today's DAWs...
Cheers!
OMG.... I had that 4-track... I loved it...
This was also my first approach to multitrack-recording! I got myself a PORTASTUDIO 488 mk 2. I had a sack full of Tapes I collected over the Years. Then I got my first PC, which changed a lot. I still used the 488 as a mixer for countless years and i still occasionally use it as such. I really like the sound of it, especially when recording to tape. A few years back i bought a M2600 console and I also love it. It sounds so nice and analogue and i use it on every mix i make.
I was and I always will be - a TASCAM fan :)
Thanks!!! A great tutorial!!! The limitations really bring the art in us and the magic of analog!
Thanks!
I've recorded many songs/demos on our old Portastudio and bounced down numerous times to open up tracks. It was very flexible for being only a 4 track cassette recorder. Plus, I've sampled instruments from songs played back on a regular cassette player (at normal speed) from various slowed-down tracks on the Tascam. If you're just starting out, cut your teeth on one. The results can be very satisfying.
Cheers!
Nice to see a cassette multitrack been put to good use. I still have my Tascam 464 in the loft, first multitrack recorder I ever bought.
Thanks!
Thanks Espen for this travel back in the 80s, I owed this Tascam 424 and recorded some songs with it, so pleasant to see it in action !!
Many thanks man!
This video has just excited me to get my Yamaha MT3X 4-track, purchased back in 1988 out of its box again. Thanks.
Cheers!
This is how I started my own set of backing tracks that I used when I performed as "Onemanband" back in 1986 started with a "Vestafire" and "upgrade" to Portaone until started with midifiles and so on.... what a period of time I had go true and "Bouncing" was a must for all the tracks that I recorded. Thanks Espen for bring me back to those memories that seems like a lifetime ago! Ciao!!!!
Happy you liked it Carlo. Cheers :D
Love my Portastudio 488mkii 😎🥃
Damn I never knew the Mark I had that sync function. I have a Mark II I got in the late 90s and it is near identical to your machine, but doesn't have the sync option. Neat! Sounds great man.
Cheers!
Brings back a lot of memories to me. I used to have a Fostex 280 recorder. More or less the same features. My friend and me used this machine a lot to record our songs. These bounces were indeed adding a lot of noise. To avoid this as much as possible we tried to 'mix' as much as possible our midi parts before sending it to tape. We were using an Atari STe with cubase as sequencer.
magnificent sound, melancholy and calm! amazing!
Cheers!
@@EspenKraft hej
I used to have the Tasman porttastudio! 😍 loved it.
I had one of these. Great piece of kit.
Uuuuuuuuu yo tenía la porta07 que recuerdos recuerdos que grabamos también el sincro de el sequencer q80 en el canal 1 o 4 y podíamos grabar los 16 canales de la sequenciar en un par de canales. Y luego borrabamos para meter las voces. Era alucinante. Y el ruido lo sacamos con dbx que traía la misma portastudio. Que buenos recuerdos Espen. Felicitaciones por este súper video... Saludos desde Argentina...
Jajajaja yo debo tener como 30 cassettes y en algunos hay temas donde solo se escucha ruido, pero nos divertimos mucho con esta máquina, y usamos el Q80-ex los últimos años pero al principio no teníamos sequencer, así que era todo tocado en tiempo real, con la C-64 haciendo la percusión.
@@MaximilianoSchneider totalmente. PÍp pi pi pi Píp pi pi pi en el sequen y en la cinta ese ruido a fax jajajajajajajajajajajaja
Thanks man! :D
@@EspenKraft gracias a vos por tan buenos videos y recuerdos
Loved this video and the creativity that workflow forces you to do. Can't wait for the 8 track video, which will bring me back to the days of my Fostex.
Cheers!
I had the exact same Tascam and I really loved this unit. Great video.
Cheers!
I still have a box full of tapes that I recorded multitrack back in the day on the porta studio. I may have to buy a used one soon so I can listen to some of those old recordings I did. Thanks for this trip down memory lane Espen. :)
Cheers!
I enjoyed seeing the process and the track you created. I also liked your comment about monitoring levels that went along the lines of "If it sounds good, it is good". Simpler times...
