I just bought this same model used. I’m a kid of the 2000’s so tape is something kinda new to me. I’m upgrading from a 424. I’ve been having a hard time finding detailed videos about these and this is just what I was looking for. Thank you!
I bought one years ago off ebay for £100, worked great until I left in the loft for 10 years. What happened was the cogs siezed onto the pins that support them. I repaired myself, I also changed the capstan drive belt, (was still OK, but as I had the machine apart I thought it best.) They are the only issues I am aware of.
Wow, I inherited one of these from my grandfather and have been dying to learn how it worksk. Thanks for making this video, its the first thing that came up when I searched this boards name.
If memory serves correct, just above the track level slider there's "Assign" buttons. These choose your track/group for that channel. The sign button chooses a track pair, then the pan chooses which of those two to record to (or both of course with center pan) I think.
@@MostlyPennyCat that sounds about right, this is a pretty neat machine and having explored using it in various modern setups for the past year has been really fun. It did take me way too long to realize that Group 1&2's outputs don't have an amplifier the wya Group 3&4 is routed to the headphone amplifier. I would set the faders both to 0, but the headphone output would be a million times louder. This made streaming weird, because I would use the group 1 and 2 for my headphones, and group three and four would go to my computer for streaming. So I would be cranking everything just so I could hear, and my friends would be ripping their head phones off from how unbelievably loud it was
@@SeanLaMontagne Yep, it certainly has its little foibles. I own a 488 MK1 but I've both used it yet We had the 4 track version at school. But we also had a 16 channel 8 group mixer and an 8 track ¼" Tascam reel to reel as our main teaching unit. My school music department had A Level Music Technology and that was great fun. Useful practical course, how to run a studio, close mic, open mic, FX, midi, performance. Fantastic. Once we get a house, my wife and I, I will be building a DAWless studio because I'm a software engineer by trade, I want no computers on there.
I just got a mint condition 488 mkII with full service history for £300!!! 🤩🤩🤩 $365 but it's much more often just a straight £ to $ over there, so $300 So excited, I'm off for a drive to collect it's week Saturday, 210 Mike round trip! 🤣 ROAD TRIIIIIP!! 😎
Great review. Loved my 4 track Tascam and would love one of these. Can you send individual tracks to a DAW (or the stereo mix) so you can master in a DAW and clean things up.... get it to a higher quality recording?.... thanks.
Short answer is no, but there a workaround that’s I don’t care for (google it, someone posted it online). I ended up sending the unit off to someone that modified it so that it now has 8 direct outs. I can plug it to my Soundcraft Signature MK22 and record all 8 tracks to my DAW at once. Love it!
I have to admit. You have explained the desk very well. It took me a long time to work out what seems simple now, things like tape cue & phantom power. Assigning tracks. Very Important on a Tape recording desk. I do like this vid. Well done.
they are not even worth 200 i would not buy a 8 track recorder really stupid idea squeezing 8 tracks on a tape 8 track of hiss and half the sound quality of a 4 track . It baffles me the recording the guy had made in the video and how people like this only buy these to make youtube videos and think the price of these 8 tracks are worth the price used.
And now I've bought my very own 488 mkii. At an incredible (low) price! It's mint condition because it's been regularly serviced over the years (😱😱😱) The reasons I got mine: 1) I'm a software engineer by trade, I don't want my hobbies to involve computers if they don't need it. 2) I was taught how to make music on multitrack tape and a studio mixer with some outboard 3) This is the fun way for me, all DAW setup is boring to me, sitting and staring and clicking
@@huuing Thanks! Back in '95 I took A-Level (A levels get you into university) Music Technology. Large part of which was how to use a studio. We had a tascam ¼" 8 track, a 24 channel mixer and some vintage outboard. That's what this is for, to recreate an old style studio. Heavenly, we would sit in the booth all day, sampling cool sounds with our Emu ESI-32 rack mount sampler. Fancy one with 8mb of RAM, enough for 45 seconds!! 😱 Needed 8 floppies to save 8 megs of sample data. One of our teachers even donated 2 synths for teaching subtractive synthesis. They were... A Roland System 100m 😳😳😳 And an EMS VCS 3 😱😱😱 I'm making do with a Microbrute first! 🤣
I picked up one of these that works great looks mint along with a headphone amp , a mic pre, a sm57, a little digital mixer and a bunch of cords for 200 bucks.....I win...great video btw
Hello friend, I have the 488mk1 and I have to agree that both machines are just great. I've achieved great sound quality of sound too with various recording techniques. Thanks for sharing. Kind regards. Paul.
At this point they are all over 30 years old, I think the best thing to do is to ask questions before you buy and don’t spend too much. Chances are drive belts should be changed and there is a plastic gear inside that is known to wear out. Mine was in good shape but I had those things replaced. A well maintained machine sounds good but it’s still a cassette, but it’s a great tool for sketches and basic multitrack work. Good luck!
