I received a phone call today from someone who wanted my opinion on a Tascam 238 8-track cassette recorder for recording his music.
This was like the person who wanted to know about the DCC recorder for the same purpose yesterday.
People keep hearing that “analog sounds great” or that this or that format “sounds great” and they want to buy in.
I am telling people that if they want to use analog to “warm up” their tracks, it should be a high-quality reel-to-reel machine—or a plug-in. I also tell people when they ask me what to use that perhaps they should look at what I’m using on my facility page. That’s one of the main reasons it is there.
Sure an 8-track cassette (how DO you fit EIGHT tracks into a 0.150-inch tape?) is analog, and it might add warmth to a recording, and noise, and probably mis-tracking dbx if you don’t want the noise, and dropouts, and low headroom.
I have a 238 and it solves problems, the biggest of which is people who used to use this format who want to recover and digitize what’s already on the format.
I also tell people DO NOT use obsolete formats (reels are an exception). Please don’t create more obsolete material that needs to be transferred down the road. This goes double or triple for obsolete digital formats. I would not suggest anyone buying into any of the dedicated digital formats today. That includes ADAT, DTRS, DAT, MD, DCC, or DASH.
There is a trend to look at great older recordings and then try and copy it by getting similar equipment. Well, there are lots of things that went into the older recordings, and, in some instances, the great recordings were made despite the limitations of the equipment. Some old equipment is great, but the marketplace has moved on and the best use the old equipment can be put to is rescuing old recordings made in the old formats — obviously I think that as that is what I’m spending my time doing.
If you have a garage band or are a singer-songwriter, please consider a good USB/1394 audio interface and a good audio editing program. The knee-jerk reaction is “oh Pro Tools.” Pro Tools is a good program, but I think Samplitude (which I use) offers more bang for the buck and is very, very clean sounding. Many musicians that I know use the Steinberg lineup of software.