We've been too addicted to mixing with our eyes. Not good at all.
I adore that JX-8P, I can't explain it, but there's something about it.
I believe, the Sound))
@@ingoodmusic yeah, the look as well I think, quite understated but charismatic.
Seriousøy inspiring stuff. Love this unit and love the track. Thanks for showing us how you built the track!
Many thanks! :D
Luv how people getting back into tape I have the 424 from new still use it for national tape satch
I the 1980s these 4-track recorders were serious objects of desire.
Registratore perfetto,marca superba suono impeccabile,complimenti
Cheers!
Awesome... I still use my Fostex X-28H Multitrack recorder from time to time... learned a lot with it :)
Had a tascam porta 2 and Trs8 back in the day, simpler times, definitely nice process and good to try with technology we have today to achieve quick and different results.... cheers great channel
Many thanks! :D
Thank you very much for this video. Looking forward for the next parts to learn about syncing etc. to use it in my bedroom with my gear. Cheers!
Cheers!
I just bought 2 of these and am surprised you made a video about them. I'll be recording as you did here, but also using the Portastudio 434 as an instrument. Mr. Kraft is a valuable resource!
I had a Yamaha MT100 Mk2 back in 1991 to 1997, which I replaced with a Fostex DMT 8 v2 (not VL). However back in 2016 I got myself a mint condition Yamaha MT3X, along with a little YMC10 MIDI FSK Sync Converter box to do what you have in this video. Great fun using all that in a sync'd setup with a Yamaha SY55 keyboard sequencer and RY30 drum machine.
I'll show sync in the next video and more. Cheers :)
I'm so excited! I was just listening to the Lego Island CD ROM tape transfers that the Creator uploaded to the internet. I was thinking how great a type II tape with Dolby c noise reduction sounds. Also racking my brain about how tape PCM and DSD sound different, and which is most accurate.
Back in the day these little TASCAM multitrack cassettes were really awesome. Before digital recording. I used to have an even smaller 4 track TASCAM.
Sounds great but I quickly realised how lazy I've become since using a DAW, its the bouncing and rewinding and everything having to be recorded in realtime that put me off, I almost completely forgot about that. Looks and sounds great but I'm going to stick with emulations which do a pretty good job. The alternative would be to send your audio stems to someone who has one and have them send it back having recorded it to tape for a small fee.
I find doing all these tings adds to me excitement, inspiration and creativity so I do it to enhance my music. If you're the opposite, then you shouldn't do it. ;-)
I love those sounds! But then again I am the class of 90 so theres that... I miss how simple and fun things were back then. Now we need masters degrees in Microsoft and Apple to do what we did on 4 tracks 30 years ago.
Very nostalgic I wished I have one recorder like this
I was waiting for the day youd show the portastudio. very lovely video!
Cheers!
Oh memories….my first buy was a Kong Poly 800II , an SQ-8 sequencer, RX drum machine and a fantastic Yamaha MT1X four track recorder…..I did about 10 tracks per song….sampled live sounds via mic…..and mixed onto a tape deck…..all live…….wow those were the days back in 1986……now I use Logic……nah not the same is it…..
I had that exact same Portastudio back in college (until I upgraded to digital via the Roland VS-840). I also still have that Alesis MMT-8 that I used to use with a Roland XP-10 and an Alesis QS-6. Although it's true that you don't "need" all those various pieces nowadays, hardware is just so much fun
Oh yes I remember these good old days . My first 4 track recorder was the Yamaha MT100. I got a lot of years out of that and when it finally quit working, I graduated to the Yamaha MT-120. I remember the whole deal of recording on tracks 1 thru 3 (in mono mind you) and bouncing those to track 4. The mix had to be PERFECT when it was ping ponged to track 4 or it was all about starting over again :) Then I got in to DAW based recording (First DAW was Cakewalk 9 Pro Audio) and I haven't looked back since. I do, however, still have my MT-120 which still works. It's a conversation piece anymore though but I like it. That's one of the recorders where it all started for me. I've been in a studio setting though since the age of 10 though and now almost 50, I spend a lot of time in my home studio. I've done a lot of live stuff though. One of the most memorable live stuff, I played keyboards for a Journey Tribute band. THAT was some major fun!!
great video !!!
