Fostex 80 or 4 track Cassette

[jimbridgman]

The fostex 80 will be better than a casstte 4 track any day of the week. For some reason, an open reel deck opens the sound up much better than casstte. I used to have a few 4 track porta studios in later 80s and early 90s. I also had a techniques 1/4 open reel that sounded even better than the casstttes and it was from the 70s back then as well.

I have 2 ms16 decks that I have had for years and years now, and I record all my tracks to it first then dump them into the DAW to get the best of both worlds.

Jim

[Trashcan]

Awesome that's kinda what I thought. I know that the fostex 80 is one of the worst recording reels out there. So I wasnt quite sure if it was worth getting. Plus I only here bad things about it. As for four track cassette tapes some people seem to love them and some seem to hate them. There are alot of threads on here about 4 track cassette and none about the fostex 80

[erikdrink]

Go with the Fostex

[jimbridgman]

Originally Posted by Trashcan

Awesome that's kinda what I thought. I know that the fostex 80 is one of the worst recording reels out there. So I wasnt quite sure if it was worth getting. Plus I only here bad things about it. As for four track cassette tapes some people seem to love them and some seem to hate them. There are alot of threads on here about 4 track cassette and none about the fostex 80

Yes you are right the The fostex 80 is not the best, nor was it even close to that back when it was out, but it will sound better than a cassette 4 track. Not that I hated the 4 track cassette format, I liked it when I was a teenager, but grew out of it, in more ways than one.

Now the issue with the Fostex is that the track width is going to be VERY VERY small, so you will have a lot less headroom, and you will need to be careful with how hard you hit the channels, since they are so small crosstalk is more likely, and will more easily happen.

Jim

[Trashcan]

Yeah, that's a little bit of a bummer. I like to to hit the recordings pretty hard (especially for drums). I might use it like a four track and use every other track, or maybe send all the tracks doubled to the tape? Not really sure how I'll approach it. The music I play is pretty trashy so crosstalk isn't that big of a deal I suppose