Good day all,
I'm  with bit on this. Started on a small cassette doing 'radio show' type recordings. Then moved to a Sony machine that had sound on sound capabilities.. lol....couldn't  afford  the 3340, so had to settle with a 4 track Dokorder. (Bet you barely remember those machies). In the late sixties I  started fooling around with recording string parts on a cassette, and then trying to sync them up to play a chord. The first Melotron (can't  even remember the spelling). It was almost impossible to sync them together to play a chord. Maybe I should have  kept at it. I wouldn't  have been this poor. Lol. I waited and waited for years for the computer to be able to do any of the things that we can now do. Sometimes we forget how far we've  come and still complain about the slightest thing. Been with Cake since 2000 signed up in 2004 for the forum. "And away we go". (Sorry for the steal. Hehe).......love me some cake........
John

Porta Studio
Then Tascam 80-8
Then 3 Alesis Adats
Then SONAR (even thought I owned Cakewalk since PA4 skipping only SONAR 2)

In the Mid 80's I had a rack mount 4 track cassette recorder I picked up while working at Manny's ..(I  forgot the brand ) 
Also had a nice amount  of choice studio gear in rack mount form . ( working there did have it's benefits )
Heck even my guitar rig for live playing was all rack mounted w a custom computer control center for recalling effects chains.. 
Plus , I always played out of 3 guitar amps .
 
BS alert ...because this is what it felt like ...I only used one cab  
 
For gigs I would hail a Taxi put half my stuff in it , have him wait for me to hail another Taxi then I would hop in the second cab w the other half of my stuff and tell the  2nd driver to follow the first cab  
 
I Got to love the 80's  ...my poor aching back 
 
Sold all that stuff off in the early 90's moved out West and eventually got a 4 track Yamaha ...
Somewhere around 2000'ish I went digital and bought a brand new Roland BR1180CD ..I love it and then switched over to PC and got a hold of Cakewalks Home Studio 2  in 2005 ...
 
FWIW, I prefer having a rig with a small footprint ...Mac and PC lap tops over here ...if I need to get a tape sound 
I can bring my stuff to a studio and do it there ...I haven't yet ...no bucks for that ..just excuses   
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 
 
 
 

Much experimentation with 4-track recorders in the late 80's and early 90's. I hated hiss. Eventually turned my attention to sampling and using a tracker program in the early 90's.

I had a friend back then who would record "multitrack" songs by putting sticky tape over the erase head of a cassette deck and building them up track by track. He even used to add "samples" from vinyl by connecting his turntable up and recording it direct onto tape. Talk about dedicated.

My first was a Teac 3340S

combined with a Teac 3300S.

I would record 4 tracks then mix down to 2 tracks then move the tape back to the 4 track
and record 2 more tracks, repeat mix down and move getting up to sometimes 12 tracks per song.

I then moved to an Otari 1/2" 8 track


and then a Tascam DA38


Got some cool results with all 3 rigs but so glad it's evolved digital.
Would never go back.

First Multi Track: TASCAM Portastudio 424
2nd Generation: 2 Alesis Black Face ADATS with a 16 bit Sonorus StudI/O that allowed me to bring the resulting recordings into the PC.  I could record 16 tracks live...The rig was big and heavy. 
3rd Generation: Mackie 1640 with firewire (Live 16 channel recording and analogue mixer)
4th Generation: Presonus Firepod (Original version factory repaired) - 8 channels
5th Generation (Current Rig) the Behringer XR18: Now I can do 18 channels and I just bring a 6U rack on wheels!
 
 
 

 

ZarggI started on a VestaFire 4 (I believe it was called), in the 90's.

 
My god, that was my first 4 track. Bought it in 1985 with my Tax refund (400 bucks).It had no panning. Tracks 1+2 were left and right, tracks 3+4 were in stereo.
 
Im not sure where to start though when it comes to tape. I still use it now. My first real production piece was a Sony 2 track reel. then I bought a 4 track, a Sansui. Went through the years upgrading and had great results on an 8 track cassette (even though it was only 1/8 tape) in the mid 90's but that all changed when I bought a Tascam Studio 8. An 8 track reel which I still use now. Maxell tape is hard to find but I found new rolls on Ebay around 6 years ago (25 of of them) and bought them all at 3 bucks a roll.
 
Tascam still sells parts for the Studio 8 ( I bought 3 extra belts) but it is a tough machine to maintain. Something always seems to going bonky on it.I mix down to the Studio 8 using 2 tracks per L/R. Sonically it is giving me something I believe my mixes were missing. I love digital and I love its ease of use. What used to take me all night "Splicing drum parts" now takes around 20 minutes using a DAW.
 
But the straight digital sound is not as masking as Tape was. I find Tape does an outstanding job at blending things and masking mistakes in a mix. Digital is the cold hard truth and tells no lies, it is very clear and sonically perfect, almost too perfect for my taste.
 
This machine below is mine and used yesterday. Its my secret weapon.
 

I read it in the email, Chuck
I've lost some posts the past days myself..
 
That's cool!  We started the same 
It wasn't up for the stuff we do today 

I started with a PortaTwo 4-track, for really really bad demos.
Went straight from that to a fantastic Studer 2" tape machine in a studio.  What a leap....  The singer in my band was co-owner of the studio, so we did 3 full albums and lots of demos in there.
When i left the band, I went to a 12-track digital portable thing.  Then discovered Cakewalk.
I love SPlat, but still miss tape.
 

Zargg
I read it in the email, Chuck
I've lost some posts the past days myself..
 
That's cool!  We started the same 
It wasn't up for the stuff we do today 

I fixed it .
I put a photo of my Tascam Studio 8 in the post and Poof !
My whole comment was toast.
 
Yes we did start right around the same time, our music styles are also very similar.
I spent some time on your Soundcloud page and I loved it.