A friend acquired an old Tascam 4 track cassette recording setup, consisting of an EX-20 mixer, a PE-20 EQ Insert, and a 234 4 track cassette recorder. Research online indicates the cassette deck will probably need new rubber (belts and capstan), and probably won't be worth the effort, but I'm wondering about the quality of the preamps.
 
Both the cassette deck and mixer have 4 mic pres, and since Tascam had a rep for solid electronics  back in the day, I wonder if the preamps will bring anything to the table that I can't already approximate.
 
Currently in the arsenal here I have low end Behringer mixer pres, Behringer ADA-8000 pres, M-Audio Octanes in a C600, 2626, and Fast Track Ultra, and a Focusrite ISA Two.
 
Can anyone with experience on this Tascam dinosaur tell me if its worth cleaning up the pots and wiring it into an audio chain to try out the preamps?
 
 

Tascam was the "pro" branch of Teac, I believe.  But still it shouldn't be anything special.  I've still got a small teac mixer coming up on 40 years old.  It worked the last time plugged it in, which is saying something.  But the sound from the preamps or my "upscale" ramsa mixer is pretty plain and easily congested.  The Tascam is probably the same.  Things really took off from the old, old mackie gear in the 90s.  Their preamps were pretty good and everybody got better.

It might be worthwhile to fix one channel and see what you think.   But it ain't like you've got a secret neve or api preamp.

@

I think you will find the pre-amps more hard and edgy than most post-digital age stuff. (a good thing).
I remember moving from my old Tascam Model5 board to a newer hip Mackie and really not liking the sound. the mackie just seemed soft to me. same way i feel about Neve boards (soft) vs. like Trident (hard).
anyway that's my nutshell...  
Also, the tascam's probably pretty noisy.

I would not be running anything important through those pre-amps! I had all that stuff too and remember it well. Think of it now as a sort of effect. Something you might route a buss out to and back into your mix.

I have a very old (Tascam 1977) Mixer Model 3 and the channel strips have interesting EQ circuits in them. There are actual inductors and capacitors that provide the old fashioned EQ circuits passively followed by gain. So this is good for some good old fashioned older type gnarly Tascam sound being thrown over a jangly guitar buss etc.. It could be viewed as an OK sound only over part of your mix perhaps.

But I am sure with some thought you could also easily replicate that sort of effect using some of today's more interesting plugins. Like throwing that new Waves emulation of an old REDD desk over a buss or channel for some good old fashioned English EQ and grit.

1) Grab some sends from SONAR on an extra hardware output.

2) Plug em into the Cassette Deck.

3) Check out your new desktop VU meters.


:-)

About what I figured...thanks guys.

(Secret Neve VU meters...wooHOO!)

mike_mccue
1) Grab some sends from SONAR on an extra hardware output.

2) Plug em into the Cassette Deck.

3) Check out your new desktop VU meters.


:-)

3rd best post by McQ EVAH!!!!