How oldschool multi-track recording works. Tascam 4-track
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2016
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In this episode I demonstrate a Tascam Portastudio MF-P01, which is a 4-track recorder that works with regular type-II audio cassette tapes.
Looks like somebody found some information on that song.
That's the theme song of The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge for MS-DOS
Here's the link for the original sound track:
• Video
![[柴犬ASMR]曼玉Manyu&小白Bai 毛发护理Spa asmr](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0TsXQ7z2Dh4/mqdefault.jpg)
I wanted a four track so bad in 91 but I couldn't ask my parents after they already spent a fortune on instruments for me. Young musicians are living in an incredible era for recording and instrument availability.
Dude, you wanna talk about broke musicians? I used to *Rent* one of those things. Actually buying one seemed like a crazy pipe dream back then.
Jaspertine haha that's awesome. What kind of place did you rent it from?
I worked at a Sound and lighting rental company and I "borrowed" a big ole Tascam all the time and never got anything good out of it
It's a pipe dream again given how much these things go for these days.
Jaspertine
I'm Digital and a proud broke musician.
Love vintage equipment.
Dj Digital what do you think of the Teenage Engineering OP-1? I think it's an amazing piece of equipment.
So much respect for people who made house music back in the day made with love and hard work.
👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
They were using sequencers and MIDI so keeping on track wasn't hard
More like Rock
@@dog5696 why rock?
Also, you can actuelly record 10 parts on a 4 track recorder. Here's how: Record parts 1, 2, and 3 on tracks 1 to 3, then mix them down to track 4 while mixing in a 4th part. Record parts 5 and 6 on tracks 1 and 2, then mix them down to track 3 while mixing in a 7th part. Record part 8 on track 1 and transfer it to track 2 while mixing in a 9th part. Record part 10 on track 1. Voilà. And you only have 1 generation of signal loss.
this is insane! I've always dealt with the generation loss as a kind of... "art through circumstance" but this is great!
do you know how to operate a Fostex X26? im really confused and the manual doesnt make any sense to me, maybe im daft. i dont understand if Line 1 means track 1+3 and track 2= 2+4. sometimes during playback some recordings are heard on unrecorded tracks. any help would be appreciated
Thats how they did it in big studios.I thiknk it's mentionedin the documentary about queen's A night at the oper and also on the making of I'm not in love by 10cc. They used the the same principle but probably on 18 or 24 track recorders.
Bouncing
Genius ❤
So when you play Ghostbusters backwards, you hear Devo. Got it.
“In The Name of Love” by Thompson Twins
It sounded like a possessed David Byrne talking backwards
I believe it’s magic.
We're all Devo, even the Ghostbusters.
That song revered blew my mind 4 years back lmao
I recorded one of my creations over my sister's Michael Jackson tape when I was a kid and I got whooped for that.
😁
Hahahahaha!!!! 😂
You got told off for having used normal instead of metal tape, I presume?
Hahar. Dam. I youst to take the odd tape I fount. An put tape over the end to record. If had no blank tape s. Dam u made this video. But u dident have a taskam back in day s. I'm holding to buy one asap
That brought back memories. I was either getting beaten or I was beating someone for taping over cassettes in the 80's. That was a serious offense.
I had this Tascam and I loved it!
I lost the recorder after moving.
I paid $100 new in 2001 and now a used one is close to $300.
When quantization didn't exist and perfect timing was imperative for musicians/producers.
"Perfect Timing" and quantization are two different things. Bernard Edwards of Chic was a "Grove-Master" but far from playing perfect quantized tracks.
Back in the day I used to devote a track to stripe with FSK to get midi sync. Believe me the sync was much tighter than anything I have been able to achieve with midi over USB.
