Tascam Portastudio 424mk3 into mBox/ProTools?

[mr.adambeck]

I have a mid to late 90's Tascam 4-Track (Portastudio 424 mkIII... it was pretty top-of-the-line when I bought it ). For a four track, it has a TON of ins/outs/sends options.
I'm doing a recording project for a friend (I am in NO way a pro, just have a love for home recording), and there were some songs that we wanted to have a lo-fi cassette tape quality to them. However, for what he wants to do, we'll definitely need more than just four tracks, and I figure doing the basics on a lo-fi cassette and everything else digital would sound too different from each other.

So, therefore I am wondering if there's a way to record "through" my four track, and have things get some cassette tape saturation, but go directly into ProTools (I have an mBox 2 Pro, which can have 4 ins). So, what I'm wondering is, if things are being recorded (not played back, but actually in the process of being recorded) on my 4 track, is it going through the tape and then out, or is it just acting more as a mixing board?

As I said, this thing has many output options, theres two stereo Moniotor Outputs, two stereo Line Outputs, 1 Mono Effect Send, 2 seperate mono effects sends, and four individual "Tape Outputs" (which I'm guessing are my best bets).

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

[rty5150]

you could just record 4 at a time, then dump them into your DAW. use the DAW for playback while you record 4 more, then dump and sync. repeat the process until your done recording and then mix to taste.....

rich

btw, i started on a 414...back in the bad old days...

[Bro Shark]

Pretty sure it's just acting as a mixer in that case.

You could just as easily play the tape outs into your Mbox afterwards.

[rty5150]

Pretty sure it's just acting as a mixer in that case.

You could just as easily play the tape outs into your Mbox afterwards.

no, no. record to the tascam first, then dump(playback) them to the DAW. i am pretty sure we are talking about the same thing.


rich

[mr.adambeck]

Yeah, I was hoping there was a way to do it without having to line up everything later, where the tape would go straight into the mbox.

[Dakota]

Yeah, I was hoping there was a way to do it without having to line up everything later, where the tape would go straight into the mbox.

I don't think 424's have a separate repro head. You'd need a tape machine with a "repro" or "tape monitor" function to be able to print through tape in real time. (Or close to real time, with the slight tape delay). Aka a "3 head" or "discrete head" machine.

Otherwise, what you are getting is just the sound of the mixer section of the 424.

[ott0bot]

Yeah I have a Portastudio 424, if you use the tape out and just pass it throught the 424 it's just a mixer. You can use the pre's but the unbalanced outs reduce the signal a bit. The only cool thing you can do is get actual analog distortion from overdriving the 4 track but making sure you're DAW isn't clipping. It's a nice low-fi sound...not that digital noise.

But all the 4-track stuff I've done...I've just transferrd to the DAW, then recorded another 4 tracks and so on and so forth. Sounds like a 4 track too. I dig it.

[mr.adambeck]

ott0bot, what do you do to align the tracks? Just manual line them up?

[rty5150]

ott0bot, what do you do to align the tracks? Just manual line them up?

yup, you'll want some kind of reference click or pop on each to use a a sync point. usually at the very beginning of each track and just for 1 to 4 clicks to produce a waveform. then the rest is just normal recording.

rich

[ott0bot]

ott0bot, what do you do to align the tracks? Just manual line them up?

Basically yeah....and it's not to hard in pro tools. It just takes a bit of nudging around.

This is why I do...and it might help you out.

I always leave about 10 or 15 seconds of blank space when recording on casettes for a lead in or intro and to get past the acetate on the beginning of the reel. Then I set my meter to zero at 10 or 15 seconds and recorded my first set of tracks. I dumped those into protools by rewinding to the zero mark and playing back. I try to very carefully press play on both devices at the same time, but you can press play in protools first then play on the 4-track and then just trim till you see tape hiss cause that should be your zero mark. I usually set a marker at the beginning.

Then for the next set of four tracks I used a new tape and aligned the meter the same way. On this set of recordings you have to monitor the protools session and the incoming signal on your four track. I used a Rolls heaphone amp and took a mono mix of the protools session and put it in the headphone amps insert. Then I used the 4-tracks headphone out as main input into the amp. Then you can record 4 more and rewind to the zero mark and dump into protools again. I usually mute the original 4 so you don't worry about the alignment yet. The 4-tracks zero meter isn't entirely perfect but it helps keep it lined up fairly well. After that just line uup the the start of the tape hiss and then it's just a matter or a few small nudges.

kinda long winded...but hope that helps.

ott0bot, what do you do to align the tracks? Just manual line them up?

yup, you'll want some kind of reference click or pop on each to use a a sync point. usually at the very beginning of each track and just for 1 to 4 clicks to produce a waveform. then the rest is just normal recording.

rich

i did this too...but found it hard to accurately line up the clicks. I ended up having to nudge anyway...so I just used the zero meter method I described.