Thanks!
This is the first multi track recorder I had also. I bought mine in the early 90's sometime. I had fun with it but something wrong with channel one and can't record but other channels are fine and plays just fine. I am using mine now just as a cassette player.
Still have my cassette based Portastudio from decades ago and an older and much bigger Tascam 4-track I bought about 30 years ago. Both still work.
Fantastic video. I use the Tascam 488MK1 8 track cassette recorder which is just fantastic. I love the sound from these old machines. Kind regards. Paul.
Brought up memories of my cassette multitrack. I still have the Yamaha MT2X. Before that I used a small Tascam unit which also used cassette tapes.
Sound Quality was pretty good for that time period, provided you didnt carry out too many track bounces. Although it had DBX noise reduction, the noise can accumulate if you do too many track bounces.
Compare that to the early recordings by bands such as the Beetles and Rolling Stones which were limited to 4-track reel to reel machines.
(The MT2X also had a sync feature)
Yes, indeed. I've had decent results after carrying out 2 or 3 bounces with the DBX engaged. Old analog still sounds good. Now I have to get all of our old cassette mixes onto a hard drive and press several CDs for posterity. I never want to lose those songs! Don't they make a software 4-track for an iPhone or iPad anymore?
Sounds like you had fun!
I always have fun, otherwise I wouldn't do it. ;-)
Enjoyed this so much as it took me back to my first 424, which I now want to dig out of the back of the closet : )
Cheers!
Damn this brought back some memories. Thanks!!! I remember my Tascam porta studio. I made some sweet demos with that thing.
Cheers!
Espen, I always love everything you create! Keep up the good work, brother! :-)
Cheers!
You got to love the tape hiss. there is always surface noise.Back the day you were always trying to get rid of excessive noise from bad cables etc. I still have my Yamaha MTX 8 portistuidio I am now want to get it out of the garage.Fire it up to see if it is still working
@limelight81 exactly now everyone wants to introduce tape hiss in their mix as an effect
maxell XLII series were the way to go back then...
I had the Tascam 8 track & it Rocks. I still have 2 Unreleased albums on Tascam 8 TRK Format on Cassette Ready To Blast!
It's Still PRO If you Mix Well & have Mastering Machine & CD Recorder to Complete Your Prodigy.
My Ensoniq ASR-10 has an Additional 8 Bus Output Box to Connect to the Tascam Portastidio 8TRK, Mate it was Magic!
Analogue Gears Are the Best.
Thanks for this Video I Need it Today
Thanks for sharing! :D
I had a Yamaha MT2X. Had a lot of fun with it, making music and recording my band. There was the Sansui 6 track with it's own mixdown deck that I used to lust after. Two more tracks opened up more possibilities. Today track count is a nonissue, but back then it was a big deal.
Huge Flashback!!! 8:09 - how I miss my JX8P!!! ooooh, you've got the programmer, lucky bugger!
It's actually not mine (PG-800) ;-)
My early recordings were also with a 4-track (Fostex X-26). I used it with a Korg KMS-30 which would not only sync the 303 to MIDI but also sent a timecode into the 4 track for continuous synchronization after bouncing down. This was back in the late '80s and even with all the technology at hand now, I still like to use osolete/obscure ways of recording to give my productions a genuine retro feel.
This is what I started on it took me a long time to be willing to go digital
Magnifique !
The 8 bit guy did a review of one of these things long back as well. Glad to see you finally getting around to it.
When doing videos about these things it's not about being first, it's about having fun. ;-)
@@EspenKraft Very true, and I enjoyed seeing how you used it. You went into a bit more detail too, bouncing down those tracks to another track on the tape. His video was a more simple demo of how to record four tracks on tape.
Yes, there's 8 track cassette recorders too - and not only from Tascam, I still have my Yamaha MT-8X. Great video, as always 😀 Already back in the day i.e. the 80s and 90s most people wouldn't record the audio from synths, drum machines etc on a multitrack recorder but rather sync it to a midi device. You would sacrifice one of the few precious tracks to record the sync signal of a sequencer or drum machine capable of tape synchronization, thus saving the remaining tracks on the tape recorder for the stuff you couldn't record via MIDI (guitars, vocals ...). Oh yeah, those good old days ...