but a lot of people quantize because of latency when recording
@@sadniggahours4046 Yeah, and recordings are so hi-fi nowadays that a slight variation of timing is quite noticeable. A lot of hard rock and metal producers have to sync up double kicks and guitars if they're meant to match up since being even a fraction of a second off compromises the mix
Shiiid, NEVER in my life would I ever use quantizing. It ruins the Natural way we play our instruments making it sound too robotic & perfect... there's no feeling or soul in the swing. Real/Raw music doesn't need quantizing, but I guess beginner musicians that can't keep up with the beat or even swing right, would probably use it to avoid being too sloppy 😂😂🎹🎵🎸
This is how I learned how to record my music in the late 1980s on a Tascam Porta One. By learning proper microphone placement, room acoustics, exact playing technique, and judicious bouncing of tracks while also making the most of the limited EQ available, I learned the lessons that have served me well in my life journey in music in the modern age of the digital audio workstation. I almost feel sorry for those who did not experience these the limitations I had; for example audio compression. This was something that I had to rely on tape saturation to achieve, today it so common as an audio effect in every computer based recording software that I am not sure that the younger generation appreciates the luxury of this technology. Then again, I hate admitting I am an old fart.
We appreciate the technology. We all started out at one point and sat there scratching our heads wondering why this part of the vocal or the guitar is louder than this part etc etc. Not to mention in today's audio industry, everything is overcompressed (I am guilty) and not too long ago was a loud war (not guilty). Also, it would be great if compressors were as easy as a LA2A but they're not and most of us don't have $4K to spend on a great vintage compressor. Compression is a complicated thing to master. It can really change the direction of the song. Something that is heavily compressed will sound like it's in your face and if the song isn't in your face and the vocal is, well then the vocal is sitting on top of the mix which isn't good.
The LA2A emulation(s) on the UAD Apollo interface sounds great. So does the UA 1176.
An 1176...lol, a Boss RCL-10 micro compressor was a dream unit for me and still beyond my budget then (and now). I was lucky to have a SM-57 microphone. Audio always has been a rich man's game and it has been my experience that those who can afford high end equipment often have no idea what to do with it.
Wes Murray
I haven't used any of UA's plugins. I've been using Waves for years. I like their CLA2A. Would like to test some of Universal Audio's plugins.
Jim Walker
btw, I found that compressor for $100
Every DJ who wanted to be a producer in Chicago during the 80's House Music Movement used those 4 track recorders. Those were the days.
Very cool piece of information. I didn't start *writing* music till well into the 2000s but I'm still old enough to remember cassette tapes and tape recorders and all that fun stuff... when I was a kid it was my dream to use that record button to make something cool. But I wound up using a record button on a computer instead. ;)
If I was born a decade earlier, I could certainly see myself using something like this. :) Another life, another time.
Lazy Game Reviews, TechMoan and this channel are the only channels on UA-cam (I'm aware of) that not only have informative and perfectly edited videos, but these guys talk in a very non-offensive way that should be more common among content creators. I just feel relaxed watching these videos.
Hahah.. You mean in contrast to The Angry Video Game Nerd or something?
Exactly. :D AVGN is very entetaining if you can accept he's only a character acted by James Rolfe, but still a bit too much for me after a while. There's enough frustration in the world around me anyway. :)
I watch all of those channels and love them
I'm a happy subscriber to all three and have been for quite a while, for this exact reason.
There’s Nostalgia Nerd.
i recorded friend's band this spring on a similar tape recorder. Feels kinda nice when you don't have to look at a computer screen during the recording.
Oh yes magic. Awsum..bring it back I say. But can still up load recordings from 4 track to a computer if need be to add or mix an compress plus. .
This is how I remember recording in the beginning. We used to do the editing with a small blade and clear sticky tape lol!!! I still believe that the recordings of the past is of way better quality than the digital recordings of today.
Amen
Analog recording are better. Not in the dynamic range department, but consider the fact that converters, word clock, jitter, dither, bit depth, sampling rate, 32 bit or 64 mix engines don't exist in the tape world. A Tape transfer to vinyl was like heaven.
Dope that's good digital is way to clean for me ....
Yer good old sticky tape over hole s on any blank or old tape an keep recording on them..then 4 track came in. Got confusing one added to much ..an tape s from then. Whant play. In today tape deck s an music play all scrabeld lol unless thru 4 track. Put all onto track one. I got tunn of old school tape s Pbs hip hop show recording s an live Dj battle DMC s an gigs .dope to play. Tape. Sound slow. If tape s from orly 90 s only just got tape deck larst year. As my old school bomb box spring Brock of. Hard to find any body who fixes tape deck s. So hopeing to get dubble caset deck. For tape to tape recording agen. Sume of my stuff home recorded is dope just wish I was pro. Producer back in 90 s but I gess I was in my own right. ..my sirtch is on for working dubble tape deck or aux .into ..two tape deck. I still got old school sanyo silver pa amp.with mic input plus. Is dope an pioneer equlizer old skool type .taken it back to late 80 s orly 90 s
My uncle had one when I was a kid. Different model but functionally identical. The electronic musical instrument that fascinated me in the 1980s was the Casio VL-1.
