The Tascam 388

vivalastblues · Post by **vivalastblues** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:43 am

they look really nice man. good job.

shedshrine · Post by **shedshrine** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:30 am

ThunderFaceWizardHead in 2006 wrote:..when are people going to start tricking out their 388's?

I'm thinking about a snakeskin wrist rest, birdseye maple sides, and all ivory knobs. Maybe some neon blue underlighting as well.

The prophecies are coming true!

Nice woodwork there ryan.

ryansupak · Post by **ryansupak** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:14 pm

Thanks guys. In the midst of calculating how to replace the Light Bulbs with LEDs that don't look weird.

Here are some videos that are not mine, but that nicely show the 388 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBakeryStudio

rs

palinilap · Post by **palinilap** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:36 am

I'm pretty sold on the idea of getting a 388 or 38 for recording drums and dumping into pro tools. But, I'm wondering, would the 388 have any mojo that the 38 doesn't have when used just for tracking?

TheRealRoach · Post by **TheRealRoach** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:49 am

palinilap wrote:I'm pretty sold on the idea of getting a 388 or 38 for recording drums and dumping into pro tools. But, I'm wondering, would the 388 have any mojo that the 38 doesn't have when used just for tracking?

I think the main difference is the presence of having a mixing console feeding into the tape deck. A lot of the nice sound of tape is a combination of eq-ing and processing TO tape, not just the recording alone. For instance you can take a snare mic and crank the high EQ to tape and on playback it really develops that nice presence-without-being-harsh top end that tape is so great for. If you simply track to tape and then EQ after in PT it really won't work out to be the same thing at all.

The console is great. Really fun and the EQ sounds quite good, and at the very least it's matched well to the sound of the tape deck.

palinilap · Post by **palinilap** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:36 am

TheRealRoach wrote:
palinilap wrote:I'm pretty sold on the idea of getting a 388 or 38 for recording drums and dumping into pro tools. But, I'm wondering, would the 388 have any mojo that the 38 doesn't have when used just for tracking?
I think the main difference is the presence of having a mixing console feeding into the tape deck. A lot of the nice sound of tape is a combination of eq-ing and processing TO tape, not just the recording alone. For instance you can take a snare mic and crank the high EQ to tape and on playback it really develops that nice presence-without-being-harsh top end that tape is so great for. If you simply track to tape and then EQ after in PT it really won't work out to be the same thing at all.

The console is great. Really fun and the EQ sounds quite good, and at the very least it's matched well to the sound of the tape deck.

That's kind of what I was thinking. The recordings I've heard done with a 388 had a certain "presence" like you described in combination with the punchiness of tape.

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:40 pm

palinilap wrote:I'm pretty sold on the idea of getting a 388 or 38 for recording drums and dumping into pro tools. But, I'm wondering, would the 388 have any mojo that the 38 doesn't have when used just for tracking?

I may be biased because I have 2 388s, but here is what I see the 388 as over a 38:

1. Interface - very easy to route signal around with no patching.
2. Integrated mixer - maybe not the greatest in the world but I've had good results. When I have needed phantom power I have used a cheap Behringer mixer into it and it worked fine. I haven't tried it with good external pres but I imagine it wouldn't make things worse! Not to mention that as said before EQ to tape is very important to this machine IMHO to combat noise!
3. Portability - well it's heavy but it's easy to setup with no snakes and fits in the back of an SUV!
4. 1/4" tape - Cork sniffers may see this as a flaw but I figure if you are buying a tape deck for fidelity you aren't buying Tascam anyway. 1/4" tape and 7.5 ips means it's cheap to experiment and do long jams...like a 35mm camera versus a medium format (if you are a photo buff).
5. It looks impressive in an indie sort of way.