Yes, when we got to the late 80s syncing was easy, not so much in the early 80s, no midi to sync up. ;-)
@@EspenKraft That's true. In the early days I never owned a hardware sequencer. I started out with a software sequencer on the Commodore 128, then came an Amiga 500. Both computers needed an external Midi interface (the one I had for the C-128 was from C-Lab) and neither was equipped for syncing a tape machine. After that the Roland MV-30 workstation became my main sequencer and basically the heart of my Midi setup - and it came with sync in and out connectors.
I was lucky to get a Tascam 488 , for a low cost . The cassette mechanism suffered large W / F then eventually it stopped moving the tape . so I think the belt has failed . But I still use it for my extensive audio system . I was able to get the original operation and maintainance manuals from TEAC Canada .
mid 90's was my baptism into recording and this until was it :) Oh how I would love another one :) great vid.
Cheers!
Awesome ❤️
Fantastic 🔥
Cheers!
Really nice, LOVE you channel!! :-)
Thanks!
lol...I remember I would take one input..put a jack in with a splitter out to two and then split each of those into two more so I could have 4 mics plugged in for my drums.
Hardcore recording techniques.
Awesome video ♥️ I hope I can get my 464 to work again!
Thanks!
Oh man, I spent countless nights with that thing 30 years ago (together with a Roland sound canvas, U20 and an Atari) . Completely forgotten how a Tascam looked like. And those mechanical clicks :-)
great tutorial, thnx :)
Cheers!
haha nice the Almighty R8
I have a mark II and mark III Tascam recorder when I discovered setting everything as fast as it can go while recording it was a big step up in sound quality.
I prefer bouncing 1,2,3 to 4 and clear 1,2,3 use 2,3 and bounce again to 1 this is how the Beatles did Sgt Peppers on 4 tracks
Cool video, I could smell the smell of a fresh blank tape as you took off the plastic. Before anyone touches a DAW, one should work with a 4 track, it's a good experience. One thing I have learned when multi tracking is record bass kick, snare, bass line to bounce to one track since they sit in the middle (stereo field). Then record higher frequency sounds (keys, hats, etc) over tracks 1, 2,and 3 so they can be panned or ran through effects that could be stereo. But having sync is cool because you don't have to record those midi instruments, but mix them with non midi tracks
Next episode is dedicated to tape sync FSK. ;-)
4 tracks recorder and MMT-8... 2 machines I had back then. 😊
still have my old tascam 244 in original box. It had a crazy good parametric EQ , that's what I remember mostly. You could fix any sound with that
That was our first tape recorder having our first band :D
I’m using a 424 mkIII to record all my music currently. I’m also using a Rev7 like the one you are using here
No bouncing though - I record everything “live” as a single sequenced take. Typically I’m recording a digitone and digitakt on a pair of stereo tracks, then have 2 additional mono synths on tracks 3 and 4
It’s a really fun set up
I got quite good at bouncing down while mixing in another instrument or vocal and could squeeze ten tracks out of four. Later I started mixing a stereo pair with guitars, pianos, etc then create two vocals on the 3rd track and bass on the open remaining track.
I just wanted to say I am using some of the patches for the jx8p. Good stuff
Cheers!
I'm only on headphones, can't believe how good it sounds even after bouncing. I wanted to have one back in the day. Simpler times...
Great video and tune. My friend had a Tascam Porta One Ministudio 4-track, and that's how I recorded and wrote all my first songs. I think your sound and production quality here was better than I ever attained. I still have some of my old tunes on cassette and the little mistakes here and there still bother me as much as they did 35 years ago! 🤦🏼♂️
Thanks man! Attention to level going in (and out) high passing sounds from synths, in the synth itself, and timing (arrangement) would often bring out the best sound quality, even on 4-track tape recorders. ;-)
@@EspenKraft We used to record three tracks then bounce those to the fourth while simultaneously adding a live performance as well, getting four recordings on the fourth. Then we'd do the same for the remaining tracks, getting 10 tracks total. And man did we think this was amazing! 😆