“Back in the 80’s and 90’s I thought MIDI was the way to go”
Yep - same here, and I remember being so disappointed when I first got into MIDI and realised my Casio CTK 670 only had 4 MIDI channels.
Mum & Dad couldn’t understand why I could possibly want or need another keyboard!!
I still enjoy MIDI, My first setup was a yamaha PSR-47( basically a toy) and Atari PC with midi ports, have to agree i was also quite disappointed with it and its lowly 16 note polyphony :) try layering with it and PHbtttt notes cutting out all over the place..
I faced that same issue with that very same board! 😂 I did get a Yamaha TX 81-Z and only used the keyboard for one sound. My Alesis MMT-8 sequencer was the brains of my MIDI flow. My drum machine was a small Boss Dr Rhythm 550. I still use MIDI today, and whereas I’ve since upgraded sound modules and sequencer, I still use the Casio as a controller board only. The MPC 1000 is the brain now. Although I don’t use them, I still have my Tascam 424 four-track, and 488 MKII eight-track cassette recorders.
I felt like I need to come back to my own comment. I suppose I am still very much using MIDI because of all the virtual instruments I use, I think back in the 90's though MIDI seemed like the be all and end all, I'd quantise everything to death to the point where there was no emotion left in anything. Oh how much I've learnt since then!
I have a friend who had a 4 track similar to that in the mid 90s. We used to hang out and I'd watch him record songs. I can't play any instruments (nor do I really know anything about music theory) but I'd give him suggestions. One thing I remember is he could use the 4 track itself to copy tracks around. So, for instance, he could record drums to track 1 and bass to track 2. Then he'd play both tracks at the same time while setting the 4 track to record to track 3. Track 3 now contains the drums and bass. Then he just records over tracks 1 and 2 with whatever he wants. He said it sounded sort of bad if you tried doing that trick with 3 tracks playing, so he never did more than two. Also, trying to copy 2 tracks made this way to a third also didn't work very well and sounded bad. I think he said he could effectively have a total of 6 tracks. (Copy 1 and 2 to 4. Record again on 1 and 2 and copy to 3. Then record on 1 and 2, no further copying possible. You could squeeze 7 in if you didn't mind sound degradation and copied tracks 1, 2 and 3 on the initial run.)
Anyway, really nice video!
there were 4 tape standers back then
I - Normal
II - Chrome
III - Ferrichrome (wasn’t very popular, so was dropped)
IV - Metal
the heads and the biasing need to match in the recording deck and the playback deck.
that was the lowest end model they made, and as you mentioned better units offered changes in the IPS to use more tape per second to increase the bandwidth for the recording. some units could also do bouncing (letting you merge one or more tracks to an open track to free up space for further recording).
those were the first machines cheap enough to allow a regular person to explore multi track. rented one from a music store in high school for a week, shared it with my lead guitarist, he was able to think non linearly .. vs I needed to do everything in one go.
I loved how you setup your cables on the wall and your table. Nice setup. Your video was so good, right to the point. I keep listening all the way thru and learnes some things. Thanks!
Your videos have become a source of joy to me. Love all your content mate, keep up the good work!!
Man I recorded so many songs on my Tascam 4 track in he early 90s. I'm running an 8 track reel to reel unit these days, but I actually have a sony 8 track cassette unit sitting around gathering dust. It actually sounded pretty great.
Let me know if you’re ever trying to get rid of that Sony 8 track!! I’d love one lol
Why reel to reel these days?
Before I had a 4 track I would record into a standard cassette deck a drum track. I would play it back and while playing it back I would play along with it my first keyboard track while recording the drums and keyboard into a 2nd cassette recorder and continue back and forth until the song was finished.
synthartist69
lol...man we were good at that back then! I’d do sometimes 20 x!