Shameless self plug but check out www.theblackdotsofdeath.com and click the baby head in the middle to access the music player. The song Destroy Anything was done to a 388...all but a couple keyboard parts. No noise reduction, dumped to HD24XR, compiled and mixed in Pro Tools. I love the drums on it...very minimal mic setup also.

shedshrine · Post by **shedshrine** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:22 pm

Tascam to release limited reissue run of Tascam 388 mkII studio 8.
(July 5, 2011 Tokyo, Japan translated from Yomiuri Shimbun )

The worldwide popularity of analog tape reel to reel recording has been making an increasingly strong resurgence in the pro and home recording realms in recent years. Tascam had become aware of the particularly high popularity of a combined 8 track mixer/multitrack tape recorder unit the company released in the mid eighties which had been emerging as a talisman of the indie scenes in San Francisco and elsewhere. So much so that Tascam is gearing up to release a limited reissue run of the machine for 2012 according to Tascam Japan.

Masaharu Fukuoka, lead R & D engineer technician in Tascam Japan?s headquarter Yokohama plant, said that they got the go ahead when it was found that the machine plates for the 388?s head configuration had been salvaged, and not scrapped as had been previously believed.

According to Fukuoka ?We had seen a surge in the popularity and usage of our heritage analog equipment, and felt enough of a critical mass had been achieved to warrant a brief run of the Tascam 388 to fill this demand. It had been discussed previously but deemed economically unfeasible until Shinobu Ichimura, a retired lead engineer on the original 388 project, had heard of the reissue interest and produced the original production plates which he had saved after they had been scheduled for scrap.?

The Tascam 388 Studio 8 mkII is estimated to begin shipping by the second quarter of 2012, with April 1st being the target date.
MSRP is tentatively set at $3500.00 us

markjazzbassist · Post by **markjazzbassist** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:32 am

that is AWESOME!!!!

i love mine and won't be able to afford the new one (heck i'd buy a studer 2" 16 track for that much), but hopefully the parts will become more available and heads as well, helping us users of old machines to replace/repair/maintain better

thanks, thats so exciting!!

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:43 am

markjazzbassist wrote:that is AWESOME!!!!

i love mine and won't be able to afford the new one (heck i'd buy a studer 2" 16 track for that much), but hopefully the parts will become more available and heads as well, helping us users of old machines to replace/repair/maintain better

thanks, thats so exciting!!

Pretty sweet for parts, but I personally wouldn't spend $3500 on a 388...

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:59 am

I am kind of surprised by that price being as low as it is considering that's what it sold for in the 80s. I wonder what it will do to used prices and to new tape.

For me to warrant a purchase I'd like to see them shave 20+ pounds and a few inches...and replace RCA jacks with 1/4". Being able to record at higher speeds without varispeed too. Also add phantom power and make the pres bypassable.

TheRealRoach · Post by **TheRealRoach** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:18 am

"It won't sound as good as the original."

markjazzbassist · Post by **markjazzbassist** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:02 pm

kslight wrote:I am kind of surprised by that price being as low as it is considering that's what it sold for in the 80s. I wonder what it will do to used prices and to new tape.

For me to warrant a purchase I'd like to see them shave 20+ pounds and a few inches...and replace RCA jacks with 1/4". Being able to record at higher speeds without varispeed too. Also add phantom power and make the pres bypassable.

+1

good call. i hope they do make a bunch of modern improvements. then it would be worth it, but not for that much. 3000 can get you any 2" 16-24 track these days

ryansupak · Post by **ryansupak** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:49 am

Release date on April Fool's? Is it for real?

At any rate, the price is steep -- but that's what real stuff costs.

rs

TheRealRoach · Post by **TheRealRoach** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:34 am

I'm not sure how well it would do. The technological atmosphere when the 388 was first released was a lot different since it was before the cassette portastudio was available. The 388 WAS the small economical option to home recording. Now with computers I don't know that anyone would really be into it enough. Anyone that WOULD be a potential buyer probably already owns a 388, and anyone who already HAS the 388 and would be open to drop $4000.00 on a new machine would likely go with a 2".

I guess they could make some changes, like 16 tracks mixer instead of 8, or -- god forbid -- onboard effects. But any bigger than it's current format would no longer make it portable. I mean, hell, it's hardly portable as it is. You can't move it without two people.

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The Tascam 388

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