Lusting for a Tascam 688 8-Track Cassette Portastudio, am I nuts?

[RiF]

Originally Posted by Chrisbee

Impulse buy for sure, but all of my acquisitions are, and they don't make much sense to a lot of other people... but my goal is to amuse myself, and that I do.

[Chrisbee]

Originally Posted by RiF

I just scored a Tascam 644 on ebay (couldn't resist). The seller's rating isn't the best, so I need to see if, when and in what shape it arrives.

Which 644 did you grab? I only saw the 2 that didn't come with power supplies...

[RiF]

Originally Posted by Chrisbee

Which 644 did you grab? I only saw the 2 that didn't come with power supplies...

I am from Germany, btw. The 644 comes from Berlin and the description did not say anything about the presence or absence of the PSU... Hopefully it has one.

[Chrisbee]

I guess I should have thought that through... LOL. Well I hope it comes with a power supply as well. Apparently that is the most sought after PSU in the world right now, even Ritchie Hawtin was asking for help finding one on a forum I read and got no replies. The only way to get one would be to buy a Tascam MM-1 keyboard mixer that comes with the power supply and using the MM-1 as a boat anchor.

[limey222]

I have a Tascam 688 in darn near perfect condition. I bought it to loan to a musician friend who is "technically challenged"....thought he would be able to handle it...but no, he never even tried, just stayed with his Tascam 4 track.
Anyway he finally brought it back to me along with a pack of new tapes that i supplied with it. I used to own one myself way back but i moved on to bigger things years ago.
So its up for grabs to anyone who wants it, make me an offer. PM me.

[kaybee]

ha ha
that is so very COOL ! go for it....

i started WAY back with the nakamichi N 500
with 3 dynamic ( ordinary and cheapie ) mics !

have fun !!!

[RiF]

Holy s**t!! I received my 644 today in mint condition and after some headscratching about the routing (diff topic...), I made some test recordings and compared them to their digital originals. Man... I did not expect to hear such a quality! It took away most of the digital edge without any lofi vibe at all (double tape speed, dbx on, 1991 NOS TDK SA cassette).

This unit will get some serious use in my studio for sure.

I'll need some routing tips from you guys, though, and will come up with questions very soon.

[RiF]

I just received my 688 today. I know have a 644 AND a 688 ;-). Let's see. So far the 688 seems a bit more finicky about the cassettes, maybe due to the tiny track width, minor mechanical cassette flaws will lead to an immediate sonic impact on a track.

[Chrisbee]

Man, the learning curve on these is pretty steep. I am still lost on almost everything but the most basic functions as a mixer, and recorder... The pdf manual I downloaded is really low rez, and a bit hard to read as well.

[RiF]

Originally Posted by Chrisbee

Man, the learning curve on these is pretty steep. I am still lost on almost everything but the most basic functions as a mixer, and recorder... The pdf manual I downloaded is really low rez, and a bit hard to read as well.

After weeks of not being able to understand how to get a damn track through the routing matrix (basically "not being able to record"), I now got my head pretty much around those two units (644+688). At some day it seemed to have done "click" in my head.
So if you have any questions from basic recording and routing to synching it up via MIDI, feel free to ask me here or via PM.

[pwrmac7600]

Originally Posted by RiF

I am lusting for a Tascam 688 8-track cassette tape portastudio, am I nuts or what?

So far I am liking the looks, the nostalgic feelings that I am associating with cassette tapes (I am born in the late 60's) and somehow the restriction to 8 tracks.

Can you please talk me out of it?

I Actually still have my 688 sitting in my father in laws attic, I held on to it after I switched to a DAW interface, just because I still have so much stuff that was recorded on cassette tape. This unit was one of the best purchases I ever made back in the day, and gave me many great years of recording. I am betting I could pull it down from the attic and it would still give me many years of recording fun.

[kslight]

Just picked up a 688 from a thrift store...with original box and book a couple weeks ago. Received a bulk box of type 2 high bias 60 minute tapes to play around...then if these tapes are good going to go back and buy some short tapes for songs.

[Martinoto]

NEW USES FOR MY 688 ¡¡¡
Recently I was doing some mixes thru a passive summing. I found that my 688 is perfect for the job. I am sending 10 mono channels (5 stereos stems) to the 688 mixer stage. THe result is amazing. I also have inserts on every channel, so a couple of compressors is the next step ¡¡
Regards,
Martin

[softcopymusic]

Originally Posted by mr. torture

I lived through the 4-track cassette days and have zero interest in returning. Lol, I don't miss tape hiss.

I was born in the 70's, and I was constantly frustrated by the "never quite good enough" quality of 8-track multitrack cassette. I recorded my friend's band first demos on a Tascam 8 track cassette, and I seem to recall it being generally terrible overall, except for the fact that it was EIGHT TRACKS!!!

This SOS Article sums it up:

Tascam 488 MkII

"In some ways, it's hard to believe that sound quality can be this good on cassette, especially when there are eight tracks to play with."

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S THAT GOOD!

I think I used to defer to a 4-track cassette just because it was a bit more tape running over the head, and there was a bit less crosstalk.

I recorded once with Tascam's 1/4" reel to reel 8-track, and it was much more satisfying:



It's amazing to think what is possible today, and what we had before Having said that, the sound quality of those units was likely more often limited by the operator than anything else.