Mid-price Tape Deck Before Garageband ? Options

[pat38]

Hi all

Anyone could give me advice on a non reel-to-reel tape deck ?

I would record guitar and voice on tape, then playback/feed the tape out into garageband ... I don't want to spend too much on it though..

Thks for any hints !
Patrick

[deaconblue]

Hi all

Anyone could give me advice on a non reel-to-reel tape deck ?

Hey Patrick,

I assume that you could be referring to a cassette based system of some type. I have used a Yamaha MT-100, circa 1988, to both record directly onto or used as a 'tape pre-amp" before bringing the audio into my DAW. There are a multitude of good 4-8 track cassette recorders of varying vintages in the market. Depends on what you need or want that deck to do.

I bought my original MT-100 new. Price was about $199 if I recall. I used it for years. Then sold it in a garage sale for $125 (this was in 2000; when I got my first DAW and audio interface, MOTU 828). Didn't think I'd ever have a use for it again. DOH! I had a quite a few multi-track recordings of both early solo stuff and long dispersed bands and I wanted to digitize them and remix and master them in DP.

I would record guitar and voice on tape, then playback/feed the tape out into garageband ... I don't want to spend too much on it though..

I ended up hitting ebay and looking around for one and found one for $65 plus shipping. This was about two years ago. Prices for similar rigs on ebay now are pretty low for most of the ones I saw. But, these can range anywhere from a Yamaha MT4X Multitrack recorder or a Yamaha MT2X on ebay for 1¢... ending March 10th; up to a tascam 246 portastudio 4 channel casette recorder

I think that for a lower end or older system $50 to $75 would be a good price for one in good shape. For newer (relatively speaking) systems with a lot of 'console type' features, I'd expect to pay a little bit more, say $150. But $250 is a little bit of a high price. There are newer ones like the Tascam 488MkII portastudio 8 track Multitrack recorders without a "sell now" button, but which are also sitting at $26 now and are open until March 10th.

Thks for any hints !
Patrick

One recommendation, regardless of which type of cassette deck you choose, stereo RCA based up to 8 track 8x8 set up, make sure that the deck that you get has the correct hook up for your audio interface (RCA -> 1/8th " mini plug; 1/4" TRS; XLR, whatever) and that you can mix, bounce or bus down your sends on the deck to the maximum number of inputs on your audio interface (1x1, 2x2, 8x8, 8x64, whatever) that way you can get the most benefit out of which ever deck you find.

Hope that helps. Good luck getting that tape saturation tone. It is definitely a cool tool for tone.

peace.

This post has been edited by deaconblue: Thu 6 Mar 2008, 07:09