Best Cassette 4 Track Recorder Ever // Better than the Tascam Portastudio // Yamaha MT44

I repair and use a rare Yamaha mt44 four track tape recorder, considered superior to the Tascam portastudio. If you’re into old school multi track recording, cassette tapes, analog gear, and home recording studio builds, then I think you’ll enjoy this.
Congratulations, if you are watching this you are an absolute nerd. This is a super rare analog 4-track cassette recorder machine from the 1980s. It was sold as a modular unit with a mixer and patchbay, and it’s considered superior to the tascam portastudio because you can mix and match higher quality preamps, and bypass a lot of extra circuitry that’s in the other machines. In fact I have a tascam m30 analog board, and a tascam 388, both of which I could use as the front end for this tape machine. I didn’t even consider using a 4 track, but someone in my comments section recommended it, so when I saw this for super cheap, I decided to buy it. But it ended up being free! #salvage
Story of the barn studio: • Building a Home Record...
I bought this cassette deck for $100. Turns it out was broken. When I told the seller, he just gave me my money back and told me to keep it. It had two big problems with it. One was that I couldn’t get it out of play mode, and into record mode. Turned out to be a simple fix, but it took my way too long to figure out. The second problem was that there was no input signal. That problem was a little more complicated, and required disassembling the machine soldering it (incorrectly the first time), then buying the correct part, then re soldering to the trace board, then reassembling. If you’re good with electronics this will seem all very simple to you, and I will look stupid to you. If you know nothing about electronics, this will seem complicated, and I will still look stupid to you. For me, it was a learning experience.
Tascam m30: • Tascam m30 (Tascam 388...
Like I say, I’m not a hipster. I need to do digital recording for my job. I also prefer it. I grew up using it. But there is something simply cool and fun about analog recording, and I'm always looking for ways to warm up or lo fi cold sounding recordings. For my work, there isn’t a lot of opportunity to record straight to tape, but, as I demonstrate in this video, sending my mixes back out to tape is definitely a possibility and something clients might enjoy.
What do you think? To my ears, the mt44 def adds saturation, the lows get distorted quicker, low bass gets cut out, but it sounds a lot brighter to me. Do you hear that? I’m eager to do more tests and compare this against the my tascam 388 and my tascam portastudio 424.
If you’re interested in this type of stuff, let me know, so I’m not just a crazy person alone in a barn. www.youtube.co...
Thanks to my friend, Alex Wilkerson, a talented bassist, electrician, and genius!
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Studio Guitarist & Virtual Guitar Teacher
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