Tascam Porta02 mkII

[paniak17]

sorry for all of the topics, but i need to make a quick and well-educated descion. So now im looking at this product, so what would my gear list be to use it and convert it to a cassete tape? Right now i have:

Bass
Guitar
Piano
Microphone
Guitar Cord

Besides the unit, what else do i need? And can someone explain to me how to mixdown? It says it can within this unit, but i need some help, im pretty confused right now, but im sure ill get the hang of it. Thanks for listening.

 

[baba]

You'll need a microphone cable for the microphone, you didn't list one of those. Don't know your microphone but I'm going to assume you don't need phantom power and can just plug it into the Tascam. Record tracks as needed.

Read the manual for the Tascam. Here's an abbreviated big picture of mixing without details specific to your Tascam:

For mixdown you'll just need another tape deck. Single cassette deck is fine, you just need a record button. So...you play with levels, etc, to mix the music, while listening via headphones or a stereo fed from the Tascam. Once you get it where you like it, make sure the outs are hooked up to your other deck, push play while the deck is on record/pause, and set the levels on the deck so you don't peak/distort. Now you're ready to actually record your mix. Rewind Tascam, push play, push record on deck. That's basically what's happening.

To state the obvious...your original tracking will remain in it's originally tracked form. Any mixing and the like will only be present on the new recording you made on the other deck. You sound pretty green so I'm just trying to fill in another blank you may not understand.

 

[baba]

Also....check out the links and advice provided in your other thread. With this and the manual you don't need anything else for simple recording. Bite the bullet and read the info....it looks like your question has been answered several times.

 

[paniak17]

thanks, i ordered it , just one more thing i need to know. Since it has four tracks and two inputs, does both inputs count as one track? so i can "bassically" have 8 instruments without miking them?


If you dont understand what im saying, Heres a chart

Instrument A---\
----------------------Track One
Instrument B---/

Instrument C---\
---------------------Track Two
Instrument D---/

Instrument E---\
---------------------Track Three
Instrument F---/

Instrument G---\
---------------- -----Track Four
Instrument H---/

the little \ and / symbolizes the input leading to the "track"


or is it like

Instrument A---\
--------------------Track One
--------------------Track Two
Instrument B---/

 

[dlloyd]

thanks, i ordered it , just one more thing i need to know. Since it has four tracks and two inputs, does both inputs count as one track? so i can "bassically" have 8 instruments without miking them?


If you dont understand what im saying, Heres a chart

Instrument A---\
----------------------Track One
Instrument B---/

Instrument C---\
---------------------Track Two
Instrument D---/

Instrument E---\
---------------------Track Three
Instrument F---/

Instrument G---\
---------------- -----Track Four
Instrument H---/

the little \ and / symbolizes the input leading to the "track"


or is it like

Instrument A---\
--------------------Track One
--------------------Track Two
Instrument B---/

A is for tracks 1 and 3 (IIRC), B is for tracks 2 and 4 (again, IIRC).

There's another input, marked "guitar". Not sure what it does.

 

[baba]

thanks, i ordered it , just one more thing i need to know. Since it has four tracks and two inputs, does both inputs count as one track? so i can "bassically" have 8 instruments without miking them?


If you dont understand what im saying, Heres a chart

Instrument A---\
----------------------Track One
Instrument B---/

Instrument C---\
---------------------Track Two
Instrument D---/

Instrument E---\
---------------------Track Three
Instrument F---/

Instrument G---\
---------------- -----Track Four
Instrument H---/

the little \ and / symbolizes the input leading to the "track"


or is it like

Instrument A---\
--------------------Track One
--------------------Track Two
Instrument B---/

It's like the second little visual you gave. Basically, it should let you record two tracks at once....I know the 414 MKII does. There will probably be a switch that tells the machine which track is being assigned to which input at that time.

Once more than one tracks are full, you can bounce them to a separate track to free up tracks again. The more bouncing you do, the more your sound quality will degrade...it's analog. There will be plenty in the manual to tell you about all of this and more.

If you really needed more instruments per individual track, you could put a mixer before the Tascam, and record a premixed track of multiple instruments. The problem is you will lose control of individual instrument signals and have no control at mixdown. If many tracks or live recording of many instruments are your intention, this Tascam isn't what you want.