It appears i have porta2mkii if that sounds right. Headphone jack gives off an unholy amount of hiss, gonna hafta remedy that as it makes it hard to dial in levels when away from home.

Wonder if you have some caps drying out in there maybe? I know old power filter caps on old hi-fi stereos causes hum but not sure what causes excessive hiss.

Pulled mine out tonight- powers up but does not play. FF and REV work so hoping it is just a belt. I had to replace a belt 15 or 20 years ago. Dig the wine bottle box case and analog VU meters.

im having a tough time figuring my 414 (not mkII) out without the manual. just got it a week or so ago off craigslist. i thought there was a playback issue but apparently its designed to only have one speed that sounds sped up on playback with conventional tapes... how exactly do you guys have it hooked up signal flow-wise? gonna try looking into bouncing it into my interface or something but i'd love any advice if anyone has any.

http://tascam.com/product/414mkii/downloads/
mkII is very similar so you can use the manual

Sounds like there is no speed/pitch control and they are using a higher ips tape speed for better quality recordings. I would either record things to it (samples, things from SP, etc) and bounce it from track to track and messing with pitch control (on my Porta One) or putting your finger on cogs to get warble/flutter and sample it back to SP to get lo-fi sound and such (on your 414). You can also simply use it as a multitrack recorder and dump the results to DAW or other recorder for sharing etc.

awesome, i'm gonna read up on that and try some things out. much appreciated!

daaaamn nice yo

I didn't get the portastudio. That dude's communication skills were on par with someone born without face.

In a fit of rage, I busted out my VS880 (anyone want to trade for portastudio?), made a track then dubbed it to tape.

Just doesn't feel the same.

I've always wanted one of these, but of course, all the prices I come across just seem like too much for me.

shopgoodwill.com Goodwill has their own version of Ebay...and they always have Tascam tape players etc.

Oh nice tip man!
I see a Porta One and a Fostex on there right now. Cool.

Finally, something good came my way. After the fiasco with the porta05, a dude showed up on CL selling a very clean 424mkiii for 40$. Just got back with it. Hopefully I didn't get scammed. So far it powers up...now to do some testing.

shweet!

Popped a NOS high bias tape from 1982 that was still factory wrapped (until I opened it) in the unit, gave it a whirl.

We are open for business.

Anyone want a used VS880 with tons of paperwork and special tricks compiled from 5 years worth of forum and newsgroup community knowledge?