TEAC a-3300sx Any thoughts? Useful/Worthless/Etc.?

[joelmoore]

Any thoughts on using this as a plug-in for drums/vox? Good, Bad, Otherwise?

[b3groover]

If this is related to the Teac A-3340S four track that I have, I would say it is a good machine. It has a nice sound to it and does that cool tape thing to the low-end. I just pulled my A-3340S out of the closet and used it for the first time in... oh jeez... 12 or 13 years? And it works great.

However, I noticed, in comparing the tape submix to the computer submix, that my stereo field was a little fuzzy on the tape. Looking at the phase on an analyzer, sure enough the tape was imparting some weird phase issues. That might be a calibration or head alignment problem.

If you can get it cheap, pick it up and you might dig it.

[Poppatwang]

Parts availability is close to zilch. Run it 'til it drops & enjoy while you can.

[joelmoore]

Hey b3groover,

Are you the guy on the Michigan craigslist? Chubbuck? I figured since you said you weren't interested in shipping that I'd look around elsewhere and I found the TEAC a-3300sx possibly for $150 with a few reels and some unused tape. So no I wasn't asking necessarily about yours. I'll take any advice I can get on using a tape machine as a plug to "warm-up" my drums. Can anyone tell me why I should or shouldn't consider doing this? Is this a bad idea? Or can it really help improve the sound of my drum recordings.

I'm recording all live audio. No sequencing, samples, VI, etc. It's all Rock stuff, live drums, guitars, Vox, etc.

Thanks

[b3groover]

No, I do not own a Teac A-3300sx. I was going by the model name and assuming it was the same family as my A-3340S. If this is what it looks like, then it is indeed in the same family as my deck:
http://www.phonopreamps.com/eimages/a3300sx.jpg

Which means it probably has the same electronics. So it should sound pretty much the same as mine. Again, its a decent deck... "prosumer" quality, unbalanced inputs. It tracks very well. I was able to dump a stereo mix to the tape, bring it back into the computer, and line it up with the computer tracks and there were no phase or timing issues between the two.

$150 would be worth it, imo.

[Steve V.]

I have an a-3300SR and I think it is an awesome little machine. Has held up like a champion for years. I purchased it from a guy out in Jersey who does work on them and as far as I know, has a bunch of parts for them.

Go for it.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I have one of those. It's a great machine. I've used it for mix down and slap back delay in the studio as well as for making and running tape loops.
These days I use it to play loops for my bands live show. It's a thosand times more reliable than a computer.