Yes. Amazing it is. I say bring it back. Eazy an effective an raw. In own zone creating n recording it. I did one track. Hole thing is free style adding new tape an put tape into other side an keep adding. Befor I had a 4 track to ... I need a dubble tape deck asap ....an 4 track I can still get caset tapes TDK or box s of them ...collecting. Incase tape stops bean made ..like vhf. .but albums on caset tape are still bean made an still sale. I live pulling out my old recordings on caset tape s take me back to good ol late 80 s orly 90 s. .
I learned to do one take vocals using a standard cassette deck as well in the same way. While it was playing back I would run the 2nd tape to record the harmonies and backing vocals. I used the instrumentals on the B side of singles to practice
I’ve done that!
Had that exact unit in the 90's and loved every minute.I've had the pleasure of tracking in a handful of multi million dollar facilities as I got older, and still wished I had something simple like this at home. It's real, and you really have to be able to play. Period. I'll take the sound from this over some digitally harsh, disgusting og box or equivalent any day.
I remember getting a wavestation for christmas. I cried for about ten min. Greatest gift ever. My friend had a DAT and a mixer. Never figured out why my tracks were so low then. It was a while until I got a compressor.... good times.
I started out with the original TASCAM 144 Portastudio, which I loved. It was over a thousand dollars back in the day. Still have it boxed up.
I picked one up the other day at a thrift shop. I always wanted one growing up! Thank you so much for this tutorial. I'm excited to go back and learn the analog ways of recording. They actually appeal to me more than digital which has always been daunting and confusing. Thanks again!
You forgot the “ping-pong” mode ejere you mix 3 tracks onto track 4 and thereby free up 3 tracks with minimal quality loss.
My thoughts exactly. Frustrating to listen to his mix down approach.
Yeah ! 'Bouncing' - I would mix 4 tracks down to a stereo mix, then use that as a new 1 and 2 leaving 3 and 4 empty, and repeat. Or 4 into 1 leaving 2,3 and 4 etc That was the fun of using them.
You can't bounce down on tascam porta 02's. That's why he didn't do it, he knows his s***...
Bouncing?
i dont think you can do that on one of those really little guys
def can on the big portastudios like 424's etc
I still have one of these Tascams. Was a great little unit for drafting ideas.
in other words kids, appreciate what you got these days. Now this was music imagine what it was like editing videos lol
true.. it's amazing what music we can create with a laptop in our bedroom
My old old bands first two demos were done on one of these... still have it packed away with gear somewhere here.
Bouncing drums, 2 guitars, a lead, bass and vox, all on 4 tracks. Fun stuff!!
Oh Man! I remember the day my band mates and I got a 4-track. It completely changed everything about our song writing! Back then we had an electric guitar, Yamaha PSS 560, a microphone, a few guitar pedals, and the 4-track. Good times.
Had one. Had a LOT of fun recording with it. Me and My drummer recorded 4 songs over a weekend, with me doing all guitars, bass and backing vocals, and him doing drums and lead vocals. What a frickin' blast!
Man! Eat your heart out, Crush 40
Really loving the new intro theme, it's pretty kick-ass
dude i love how warm the 4 track sounds and the hissing is sooo dopeee
Interesting info regarding old school multitrack recording. That 4 track audio recorder was pretty darn neat. Now folks get an idea of why it takes so long to produce a song, and or album. Lots of mixing, etc etc.
Well the Beatles used to record this way. All the technology in the world will never replace talent and the ability to write a great 👍 song. We all keep trying...
well said
When musicians have to do all in one take with so little edition, amazing
In the mid to late 80's a 4 tracker was the cheapest option ... A midi sequencer or midi computer was expensive. In 1988 I got the Atari & sequencer software and kept the 4 tracker for vocals / guitar etc. emm! they where great times. Great vid 8 bit man!
This is actually really neat. I have a Juno GI keyboard with multitrack recording (digital) mixer of 8 tracks and it was hard to find something like that for my composing to make rough drafts of stuff... I didn't know there was something similar all the way back in the 80s. I actually also have one of the early Yamaha keyboards from like 1985 and if I could get one of these recorders and the tapes for it cheaply I could make a retro recording setup like this just for the heck of it. I got the originally $250 Yamaha for $12 at Goodwill in working condition so maybe there are some of these old recorders floating around too.
