Tascam 388 vs Otari MX-5050 shootout

[jonnytwoeyes]

Long time reader, first time poster.... I know there are a ton of 388 enthusiasts on this board (I got a lot of information from here when I first started working on them), and I'm sure there are a lot of Otari fans too, so I thought I'd share this with everyone. This shootout was done for our own purposes, so it?s not particularly scientific or exact....

I was at Seaside Lounge in Brooklyn recording new material with the band Parquet Courts recently, and we had the option of using either machine. We did their last record (Light Up Gold) on a 388, and I had just recently purchased a 5050 for my studio (Doctor Wu's - http://doctorwus.com).

Through the console (a Sony MPX), I was able to simultaneously bus each track to the Otari (at 15 ips, no DBX), the Tascam (w/ DBX on), and Pro Tools HD (as a control). Since we were using 8-track tape machines, I submixed my drums (kick, snare, rack, floor, stereo overheads) to a stereo pair. The bass and two guitars had one mic each, but I?ve bounced the guitars as a stereo pair for this demonstration.

The recordings are from an early take that we discarded, so there are no vocals or other overdubs on it ? just the live tracks. I adjusted the clips levels so that they would be roughly the same volume (the mix between -18 and -15 RMS). No other processing or effects were applied to these tracks post-tape/computer.

These clips are from a song called ?Descend? (which will be on their upcoming EP). There?s a rough mix of all the tracks (with the same relative mix level for each transfer), and the drums, bass, and guitars by themselves. In each clip, the order is Pro Tools > Otari MX-5050 >Tascam 388 > Tascam 388 (w/ DBX off during playback).

Mix: https://soundcloud.com/jonnytwoeyes/shootout-mix

Drums: https://soundcloud.com/jonnytwoeyes/shootout-drums

Bass: https://soundcloud.com/jonnytwoeyes/shootout-bass

Guitars: https://soundcloud.com/jonnytwoeyes/shootout-guitars

Hope this is cool to some of you! If yr so inclined, check out more on my blog: http://jonathanschenke.wordpress.com/20 ... et-courts/

(we went with the 5050)

[jgimbel]

I'm curious to hear this but it's telling me the sounds are private.

EDIT: works now, thanks!

[kslight]

Any reason why you didn't leave DBX off completely on the 388 for your comparison?

[jonnytwoeyes]

Kslight: we did Light Up Gold with DBX on for tracking and playback, so we did that again for our comparison.

It would have been great to have tracking w/o DBX too, but we would have needed a second 388 to do all that simultaneously!

I vaguely remember trying recording with and without DBX while we were getting sounds for Light Up Gold, and deciding DBX was the way to go (but there's no documentation, so...)

[kslight]

While I am admittedly partial to the 388, my experience with dBX on tracking and playback has been that it gets a get dull sounding at times, but dBX off with some kind of high end boost on the way in, cut on the way out...makes for a nice compromise of tone and noise level. A similar technique applied but with dBX on both recording and playback is also effective.

Just my 2 cents, I thought though for a somewhat better comparison I would have liked to hear dBX off on both machines, but you can't really be too scientific with it anyway. Thanks for posting.

[markjazzbassist]

good stuff, thanks! you can definately hear the difference between the 15 IPS of the Otari and 7.5 IPS of the Tascam. As noted in your article, i also had a TON of bass and low mid content on the 388, and had to end up high passing the bass do to crazy sub frequencies.

[WilH]

Good job, the dbx just makes everything sound strange to my ears but I've never touched it on mine.

[Nick Sevilla]

Santo y Blue Demon VS Dracula y el Hombre Lobo.

I'll try to listen later... I just don't like the word "shootout" much...

Cheers