Tascam to release new type ii cassettes next month

Harry Klippton

Harry Klippton

Not Interested
Reportedly not new old stock but a new formulation. Not a standard run, just limited edition and sales are restricted to US only.



I've never had any type ii cassettes to run in my tascam machines so I'm curious about this. It would be great if they were somewhat regularly available, otherwise I'll stick to my stash of type I.

tascam.com

MASTER 424 Studio Cassette | High Bias Type II Cobalt Cassette | TASCAM - United States

Premium Sound for Your Master Recordings. TASCAM Master 424: High-Bias Type II Cobalt Cassette Tape for Professional-Grade Audio.
tascam.com tascam.com
 
That's pretty cool.

A few years back I was wanting a little Tascam 4 track but was talked out of it by my sound engineer buddy. He was appalled that anyone would want to use tape in this day and age. I ended up getting one of the newer digital ones.

I remember telling him that Nebraska was recorded by Bruce's roadie on a Portastudio. His response: "Yeah, and it sounds like it."🤣🤣
 
peccary said:
That's pretty cool.

A few years back I was wanting a little Tascam 4 track but was talked out of it by my sound engineer buddy. He was appalled that anyone would want to use tape in this day and age. I ended up getting one of the newer digital ones.

I remember telling him that Nebraska was recorded by Bruce's roadie on a Portastudio. His response: "Yeah, and it sounds like it."🤣🤣
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The green/blue portastudio was decent…good enough for Elliot Smith…and he’s on a T-shirt, so he obviously knew something…
 
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I like tape. I've got a tascam 414 mkii and a 424 mkii, multiple cassette decks, shoebox tape recorders, walkmans, a microcassette recorder I used in grad school for transcriptions, 2 Akai 8 track recorders, an Akai reel to reel, and a couple VCRs even. I've released cassettes and had my bands released on cassette. Cassette was my first music format, and I still haven't given it up
 
Betty Wont said:
I am an OG portastudio gal and I've been hoarding my last couple of tapes. Like early Mountain Goats and Ween, the tape deck is a member of the band.
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That’s exactly why I’ve always wanted a portastudio. I’d love to just rent a cabin up in the Adirondacks for 2 weeks, no phones or anything, and just bring a few acoustics, a tenor, an electric and a small battery-powered combo amp, and just record a few albums in the woods far away from everything and everyone else.
 
Harry Klippton said:
I like tape. I've got a tascam 414 mkii and a 424 mkii, multiple cassette decks, shoebox tape recorders, walkmans, a microcassette recorder I used in grad school for transcriptions, 2 Akai 8 track recorders, an Akai reel to reel, and a couple VCRs even. I've released cassettes and had my bands released on cassette. Cassette was my first music format, and I still haven't given it up
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Check out Burger Records. They're a label in my home town and are big on tape.
 
Harry Klippton said:
I like tape. I've got a tascam 414 mkii and a 424 mkii, multiple cassette decks, shoebox tape recorders, walkmans, a microcassette recorder I used in grad school for transcriptions, 2 Akai 8 track recorders, an Akai reel to reel, and a couple VCRs even. I've released cassettes and had my bands released on cassette. Cassette was my first music format, and I still haven't given it up
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I’m cool with that…but there are better tape formats. Cassettes are a rather cheesy format. Kinda like VHS vs Beta. Every professional knows Beta is better…but VHS won as the dominant consumer format for some reason.
 
My first foray into multitracking was on a Tascam 234. No EQ, no mixer - just plug into the channel you wanted to record on, set the level and record. And if I put the mic in the right spot my guitars sounded great. Then around 1992 I started my business which needed money to set up - cameras are not cheap. So I sold off most of my music gear, including the Tascam.

So imagine my horror when I tried to replace it with a digital 4-track. Tried one brand, then another - they sounded truly awful. Eventually ended up on Garageband - because it was there - but still, man it sounded terrible. Ended up with an SM57 and a Royer 121 going into Neve style preamps and an Apogee Duet before I could get anything close to the sound of that old Tascam. And still I swear that an SM58 going straight into that ole Tascam sounded better. I need to use the Garageband EQ and compressors to get it to sound ok. So that's a hell of a lot of $$ trying to get digital to sound anywhere near as good as my old cassette tape!

With the Tascam 234 I had a Yamaha RX15 (I think) drum machine which sounded great for the music at that time, a Roland DEP5 for reverb and delay and I would even play the bass straight into the deck. My singer would come around and sing through the SM57 through the DEP5 into the deck. Simple, easy, killer sound.

I know that digital has its benefits - low noise, more flexible editing , millions of plug-ins, etc... But it needs so much extra gear just to sound usable. And it's so bloody hard to get my head around! I miss the ease and simplicity of that old Tascam.
 
HamishR said:
My first foray into multitracking was on a Tascam 234.
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I’m hoping to follow in your footsteps!

Found this on Craigslist yesterday. $150

The guy said the speed was off and he thought it needed belts. All the belts are intact and everything seems to function. I’ll need to record something to verify what’s up with the speed since it runs tape at double speed.

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Erik S said:
I’m hoping to follow in your footsteps!

Found this on Craigslist yesterday. $150

The guy said the speed was off and he thought it needed belts. All the belts are intact and everything seems to function. I’ll need to record something to verify what’s up with the speed since it runs tape at double speed.

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Hey stop getting cool stuff for cheap and not sharing
 
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