This video was shown in my music GCSE class today
The 8-Bit Guy reaches even schools!
Gaming829 shown in my college music production class the other day!
I used one of these to record some my compositions, guitar pieces, for GSCE music in 1994. I was allowed to bring it home for the weekend. My father, whose enthusiasm for audio technology was cruely stunted by available funds, was enthralled by it, it was just the most amazing piece of kit ever. Sunday night, something jammed on it, I opened it with a screwdriver and it miraculously returned to normal in its own.
The other half of my compositions were recorded to tape, from the line out of the school's Roland U20 controlled by cubase on an atari st. Limited by the polyphony on the U20,I recorded a highly complex OTT orchestral piece in 3 tracks on the TASCAM, after much trial and error on the exact point to hit the big mouse button to start cubase for the second and third tracks one afternoon after school had finished for the day. I felt like I was pushing technology to the limit and beyond. What a time to be alive! for the record, 1994 was when the A* grade was introduced but I had to settle for A, despite my herculean efforts in the back room. I'm still bitter after all these years... Don't make the same mistake I did..... Study hard!!!!
My first 4 track recorder was a Yamaha MT120. Had a lot of features. Those were the good ol days.. Kind of the first pro tools in sorts :) Love your videos. Keep them coming. Greetings from Hobbs New Mexico.
I really love your videos. You have old school tech mixed with sound recording mixed with keyboard playing. Great job! I have subscribed to your channel. Have a nice day! :)
Check out Alessandro Cortini (guitarist and synthesist for NIN). He has a box of tapes and one of those old 4 track units on stage and they use them for drones and other elements of their songs.
Other musicians are also recording a single sustaining note, usually one of a 4 part chord, to each track and then using these units to perform with along other synthesizers, drum machines, etc.
Four tracks like this are still a great way to 'demo' songs you want to compose. I used make songs on my fostex for hours on end. Great memories of singing and writing songs.
Oh man, you still have your Ghostbusters OST cassette! I really loved it back in the days and still do. So Eighties! Great video, by the way.
Wow, this was me in high school, 88-91 4 channel mixer and keyboard. Used midi as a controller for other instruments such as my keytar. BTW reloading the final mix back in is exactly how we added vocal tracks. We ended up with 6 or 7 track recording at home that way. God they took forever, we thought we were going to be something someday.
I used to record music off the radio and then record my voice rapping over the that music
Pretty sure someone out there must have created the first "Reaction" audios just like that, in an old box somewhere
rad - i used to do the same with guitar and sing like try to play along and listen back! good times!!
That's awesome
Luv it I still use my original tascam 424 it is brilliant for natural tape saturation and also creating samples great episode. Btw glad you covered bouncing 🙌
Liked, subscribed, and added to my playlists. Great informative video! I love learning about old music tech. Keep doing what you're doing!
I used to love these toys in the 80's! You can play along with a pre-programmed drum computer, and if you have more than one keyboard you can play bass on one with one hand and the regular rhythm or chords on the other keyboard with the other hand. This is a way to have stereo drums, stereo keyboards, and a centered bass all on just two tracks of the four track recorder (an equivalent of 5 tracks). Then you have two more tracks to do whatever you want and you didn't have to bounce anything. You can also punch things in or put a lead guitar solo where there is no vocal. It helps to be able to do more than one thing simultaneously. I remember having a microphone close to the floor recording a tambourine being played with my feet while simultaneously playing a guitar with stereo reverb. So as you can see I had an equivalent to 8 track recording while keeping everything in stereo. You're basically doing a live performance while making sure everything is balanced.
For bouncing down you could also route your output back into the input on the 4 track and record 3 tracks down to 1. Or to get all 4 tracks on the units that weren't double speed you could just mix down to left or right (or both to preserve stereo) on the other cassette deck and then put the tape right back into the 4 track to avoid double bouncing.
I did that all the time with my old Cutec. Record four tracks on tape A, mix and send to tape B on good quality stereo recorder then put tape B in the 4-track. Then record two more tracks and add a "live" track during final send to stereo. 7 tracks total with only one bounce. Not bad. If you planned well, you bounced the sounds that were least harmed by the inevitable, if slight. degeneration of sound.
had that EXACT Tascam. used it for all my recordings from 2006-2009
That is crazy! I had that exact Tascam four-track recorder, and I had a Casio CZ-1000! You just took me down a trip down memory lane!
