Hey y’all, I been away from my SP and the forums lately but I have been feeling my SX calling me. Then yesterday I was gifted a PERFECT condition tascam porta one mini studio, complete with demo tape, unopened cleaners from 1985, and a bunch of manuals on 4 track use and recording techniques.
Have any of you guys ever used one of these things? I have never done any cassette recording so I was hoping you guys would share some insights on your experiences/workflow with 4 tracks or cassette recorders in general. I would much appreciate any guidance or wisdom y’all have to offer.
Big thanks in advance!

Probably covering old ground here but you have 4 tracks to work with so i would suggest separating everything into those 4 tracks. (1:Drums, 2:Bass, 3:Leads or vocals, 4: Samples etc.) Not an exact rule but it helps when it comes to mastering and will allow you to mix everything after the fact.

Other than that i know you can run things into tape a little hot for natural tape compression but i believe that applies more-so to Reel-to-Reel machines rather than cassette. Perhaps someone else can help you a little more with that.

^

Yes. All Thee Above .

Tape does have a nice feel and you can run the levels high to work like a limiter or compression . I do this in Audacity to drum loops .. you gotta know the fine line though