Tascam 246 - Pushing the Tape really hard.

[@thomasgessner]

What a beautiful song! The 246 adds to the vibe of the music.

[@waltzingdragonfly]

As music creation should be, pure and from the heart, good song ! keep it up

[@spurv]

Very beautiful. Love it. Wow and flutter makes it even nicer.

[@luke-costelloe-music857]

I wanted to see your gear but stayed for the song. That was really great

[@MrDiddyDee]

Oh how I miss my old cassette Tascam 244, things were so much simpler then. I upgraded to a Yamaha MD-8 and loved that too. Both sadly finally gave up the ghost and became unreliable and I couldn't get them repaired anywhere. No DAW has ever compared with either for sound or ease of use. The very best sound I ever got was running the band I was in through a 24 channel mixer with a Midiverb patched in, and straight down onto a domestic stereo cassette deck. It was loud in the practise room, bass and guitar D.I.ed from combo amps, and the drumkit with just a pair of overhead Rode mics and an AKG on the kick, which also picked up the room ambience, and it sounded MASSIVE. I used the best quality tapes I could get and the cassette tape compression on the drums was the best sound I ever got, better than any pro studio we ever used.

[@4Ever4Track]

I bet those recordings sounded awesome. Full of feeling and groove and no locked in robotic timing.

[@nintendoor1]

Agreed! I’m lucky enough to have two working machines right now, and after becoming quite burned out from working with a DAW, the workflow with my Tascam mixer and Yamaha MT8 is so gratifying and fun

[@Colosphonium]

just so your aware these old unit are fairly simple to repair with some basic soldering skill and a volt mesuring device. you can clean pot with a spray can for that... change the pot...cap.. and all and all have a new unit for as little as 10 hours or less...with couple $ of generic electronic component.... i serviced my unit after watching couple hours of youtube clip... took the time to fix and test evrething according to tascam manual...clean evrething... change all part...and i know have a working unit that cost me 300$

[@markboone1043]

Outstanding.

[@chocolateandcheese3986]

well done!

[@davidmac42]

Sounds great, very analog and lovely..

[@sliduyzamnoyu]

Love this

[@4Ever4Track]

🙏

[@wehappyfewmusic]

Great song man, It has slight Springsteen feel about! I've recently got a 244 and am loving that machine too, although I now fancy getting the 246 as well after watching this!

[@4Ever4Track]

Thanks! Isn’t the 244 the same except for the 5 & 6 channels?

[@wehappyfewmusic]

@@4Ever4Track pretty much, I think you have a 2nd effects send too.

[@BogoEN]

Sounds great, man

[@yofuizurdo661]

Love it!

[@jonesvox1]

Another great acoustic song! Hope my comments aren’t annoying but… Pushing your input signal hot to the record head/tape on the way in is good but overdriving you L/R buss typically adds amplifier distortion and unlike tape saturation isn’t a “musical” distortion. I see your L/R faders pegged and burying the needles on the way out 😧 Thoughts? Yes, your tape transport needs help likely but as others have said, the TDK’s get super sticky with age. I always FF a tape through to the end and RW to beginning before tracking to loosen up the cassette mechanism and reconstitute the lubricant in the cassette liner sheets. Seems to help minimize a lot of flutter. Your videos are inspiring, nonetheless and again please don’t take my comments as criticism. I haven’t done much recording in the past 20 years and your vids are pushing me back towards the art. Keep em coming! Cheers 🍻

[@colinstevenson2913]

Time to dust off my 4 track, nice song!

[@Colosphonium]

hat up for going this way its super cool and creative and i beleive it sound perfect for your style. That being said id appreciate if youd post what gear you for effect as they are of major impact in your mix. those old unit were quite amazing for their time.. im just revamping my studio around a model 24 and a old board myself. just for the fun of it i mostly do orchestral stuff inside my daw but i love to fiddle around with folk set up like you do. cheers. M.J composer from Montreal.

[@joesalyers]

If you like this four track look at something like an Otari MX5050 which is a 1/4 4 track machine with super high quality. If you have any radio stations around your town go and ask if they have any old reel to reel recorders in storage they would like to get rid of most of the time they will give them to you. You can find 1/4 inch reels on reverb for about 40 bucks new. The MX5050 or the tascam equivalent both run at 3.75 ips which is cassette speed but also at 7 1/2 and 15 ips which will be 95% as good as any DAW. You will love the quality of those machines, you will get all the character of tape with the drawbacks of cassettes.