Would u consider swooping sume thing for it or sale it.
Dear lord. I’ve had one of these for 14 years and have done so many home recordings with it trying to record on both sides. I had no idea about how to actually do any of this properly!
Thank you!
Can you or anyone tell me how to clear the tracks properly after finishing a track?
@@thomasrabon9964 Just erase the tape.
still makes me feel old that a video entitled "oldschool" shows basically the last 4 track tape recorder ever made... you know WAYYYY back in like 2001...
The Maxell XLII is not a metal (type IV) tape. It's a type II tape, sometimes refered to as CrO2, or Chrome tape. On another note, I had no idea Tascam made a model as basic as this.
You can record up to 10 parts on a 4 track using a technique called bouncing:
- Record parts 1, 2 and 3 on tracks 1, 2, and 3
- Record part 4, plus a mixdown of tracks 1, 2, and 3, onto track 4. All your 4 parts are now on track 4, freeing up tracks 1, 2, and 3.
- Record parts 5 and 6 on tracks 1 and 2.
- Record part 7 plus a mixdown of tracks 1 and 2 onto track 3. Parts 5, 6 and 7 are now on track 3.
- Record part 8 on track 1.
- Record part 9 plus the content of track 1 onto track 2. Parts 8 and 9 are now on track 2.
- Record part 10 on track 1.
You end up with Parts 1 to 4 on track 4, parts 5 through 7 on track 3, parts 8 and 9 on track 2 and part 10 on track 1.
Voilà.
I still have my Tascam Port-a-Studio. All the songs I wrote middle and highschool were recorded with that thing & it was so much fun. An amazing tool
Ahh the memories lane.. I still keep an old Yamaha MT8X (an 8 track analogue mixer / tape recorder) with a bunch of C30 BASF tapes. ;-)
I still have this same unit. I'm feeling kinda' nostalgically inspired to break it out and mess around with it.
Lucky u. Or if u would swoop or sale it. Pleas let me know. If all still works .injoy.
Im about to buy one and start my journey, at 41 lol.
We've come a long way. I remember using a Tascam 4 track in the 90s - and before that, I used to bounce from tape to tape, adding one track on each bounce - analog generation loss would quickly cook my goose. These days, I'm recording 64 tracks wide on a PC ;-) www.sheer.us/stuff/2016/Sheer.HouseOfTheRisingSun.mp3 and www.sheer.us/stuff/2016/Sheer.HistoryOfModern.mp3 are two of my projects from this month - essentially the same process you show here, just mo tracks and betta sound.
However, be it a 4 track tascam or the latest 256-track protools rig, there's no better toy for a musician than a multitrack deck..
This is a fun stuff to collect and playing around with it. Thank you for sharing.
These are great little machines for quickly getting your ideas onto tape. I use the tascam 488mk1 8 track cassette recorder with all the many mixing controls ect. It also records at high speed for great sound quality. Thanks for sharing.
Have you ever considered doing a collaboration video with Techmoan ?
plz make this real
Hell yeah!
I would love to... but I'm pretty sure he lives on the other side of the planet, so it wouldn't be anything in person.
You are aware that they live on different continents?
Of course - i mean something like an online collaboration - the internet makes stuff like that very possible, and through the magic of video editing, it could be really seamless and potentially fun
Far from perfect? That's amazing. I'd buy that in a heartbeat...
Excellent video! I still have my Tascam 4-Trac, as well as my Tascam 8-Track Cassette recorders ... which still work! Of course I jumped into the digital age, but you can't beat the overall audio quality and warmth of tape!
I love Tascam 4 track machines! Still have one, about 3 feet away from me. I haven't played guitar in many years, but I have put my recordings into my computer to digitally edit them - quite impressed at the clarity of many of those antique recordings. :)
Ah. The good old days. I was young, inexperienced , and having sooo much fun.
