Portastudio (424mkii) as mixer for Teac 3340?

[musichascolors]

I think I'll be picking up a Teac A-3340 in a couple of months, and was trying to decide on a mixer for it. Is there any reason why using the Portastudio I have currently wouldn't be ideal?

Ideally, the mixer I'd use would have a small form factor, be inexpensive, and have at least a three band eq. The portstudio seems to cover that.

[vvv]

I don't have any hands-on experience doing that but I did use a Portastudio 2 for years.

I think that you'd have to take the signal out of the monitor out? That would mean extra circuitry ...

And there is no phantom power.

Me, I'd look around for one of those 1202 Mackies or similar ...

And of course,, there are now tons of small mixers with effects and compressors, etc., built in, some of which might even be acceptable.

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi musichascolors,

I would not mix from tape, with another tape recorder.

But, that said, there might be interesting things that can be done, vis a vis
more tape saturation and less top end on your mixes. If that is your goal, this
arrangement could be ideal.

Cheers

[musichascolors]

Thank you guys. My plan would be just to use the EQ/Panning/etc when using the portastudio as a mixer. I wouldn't be running it through the cassette.

[Judas Jetski]

I've been using a 424 Mk. II and a 424 Mk. III almost daily for the last few weeks. Having a riot. But I was considering doing this very thing (only with a 40-4), and I've come to the conclusion that it's not as great an idea as it seems on the surface. The mixer section is incredibly versatile for use with the on-board transport, but a lot of that versatility disappears when you're trying to go external.

For instance,

• The four direct outs on the back are only fed from the tape head, so you can only use them to transfer information from cassette to another format.
  
  It's not impossible to get four channels out of the mixer, but it's not easy. One channel goes left, one goes right, one goes to Aux Send 1, one goes to Aux Send 2. Seems pretty straightforward until you want to set up an effects loop... which is when the versatility of the mixer kinda dries up.
  
  The EQ is not entirely unusable, but there are definitely WAY better options out there. If you don't want your music to sound like it was recorded on a cassette 4-track, this EQ is not for you. The first time I tried using an external mixer (Ramsa) with one of these things I was blown away by the difference in quality.
  
  Build isn't particularly sturdy. The XLR ins are a particular trouble spot.
  
  Electronics are kinda sketchy. I've had bad luck with crosstalk between channels. Speed control can be... alarmingly subjective at times.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate these things. Just the opposite. I love mine to death. But it's got its liabilities, and those liabilities make it less suitable for use as an external mixer than you might initially think.

[I'm Painting Again]

I'd recommend teac to inexpensive 4 channel computer interface - mix in the box