Awesome information! Finally got one yesterday after years of searching for the right one and price. How do you record from input 1 into channel 2 and 3 and 4? You kinda glazed over that part a little.
e schiller - you can arm any four of the eight tracks by pressing the corresponding buttons under ‘record function’. You can press any of the four buttons to arm up to four tracks at once. Hope this helps.
@@gelosilente Actually a normal cassette uses 2 channels for side 1, and 2 channels for side 2. Split tape into 4 tracks and you flip to play. This device has 4 record/8 play heads to write to side 1. You never flip the tape. So it uses half the mag tape width of a normal cassette for each track, and it makes up for that by running at twice the speed of a regular cassette player. Effectively allowing same amount of mag tape surface area for each track. It requires high bias cassettes due to faster speed and less writing area.
WOW. Press all the buttons at once & see what happens. Force open the tape cover. Way to look after a nice machine. I'm repairing my 688 atm & I never treated it like this. Anyway these are an amazing desk. Glad I kept mine even after I went digital. cool thing is mine is a 688 MIDISTUDIO so I can run it with a digital program. If you know how. I'm using Pro Tools 10. Cheers Y/all.
Nice one!!! ...but 8 channel on cassette? I think thats realy to small... ...i get a fostex A8 LR 8 track 1/4" tape for recording becouse i love it and tape cost! ...my main one is a tascam ms16 1" tape (1" 16 channel) tape maschin. I can also tell that the teac 2340 or 3340 are good one (rtr 1/4" 4 track) or some tascam 1/2" 8 track! ...but as i said, dount worry about the many channal about small tape (1/8" approx), its a keeper and realy nice maschine you get! Have fun on record and love her! ...i would love that nice one ;) greetings
Mine has significant hiss on 5 to 6 tracks, probably much more than in this video. One of things I like about it is the very organic sounding distortion that occurs when the tracks clip, or whatever happens with the tape. If you want to hear an example: soundcloud dot com/nvelop/the-letter-s A cleaner example: soundcloud dot com/nvelop/lovers-expansion-mix-2
First, terrific review, well done. Second, it's interesting this resurgence in, not just tape (large reel to reel is certainly to be respected), but a resurgence in cassette, which is horrible sound quality compared to digital. Tape warmth? I concede this point, however the subtle aspect of tape warmth is quickly overwhelmed with the terrible sound properties of cassette. Narrower frequency range, noise floor, lack of high end dynamics, wow and flutter, etc. Let's be honest, cassette, while a durable format, has terrible sound quality. I think those who choose to do cassette multitrack recording, are doing it as they find it quirky and interesting, certainly not sound quality. A $150 used 8 track Tascam DP-02 utterly destroys these, and burns its own CDs. That all being said, even I find cassette multitrack recording interesting for some bizarre reason, and have to smack myself back to reality. I wish cassette could be a real player in the recording game, but its just not. Now, a nice reel to reel like a TSR-8, ok, we're in a much better discussion....
this a work good with a daw and interface with ins and outs. case you can do things in the daw then send to this. then i would mix it to a analog mixer pass this recorder. thats how the pros do it then and now they mix outside the daw with a analog mixer. that got inserts and aux and buss then back in the tape after . pro's back in the day tape after they recorder all takes then to the mixer then they mix it then had tape to record it again from the mx .so if you record the tracks to this recorder from daw then mix out side it then mix the record to tape after that you a do it like they did then, a nother trick back in the day for a cheap dat use vhs with hi-fi. for the master tape after the analog mixer.
Jeff Goldblum does audio tech reviews.
Absolutely amazing piece of equipment, and so easy to use.
It's the immediacy I love.
Switch on, start laying down tracks.
Wonderful.
Cassette tape can sound pretty bloody good. Especially if you keep it simple and have a great song and arrangement and good recording processes.
I just bought this same model used. I’m a kid of the 2000’s so tape is something kinda new to me. I’m upgrading from a 424. I’ve been having a hard time finding detailed videos about these and this is just what I was looking for. Thank you!
I bought one years ago off ebay for £100, worked great until I left in the loft for 10 years. What happened was the cogs siezed onto the pins that support them. I repaired myself, I also changed the capstan drive belt, (was still OK, but as I had the machine apart I thought it best.) They are the only issues I am aware of.
Keep your 424! If you can!
Wow, I inherited one of these from my grandfather and have been dying to learn how it worksk. Thanks for making this video, its the first thing that came up when I searched this boards name.
If memory serves correct, just above the track level slider there's "Assign" buttons.
These choose your track/group for that channel.
The sign button chooses a track pair, then the pan chooses which of those two to record to (or both of course with center pan)
I think.