The manual for my Yamaha MT3X describes how you can record up to 10 layers on the same tape without any of the 4 tracks being transferred more than once: First you record in tracks 1, 2, and 3. You then transfer those to track 4 while mixing in a fourth layer. Now there are 4 layers on track 4. You then record on track 1 and 2. You transfer those to track 3 while mixing in a third layer. Now there are 4 layers on track 4 and 3 layers on track 3. You record on track 1 and transfer this to track 2 while mixing in a second layer. Finally you record the last layer on track 1. So now there are 10 layers total and none has been transferred more than once.
It's called track bouncing.
@@michaelhamerin3814 its called a good explanation of track bouncing and how to do it well. Actually :)
Great explanation.
Man I loved my old Tascam 4 track. We would record with it all the time. Great video!
Had a Yamaha 4 track, a proverb 200 and a few different casio and Yamaha keyboards back in 1990, so much fun. Recorded in Maxell UDXL II metal tape.
sigh - memories of my old tascam 4 track from the 90s!
Oh how I remember coming up with different ways to record myself. I never bought Tascam or Fostex machines. I used regular cassettes recorders. Yeah. Dumping 4 tracks down to 1 track to free up 3 more tracks was nice, but when it came time to mix your project, you didn't have alot of leg room to work with. 4 instruments on one track? When you turn that particular track down, you were turning down all the instruments at the same time. Fast forward. Today I use Logic, and I have more tracks to work with then I actually need. Thank you Modern Technology.Lol
I've stuck with Tascam for as long as I could,for the first time in 9 years I'm grabbing a Yamaha MT4X since it uses figure 8 plugs instead of those bulky AC adapters.
I started using an old tube reel to reel recorder. The invention of the Tascam 4-track was much appreciated. I still use one today well as the old reel to reel.
I love the video friend. I just recently got my dads old tascam 246 rebelted and working. It sure is a whole lot of fun.
Fostex 8 track cassette was my go to. They doubled the channels by doubling the tape speed. £500 at the time, but the results were pretty good.
The good thing about tape? It forced you to make decisions. Bouncing tracks down set recording levels in stone. Digital tracks are never finished, you keep tweaking and fiddling... Learning when to say its done is a skill in itself.
With 8 tracks on a cassette, you'll need to make sure loud tracks like bass and kick drum aren't right next to each other so they won't bleed over on that tiny strip of tape
@@customsongmaker That's sage advice. Tell that to the young lad that didn't know what to do with all those channels, thirty years ago. 😁
@@FatNorthernBigot ok I'll tell him, if you go back and tell another lad that he'll never finish his 4 connected concept albums to change the world
@@customsongmaker 🤣 Ah, the hubris of the young.
4 track cassette recorders have skyrocketed in price :( I'm glad I bought one when I did . Be cool if a company would make new ones .
definitely, the company will probably charge too much but would still be nice.
With the resurgence of Polaroid cameras, you know it's only a matter of time.
MSH68 They will probably be inferior in quality compared to the 414 & 424
Tascam is still making new ones that work and feel the same, they just write to an SD card instead of tape. Their 6 track is only like $150 which is pretty damn cool. I find it much more straightforward and effective than DAW and PC, especially when recording simple demos
I still have my 4 track Tascam. It was nice, but no way I would ever go back. The Portastudios that Tascam has come out with blows away the old stuff by a country mile.
Was planning to record an elliott smith-ish style of music using a 4-track but had no idea how to use one. this made it rlly simple thank u :)
My Yamaha MT2X that i had back in the day had a mixdown function so you could record the recorded tracks to one track within the unit and then record more tracks so you could add pretty much as many as you like prior to the final mixdown master.
Most on here have no idea what recording on tape was like. You would appreciate what we have now so much. However, tape was so much warmer and wonderful sounding
on the other hand tho digital music is much cleaner, more of a professional result.
David Singleton Have you ever worked with Tape? Its much warmer sounding and can be just as clean: if recorded right
Analog does have a better sound for sure, digital just sounds cheap compared to analog. Back in the days of tapes tho it wouldve been a fortune to get clean audio even close to what you can get today for next to nothing.
Sgt Pepper was 4 track..there's a deconstruction video on youtube of each individual track on the opening song. It's fascinating how they achieved such a good sound that even today doesn't sound that dated.
Yes...but the tape was 2 inches wide LOL!
Subbed. I used all these. Fostex 8 track reel to reel Tasman 4 track machines and of course now Logic Pro. 4 track tape memories. Many band recordings!
