Should i sell my four track

[dungeonsound615]

Alright Here is my question, I have a friend who is interested in buying my tascam 414. The thing is im now using my AW4416 from yamaha and loving it and have not touched my four track in two years. It has just been sitting in the box for a while. My problem is i want to sell it but think hey maybe this thing will come in handy for something, and besides the sentimental value its what i started on. Am i crazy should i just sell this thing and put the money toward some new gear or am i right in thinking i might find a rare use for it again one day.
Mike

[ctmsound]

I've used my 414 maybe once in the last 5 years now that I have other recording means. Sell it.

[bedbug]

I'd keep it. I went digital a few years ago, but still occasionally use my cassette four track for creating backwards effects. I'll also run my drum machine thru it to give it that analog distortion sound, and make it sound a little less drum machine-ey. You just never know when you're going to have a hankerin' to bust it out.

[rhythm ranch]

You just never know when you're going to have a hankerin' to bust it out.

Actually, that hankerin' will start a couple of days (or hours) after you sell it.

I sold or traded a lot of stuff in my younger days and lived to regret the loss of almost every piece of gear that went away. Since then, I've gone back and replaced many of those pieces. Then I made the rule that I would never sell anything again. I've given a couple of things away to needy friends or relatives, but never sold.

Until recently. I've started to realize that the mixer that's been sitting in the closet here in New Mexico for three years is the same mixer that sat in the closet in Brooklyn for five years before that. Not considering it's "investment" value (maybe it will be the next hot vintage item!), the fact is I haven't touched the thing, other than to move it across country, in eight years. Time to move on. So I've started selling a few things.

It doesn't hurt that eBay has opened up a huge marketplace; except that I'm doing much more buying than selling. Besides, if you're selling it to a firend, sell it to him cheap with the agreement that if you do feel that hankerin' he'll let you borrow it to get your 4-track fix.
Mark

[Meriphew]

I have an old 4 track that I would ditch except that then I couldn't listen to all of my old 4 track recordings.

[dayvel]

Keep it. It'll come in handy for occasional use as a submixer even if you never record anything on it.

[inverseroom]

I sold mine, and then went ahead and bought another six months later, to bring on a trip. I ended up leaving my digital rig at home and recording an entire EP on the sucker. It was really great! I'd hang on to it, then go back to it in a year and try to use it. Relearn the tricks. And of course the backwards stuff.

[percussion boy]

Mine gathered dust for a year after I got the computer, but I ended up going back to it as an idea machine; just sits under the bed with a cheap mic attached and a blank tape in it.

That 4 track has saved a lot of ideas that would have disappeared into the ether while I turned the big rig on . . .

[jake-owa]

I have been asking myself this very question for a few years now. I have used it a dozen times since then. I really don't want to have to go and archive every silly night and friendly arguement I have captured to tape.
...oh yeah and then there's all that music....eww.

[Bear]

My general rule is: sell nothing. You never know when it will come in handy, and the few times I have ever sold music stuff, I've always kicked myself for it down the road. But that might just be me.

[jajjguy]

Sell it to him at a nice price on the condition that you can borrow it if you need it for a one-off kind of thing. A friend of mine and I have sold stuff to each other on similar terms, and it's always worked out well. Keeps it in the family, so to speak.

[AnalogElectric]

Lend it to your friend, permanent loan sorta thing. I have a 1" 16 track that I haven't touched in almost 5 years. I hung on to it for sentimental value and if I was doing a remote recording, it sounds ok and is easier to haul than my 2" 24 track, heh.

I've been debating selling the 16 track since I got my 2" 24 track. It's always last on the list when I'm strapped for cash. In retrospect I wish I ?d sold it when people were paying more than $1500 for a used one. I think when I bought my 16 track used about 8 years ago it cost me about $4000. The only reason I'm hanging on to it now is to wait until it becomes desirable again. Either that or I'll sell it to someone that could really use it; somewhere I know it will have a good home.

I still have my TASCAM 464 4Track, (I think that's the model number), and I use it more often for recordings than the 16 track. It's nice to have options around the studio, when the light bulb in my head lights up saying, "I know the perfect thing for this part", and pull out the 4 track, I'm glad I have it.

If you're strapped for cash...sell it
If you don't use it (it seems after 2 years that's long enough)...sell it.

It's a friend so it's not like it's out of your reach and second market value isn't that outrageous for those so you could always pick one up later if you really want one again. Yeah, it's a bummer selling stuff and I look back on things I sold wishing I would've kept it/them but I don't lose sleep over it.

-- Adam Lazlo

[phalex]

Dood keep the four track, nothing sounds quite like drums recorded through an overdriven tascam. it is one of my favorite sounds ever.

[dino]

I still use my stand alone four track 234 as an alternate mixdown deck... Sending left channel to tracks 1&2 and right to 3&4... Although it's no two track Studer, it definately imparts a cool as shit analog flavor to digital material.... I guess you could say that I'm using it as an effect...Depending on the type of music you are doing, it might work for you too...... give it a try.....Dean