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OLD MULTITRACK CASSETTES

Hey all I could use some help. I found a stack of old Metal format cassettes recently that I believe are from a multitrack recorder in the late 90's (likely a Tascam) I put them in a normal consumer cassette deck and they are playing back really slow which makes me think they are multitrack originals. Anyone know how I can extract these - do I have to know what multitrack recorder they were done on originally or will any one do? Any help on this would be hugely appreciated!

Comments

  • Sounds like it was one that did double-speed recording and playback. If they're four-track then all four tracks of the cassette will play back, but if you turn it over and play the opposite side it will be in reverse. Theoretically you could record the four tracks from a regular cassette deck two at a time, speed them up to normal, then reverse the tracks from the opposite side. My 4-track had Dolby noise reduction but if it's one that had dbx noise reduction, I don't know how you'd handle that.

  • Four track cassette multitracks record the four tracks over the entire width of the ⅛" tape. So there are no side B as it were.

    If you play the cassette on both sides and one side is backwards you'll know it's an original four track cassette multitrack master. Any four tracker from Tascam, Yamaha, Marantz or Fostex should play it fine as the four track standard was pretty much set.

    One other hallmark of cassette four tracks is if it's a decent unit it will record the tape at
    3 3/4ips (inches per second) to get the best fidelity. If played in a standard deck running at standard cassette speed of 1⅞ips it will indeed sound very slow as you're describing.

    Pretty sure you have some old four track tapes, now transferring is fairly easy. Some cassette multitracks have direct tape outs on RCA, so four independent outputs with each track on it's own output. But usually they are on the more expensive souped up machines (I believe the Tascam 464 has them and I remember some Yamaha model I saw years ago did too).

    Unless you have an interface with four line inputs however, your probably better off getting a mid grade or even entry level machine with just stereo left & right outputs. You record tracks 1 & 2 into your DAW, then record tracks 3 & 4 after. You have to manually line up the tracks but it works okay. All at once is preferable because tape has wow & flutter and the speed of the capstan motor could drag just a tiny bit, but 2 tracks at a time is completely fine, just have to have patience and not only edit with your eyes but with your ears.

    I wish you luck and I hope this helps. I'm sure everyone is sick of me mentioning my old Tascam PortaStudios, lol. But, hey they're awesome. You can still use them with modern production to get a lofi funky sound or to run real tape loops, etc. I have 2 boxes full of four track & eight track cassette multitrack masters and many rough & final mixes on cassette and DAT I'd love to transfer over to digital for archiving. It's an undertaking for sure @movieguy , if you decide to get a machine and do it keep me posted on how it went if you can...be cool,
    JohnRSIV

  • @bigcatrik said:
    Sounds like it was one that did double-speed recording and playback. If they're four-track then all four tracks of the cassette will play back, but if you turn it over and play the opposite side it will be in reverse. Theoretically you could record the four tracks from a regular cassette deck two at a time, speed them up to normal, then reverse the tracks from the opposite side. My 4-track had Dolby noise reduction but if it's one that had dbx noise reduction, I don't know how you'd handle that.

    I did exactly this playing back off a standard cassette deck into my laptop, the used Audacity to change the speed and reverse the two backward tracks. Then a little tweaking to line everything up. Noise reduction didn't seem to make much difference. It sounds really good.

  • @movieguy said:
    Hey all I could use some help. I found a stack of old Metal format cassettes recently that I believe are from a multitrack recorder in the late 90's (likely a Tascam) I put them in a normal consumer cassette deck and they are playing back really slow which makes me think they are multitrack originals. Anyone know how I can extract these - do I have to know what multitrack recorder they were done on originally or will any one do? Any help on this would be hugely appreciated!

    I've got an old Tascam Portastudio in the loft. When I used it it would record at double speed, with two tracks on one side, and two on the other side of the cassette - which would sound backwards if you played them on a normal tape machine.

    If I'd didn't have it, to extract the music I'd record each side onto the PC and slow both sides down (I'd use Soundforge), reverse one, and them match them up in a DAW, Audacity or Soundforge.

  • @bigcatrik said:
    Sounds like it was one that did double-speed recording and playback. If they're four-track then all four tracks of the cassette will play back, but if you turn it over and play the opposite side it will be in reverse. Theoretically you could record the four tracks from a regular cassette deck two at a time, speed them up to normal, then reverse the tracks from the opposite side. My 4-track had Dolby noise reduction but if it's one that had dbx noise reduction, I don't know how you'd handle that.

    For the Dolby U-He Satin plugin for the desktop can emulate encode/decode this, I believe.

  • edited December 2016

    I looked up my unit and it actually did have dbx noise reduction which sounds horrendous without the proper decoder (but great with it).

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