I still have that exact model Tascam hooked up in my home studio. Comes in handy frequently when I want to lay down some guitar parts quickly without firing up the laptop to use Sonar.
I’m pretty sure that Metal refers to type 4 and type 2 were called Chromium.
You are completely right. Dude needs to check his facts.
yep I was about to say the same thing when watching this. Type 1 was standard cassette, Type 2 was Chromium Dioxide, There was a type 3 that was hardly used, and type 4 was metal.
Yes. Type IV, at least what I used, was too hard for my Fostex X-30 to erase, so it left low frequency content of the previous recording. Only use type II if the device is made for type II.
That's right. They're all made from metal, which is why one shouldn't mix up the terms; only type IV should be referred to as Metal.
Just getting ready to comment that, but I figured someone else had made that observation. Having cut my recording teeth on a TASCAM cassette 4-track in the early 90s, I remember the difference.
Fun fact: weird al actually used a Portastudio 4 track recorder when making some of his first songs in a garage!
One can only imagine how many garage bands scrounged up enough during the 80s to get this and combine it with a little Casiotone and a Strat knock_off and some drum pads to get the raw sound of suburbia out to the world 😊
thank you sir, i like your video, make me sad, make me in tears remembering when i was child in 90's.
now i know how difficult for people in the past to record legendary music as we know it today.
there must have been great and patient editors of that era
Yes so so tru.
Wow this really makes you wonder what was like to make music at a home studio in previous decades! Like I started recording in a daw in my tablet back in 2014 (it was GarageBand) and although it felt very limited it was ligues ahead of what that lovely Tascam recorder has to offer. Now I use Logic Pro X and I’m quite used to having access to virtually endless tracks and effects but seeing machines like the one featured in the video makes you appreciate the possibilities that technology brings us.
2:27 There is no music. Only Zuul.
Playing B side backwards
"Ok, so? She's a dog..."
Evangeline Domenech 😂 there is no Zuul only music
Get sucked
I’m the gatekeeper!
THIS IS THE COOLEST VIDEO I HAVE SEEN ON UA-cam IN A WHILE . sorry for the caps i'm just stoked about it!
I used to have one of these. I never really figured out how to use it to its fullest potential, but I loved recording song ideas and whatever with it. Good times. Still wish I had it.
There is a fourth way to make more tracks. ( atleast in some of the portastudios from that time ) you can record 3 prerecorded tracks directly to the fourth track internally. then you have 3 "new" tracks to record on.
Dope! Sounds like a 80’s porno music...... back when porn had a story line
it sounds like you said
i enjoy a nice porn story line on VHS
Ron Jeremy was king.
lol
r/cursedcomments
This guy is very well organised and very clean that's pretty good, and I remember I used to be soo good at looping and recording tape to tape on stereo back in the 1997 when I recorded mixing breakdance music, good days.
You can't imagine how big the grin that spread across my face was when I saw the Casio keyboard on your wall. I had that keyboard with the hexagon drum pads when I was a kid. We drove my Dad bananas with that thing.
I just noticed that when you were filming yourself playing the keyboard, the recording is transposed down a perfect fourth compared to what you were actually playing. This seems to line up with the original track you played at the end, which is played in the original key.
10:10 I believe the song "Marvel T" on the Ad Lib Juke Box program was named after the CEO of Ad Lib, Martin Prevel.
Aaaah! I see that tiny two voice Casio with the ludicrous demo tune sitting next to your recording keyboard! I look forward to seeing your review and tear down of that one. Now...I need to find mine...
Most of our early works and demos were recorded on a Tascam 4-track. Great vid. Thanks.
Techmoan is your British doppelganger.
But he didn't start his youtube channel looking at mac computers unlike david
Kids will never know how hard mixing and recording drums into one of these things was. 😂
Ok boomer
Wizardito Someone is triggered. Did you think of that “insult” yourself? You’re so original and edgy. Actually you’re just cringe in human form 😬
@@someguynamedvictor hey man you ok
@@someguynamedvictor my mates and i did so many demos on these back in the 90's - when you ping ponged the mix that was time for a beer while it bounced down for each pass... we found that recording one song usually involved about 20 beers for the group... good times!!!
@@wizardito7741 Okay Zoomer.