@@MostlyPennyCat that sounds about right, this is a pretty neat machine and having explored using it in various modern setups for the past year has been really fun.
It did take me way too long to realize that Group 1&2's outputs don't have an amplifier the wya Group 3&4 is routed to the headphone amplifier.
I would set the faders both to 0, but the headphone output would be a million times louder.
This made streaming weird, because I would use the group 1 and 2 for my headphones, and group three and four would go to my computer for streaming.
So I would be cranking everything just so I could hear, and my friends would be ripping their head phones off from how unbelievably loud it was
@@SeanLaMontagne
Yep, it certainly has its little foibles.
I own a 488 MK1 but I've both used it yet
We had the 4 track version at school.
But we also had a 16 channel 8 group mixer and an 8 track ¼" Tascam reel to reel as our main teaching unit.
My school music department had A Level Music Technology and that was great fun. Useful practical course, how to run a studio, close mic, open mic, FX, midi, performance.
Fantastic.
Once we get a house, my wife and I, I will be building a DAWless studio because I'm a software engineer by trade, I want no computers on there.
@@SeanLaMontagne
And I do modular analogue synth design too. Thinking of coming up with was a few modules and selling them a DIY kits
Love these, I have a few of them... It's sad that they're going for so much now. Even the Tascam porta 02s have shot up in price...
I just got a mint condition 488 mkII with full service history for £300!!!
🤩🤩🤩
$365 but it's much more often just a straight £ to $ over there, so $300
So excited, I'm off for a drive to collect it's week Saturday, 210 Mike round trip! 🤣
ROAD TRIIIIIP!! 😎
Great review. Loved my 4 track Tascam and would love one of these. Can you send individual tracks to a DAW (or the stereo mix) so you can master in a DAW and clean things up.... get it to a higher quality recording?.... thanks.
Short answer is no, but there a workaround that’s I don’t care for (google it, someone posted it online). I ended up sending the unit off to someone that modified it so that it now has 8 direct outs. I can plug it to my Soundcraft Signature MK22 and record all 8 tracks to my DAW at once. Love it!
I have to admit. You have explained the desk very well. It took me a long time to work out what seems simple now, things like tape cue & phantom power. Assigning tracks. Very Important on a Tape recording desk. I do like this vid. Well done.
200 bucks. haha. They're like 700 now, just four years later...
they are not even worth 200 i would not buy a 8 track recorder really stupid idea squeezing 8 tracks on a tape 8 track of hiss and half the sound quality of a 4 track .
It baffles me the recording the guy had made in the video and how people like this only buy these to make youtube videos and think the price of these 8 tracks are worth the price used.
And now I've bought my very own 488 mkii.
At an incredible (low) price!
It's mint condition because it's been regularly serviced over the years
(😱😱😱)
The reasons I got mine:
1) I'm a software engineer by trade, I don't want my hobbies to involve computers if they don't need it.
2) I was taught how to make music on multitrack tape and a studio mixer with some outboard
3) This is the fun way for me, all DAW setup is boring to me, sitting and staring and clicking
Absolutely! I’m so glad you were able to score a nice one. Enjoy!
@@huuing
Thanks!
Back in '95 I took A-Level (A levels get you into university) Music Technology. Large part of which was how to use a studio. We had a tascam ¼" 8 track, a 24 channel mixer and some vintage outboard.
That's what this is for, to recreate an old style studio.
Heavenly, we would sit in the booth all day, sampling cool sounds with our Emu ESI-32 rack mount sampler.
Fancy one with 8mb of RAM, enough for 45 seconds!! 😱 Needed 8 floppies to save 8 megs of sample data.
One of our teachers even donated 2 synths for teaching subtractive synthesis.
They were...
A Roland System 100m 😳😳😳
And an EMS VCS 3 😱😱😱
I'm making do with a Microbrute first! 🤣
Appreciate you're post here, Friend, since theres NO manuals seemingly anywhere In 2018
I have the original manual.
I used one of these for years and I loved it.
I picked up one of these that works great looks mint along with a headphone amp , a mic pre, a sm57, a little digital mixer and a bunch of cords for 200 bucks.....I win...great video btw
Hello friend, I have the 488mk1 and I have to agree that both machines are just great. I've achieved great sound quality of sound too with various recording techniques. Thanks for sharing. Kind regards. Paul.
Is it possible to record the actual panning for each track? Essentially use the mixer section as a full on mixer.
What type of raising was your machine ? I want to buy one, but I don’t want to buy a worn out model. Please advise?!? 👍🏿
At this point they are all over 30 years old, I think the best thing to do is to ask questions before you buy and don’t spend too much. Chances are drive belts should be changed and there is a plastic gear inside that is known to wear out. Mine was in good shape but I had those things replaced. A well maintained machine sounds good but it’s still a cassette, but it’s a great tool for sketches and basic multitrack work. Good luck!
