some new raw shit im working on while im waiting for my new 303 to come in the mail, i recently sold my 404 and 202 to pay bills still the 1k is a beast. this track was recorded to my new tascam 424mk2 4 track tape machine, t1 drums t2 samples t3 shaker t4 tambourine. hope you enjoy.

https://soundcloud.com/spinxytunes/cops-n-robbers

yo that beat is ill!
what is it like recording beats/loops on the tascam 424? Could you give me some insight into the process because I am seriously considering buying a tascam 424 III for mixing and beats.
Do you find it challenging working with cassette tapes?

Peace

thanks man!
the tascam 424s pretty cool, it does work better on certain beats rather than others especially if you want a more cohesive round tone.

ive only been using mine with type 1 cassettes but the recorder is setup for using type 2 cassettes which will capture more high frequency sounds and sound more detailed apparently but i haven't got round to buying any yet.


because theres no midi sync you have to get all the sequencing done and finished (if your using an mpc with multi-outs) but if your using an sp you would first record your looped drum track to track 1 for 2 odd mins straight, then on track 2 play and record your samples live, and so on. after its all in time you could record over the drum loop track with live/free drumming


the mixer section is nice sounding ive even used it just as a mixer without recording to tape for a synth beat that i wanted in more hifi quality. the eqs sound really good, but after you record a track down with eq setting when you play it back you then reset the eqs because it will then double up on your settings, youll notice a bit of the quality has been lost going to cassette (maybe exaggerated by me using type 1 cassettes) so you'll prob have to add more bass and hi after anyway. you can get nice sounds by clipping the signal going in just run some tests till you get a feel for how far you can push it.


the tracks (4 on the mk2) fill up REALLY fast id prefer to have 8 so i could go nuts on layering etc. the way ive been recording the end result is by using a tascam dr 05 recording through the line in, so this way you can record a performance on the mixing board too.

for some reason prob user error i cant get the two stereo inputs to record to tape, the signal just passes through, but ive just used that to record some hi fi detailed sounds through alongside with tape sounds to the tascam.

i love the way tambourines and shakers sound recording to tape through a dynamic mic sounds real crunchy and raw

i haven't really had a chance to use it too much really, only on about 4 beats i was just coming out of a little creative dry spell then i had to move house so my labs in boxes except the ni maschine and the sp303 and a hifi stereo

also another thing cool is the pitch bend knob sounds so smooth like on a turntable sounds 100 times better then pitching things in software. i have a big water cooler type drum that i wanted to use as a kick drum but it was to low in pitch sounding so i used the pitch knob to slow the whole song down a fare bit, then recorded me banging on it in time to the new slow tempo, then speed it back up to normal and the pitch of the kick sound is higher and tighter sounding, so many cool tricks could be done with it. it must be how madlib does the quasimoto sound to his voice