Tascam 244 tutorial?

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:03 am

Hey guys,

couldn't find the noob section so i'm posting here.

i just got a tascam 244. i'm all new to recording. especially on analog.

i was wondering if anyone could be kind enough to set me on my way with a tutorial he/she knows online or even post a step by step on how to record things onto tape.
just so you all know where i'm at with this, it took me half hour to figure out how to listen to what i've recorded and it was still all shitty and filled with white noise

thank you!

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Wed Jun 26, 2013 10:01 am

just got my hands the manual so hopefully that will answer some of my questions.
another thing though is that whenever i turn it on i get this non stoppable hiss sound. no mic connected. all faders and tracks are off. what's making that noise? is it normal?

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Wed Jun 26, 2013 3:01 pm

Maybe there's something wrong with it? I bought my daughter a 424 (IIRC) a couple months ago and I was blown away by how quiet and great it sounded.

Have you seen this?
http://tascam.com/content/downloads/pro ... ourArt.pdf

I haven't read it. I just printed it out for my daughter and I don't think she read it either. So, I'm not saying it's any good.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Wed Jun 26, 2013 6:56 pm

Describe your full setup (including your signal chain in and out) and we can help you better.

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:58 am

well kayagum, like i said nothing is connected to the 244 except for earphones that of course come with a mini plug and i use a 1/4" adapter to connect them in. i searched online and found threads of people with the same problem it seems. they said something that has to do with balanced/unbalanced audio which honestly i know nothing about. just to make sure i used both two conductor and three conductor adapters. with the two i could hear the hiss/white noise on just one channel and with the three on both channels.
the tascam 244 just got repaired so i would want to assume something is wrong with me but lets just say the headphones amp inside is not in the best shape, should i try connect it to a surround system and use headphones there? or more importantly if i decide to record as is, will the hiss stick to my recordings?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu Jun 27, 2013 4:19 pm

The DBX is on, right?

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Thu Jun 27, 2013 4:54 pm

hi mark, there is a dbx noise reduction yes. if it's working properly or not, i don't know. how can i know for sure?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 2:39 am

Hey grouper

Do you heasr lots of hissy white noise when you listen to tapes on the 244?

If so that's a sign that either (a) the dbx isn't working, (b) the dbx isn't on or (c) clean the frakking heads

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:53 am

For 4 track equipment from that era, you're going to hear a lot of hiss, especially if you're used to listening to digital. Even with the available noise reduction (Dolby, dbx). Even if you're not listening to the recorded tracks. It's just the nature of the equipment.

No matter what the headphone amp is doing, your tracks will have a certain amount of hiss. If it really bothers you, you can mix it down to a DAW and use a noise reduction plugin (especially ones that use sampled noise backgrounds to cancel out as opposed to EQ).

How do you know if the dbx is working? Record once with, and once without the dbx. Play back with and without the dbx. If you can hear a difference, it's probably working.

But embrace the hiss. Many of us started that way, and learned to work with and around it. Many people opted to not use available noise reduction on their units because of how it would pinch or otherwise weird up a track. Recording on 4 tracks will teach you to set levels to overcome the background hiss, even to the point of clipping or overdriving your track in a good way. Brad Laner of the band Medicine even used a Portastudio and daisy chained channels to create his guitar overdrive.

But the best way to learn is to push buttons and see and hear what happens. You're not going to destroy anything, and you might even come up with something cool that no one else thought of doing.

Enjoy- and welcome to the club!

(BTW I started with a Porta One, moved to a 238s, and still record outboard with a HD24).

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 7:38 am

Best idea would be to bone up on gain staging. If you aren't already familiar with it.

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 2:56 pm

thank you guys for your responses! you too snarl, not exactly but i needed but still nice to have

i guess i'll just have to embrace the hiss then... no problem with that. just wanted to know if it can be sorted out.
so far unfortunately i haven't got to any recordings yet because i only own sm57/58 and they both barely make a sound when recorded. i just looked it up and apparently i can't use xlr that goes to a 1/4" because of low/high impedance which i knew nothing about before i started recording. but... trial and error right? hopefully i'll get a transformer soon.

as for gain staging, again i'm totally new to this and doesn't even know what it means but i'll definitely check it out tomorrow when i have more free time.

oh and about the dbx, there's no button for it or anything and the manual doesn't even state it as an option so i guess it's just built in?

again, thanks for the help.

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:27 am

http://audiopile.net/products/Adaptors_ ... rmer.shtml

I actually prefer the kind that have the female 1/4" output (you need to use a [short] guitar cable, but it avoids the stress on the 4 track's jacks that you'd get using the kind with the built in 1/4" male end.

I haven't ordered this particular part from this company, but I've ordered from them a few times for other things and they've had good products and been good to deal with.

The "pigtail" one here would be cool too.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... %20adapter

If you've got the prime.

ck

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Tue Jul 02, 2013 1:30 pm

This is an oldie but goodie classic for beginners:

http://www.mackie.com/pdf/archive/ms1202_om.pdf

Lots of good intro stuff on how a basic board works. You can see how they suggest setting the gain staging and trim levels on the preamps and inputs.

I used (and still have) a 1202 and had it initially connected to my Porta One. Worked great, and it was my gateway to recording.

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 5:10 am

thanks!

i got this one at the end
http://www.amazon.com/CP8201-Microphone ... B0002CZYFC

works completely fine and i can finally experience with recording (!!!). can't wait to dive into this field and learn whatever i can.

thanks for your help kayagum. it's already on my hard drive and will check it out later today.

peace.

grouper · Post by **grouper** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 5:19 am

by the way, last night (when i still couldn't use the shures i own) i remembered i used to have a really cheap karaoke mic for skyping purposes, so i plugged it in and recorded an acoustic guitar with it and i was amazed by how crappy yet awesome it sounded.
the mic i used is a pro-luxe udm 328 and i can tell you that i will definitely keep using it in some cases in the future. just in case you guys wanna check it out

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Tascam 244 tutorial?

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