Can you record instruments straight into the recorder eg plug in a guitar or do you have to go through an interface?
Awesome information! Finally got one yesterday after years of searching for the right one and price. How do you record from input 1 into channel 2 and 3 and 4? You kinda glazed over that part a little.
Curious how you record 4 tracks at once? I don't see how to assign inputs 1-4 to tracks 5-8. Thx
e schiller - you can arm any four of the eight tracks by pressing the corresponding buttons under ‘record function’. You can press any of the four buttons to arm up to four tracks at once. Hope this helps.
I'm just speculating, but probably it makes tracks of half height than normal...
@@gelosilente Actually a normal cassette uses 2 channels for side 1, and 2 channels for side 2. Split tape into 4 tracks and you flip to play.
This device has 4 record/8 play heads to write to side 1. You never flip the tape.
So it uses half the mag tape width of a normal cassette for each track, and it makes up for that by running at twice the speed of a regular cassette player. Effectively allowing same amount of mag tape surface area for each track. It requires high bias cassettes due to faster speed and less writing area.
These are so hard to find.
The price on 4 tracks have sky rocketed.
Better looking than the Mk I. Black is never out of style
WOW. Press all the buttons at once & see what happens. Force open the tape cover. Way to look after a nice machine. I'm repairing my 688 atm & I never treated it like this. Anyway these are an amazing desk. Glad I kept mine even after I went digital. cool thing is mine is a 688 MIDISTUDIO so I can run it with a digital program. If you know how. I'm using Pro Tools 10. Cheers Y/all.
Nice one!!! ...but 8 channel on cassette? I think thats realy to small... ...i get a fostex A8 LR 8 track 1/4" tape for recording becouse i love it and tape cost! ...my main one is a tascam ms16 1" tape (1" 16 channel) tape maschin. I can also tell that the teac 2340 or 3340 are good one (rtr 1/4" 4 track) or some tascam 1/2" 8 track!
...but as i said, dount worry about the many channal about small tape (1/8" approx), its a keeper and realy nice maschine you get! Have fun on record and love her! ...i would love that nice one ;) greetings
Amazing tutorial! Thanks man!
How is the hiss/noise when you have 8 tracks recorded all together? Is it pretty bad?
Mine has significant hiss on 5 to 6 tracks, probably much more than in this video. One of things I like about it is the very organic sounding distortion that occurs when the tracks clip, or whatever happens with the tape. If you want to hear an example: soundcloud dot com/nvelop/the-letter-s
A cleaner example: soundcloud dot com/nvelop/lovers-expansion-mix-2
@@Nvelopmusic thanks!
IMO tape is better than digital but i'm old school lol
Hey man how did you get drums to record on this thing
On that recording I used a drum machine.
thank you for this video
First, terrific review, well done. Second, it's interesting this resurgence in, not just tape (large reel to reel is certainly to be respected), but a resurgence in cassette, which is horrible sound quality compared to digital. Tape warmth? I concede this point, however the subtle aspect of tape warmth is quickly overwhelmed with the terrible sound properties of cassette. Narrower frequency range, noise floor, lack of high end dynamics, wow and flutter, etc. Let's be honest, cassette, while a durable format, has terrible sound quality. I think those who choose to do cassette multitrack recording, are doing it as they find it quirky and interesting, certainly not sound quality. A $150 used 8 track Tascam DP-02 utterly destroys these, and burns its own CDs. That all being said, even I find cassette multitrack recording interesting for some bizarre reason, and have to smack myself back to reality. I wish cassette could be a real player in the recording game, but its just not. Now, a nice reel to reel like a TSR-8, ok, we're in a much better discussion....
Nice and beautyfull maschine!, friend!!!!! ...hold it and love her ;)
My question is, why does the volume on your voice sound clear and close and then distant?
Probably because I’m doing this review live while holding my iPhone.
Aka drone machines
Please tell me you would really love to sell this to someone that really needs it. It'll be in great hands! Great video btw 🕶️💜
this a work good with a daw and interface with ins and outs. case you can do things in the daw then send to this. then i would mix it to a analog mixer pass this recorder. thats how the pros do it then and now they mix outside the daw with a analog mixer. that got inserts and aux and buss then back in the tape after . pro's back in the day tape after they recorder all takes then to the mixer then they mix it then had tape to record it again from the mx .so if you record the tracks to this recorder from daw then mix out side it then mix the record to tape after that you a do it like they did then, a nother trick back in the day for a cheap dat use vhs with hi-fi. for the master tape after the analog mixer.
200$ or less!!! hahah WOWWwww not happening :)
That's right! You can't find a device like this for less than $800 plus shipping
@@planetablog5504 Theres one on Facebook Market Place for $40
I bought a Tascam mf-p01 for $25
It's in mint condition