[@4Ever4Track]

I think I have decided my next upgrade will be the Tascam 388 - they’re just hard to find.

[@joesalyers]

@@4Ever4Track Look around at local radio stations they used multitrack reels for commercial voice overs and they might just give you what they have to get it out of the way. I know tons of musicians who were given 4 or 8 track Reels this way. Which would make a great mix down reel and it wouldn't cost anything to take out some radio stations old gear for them. But those 338 are getting harder to find. The best small reel to reel ever made is a Tascam MSR24S a 1 inch 24 track and Fostex made a 24 track 1 inch to compete with it. I had both back in the late 90s early 00s the Tascam was built like a tank. I still have it today and it works. The Fostex was good to but I sold it to buy ADATs back then. Check Reverb and other spots for those machines you might find a great deal. Great tunes and best of luck!

[@imethan-youtubetips1770]

I also love the old tapey sound. Thumbs up from a fellow creator 😅

[@czipendejs]

shit, it is really really great song

[@4Ever4Track]

Thanks!

[@enricotrafeli4425]

I have a fostex280 what do you think?

[@4Ever4Track]

I have never used a fostex

[@room2738]

looks like your clutch is on the way out,or the tapes to tight .. or both nice track :)

[@4Ever4Track]

I have since discovered that it is only a specific brand of tapes that produces that sound. The old TDK SM tapes that are supposed to be “studio master tapes” sound terrible especially in the high frequencies. The Maxell xl II tapes sound great and that doesn’t happen.

[@room2738]

thanks for the reply :) its been that long since i used my X15 i cant remember what i used to use,got a box full of old tapes .. keep saying im going to dig it out. after i saw your "The best audio interface is no audio interface. ..." maybe just to route through it :D (another great song) love what your doing :)

[@4Ever4Track]

I think the whole going back to the 4 track idea appeals more to those of us who have been there and done that.

[@nros5020]

So how do you like to hook up the model 12 with the 246 this is the setup I think I'm about to go for

[@4Ever4Track]

The 246 has 4 PGM outs, which are the four channels of the mixer post-fader. It also has 4 Tape Outs which are just the tracks on tape. So, you can take either the PGM outs or the Tape Outs into 4 channels of the M12.

[@jimihock5]

The reps at tascam be like ?... what .... wait.... sigh ..

[@4Ever4Track]

🤣

[@orlandoallo]

Reverb is in daw?

[@arthurleblanc7272]

At first, I couldn't figure out why the mix sounded like it did until the very end of the video when I saw you using TDK tape. The signature sound of TDk Type II cassette tape is the reason why all the Greatfull Dead"s bootleg board mix tapes were only recorded on Maxell XLII. Why not at least use Ampex 456, or Maxell? Do you use your Tascam Model 12 as a control surface for your DAW and multi track record onboard? What are you using for mics? Anyways, great song however it was recorded. Having said that it would be interesting to hear you do something on the Model 12,

[@4Ever4Track]

Thanks for the comment. I didn't really know anything about different tapes when I started this, just that the 246 manual said to only use Type II high bias tape. So, I thought the TDKs would be good, but they're really old and they have that terrible wobbly sound in the high frequencies. The Maxells that I use now are much better, although they're getting harder to find. I don't use a daw at all anymore. I'm not anti-daw, I just wanted to record music without a computer. For mics I use an SM7b for vocals and I've been using the sm57 on guitar. I have several nice condensors, but I actually prefer the lofi warmer sound of the 57 currently on my acoustic. Plus, I can work it really close to minimize the room sound. I'll probably try some of my other mics on some upcoming videos I've got planned.

[@ReelX1]

what do you want, it stays cassette sound with a very narrow bandwidth. personally I would recommand getting a reel tape deck, R2R is the way the go. Only more cost for the tapes itself, but its far worth it

[@4Ever4Track]

Totally agree with you. But I’m not going for best quality, just trying to get as much as I can out of a simple, no computer setup