[Dixielandjazz] Recording the music

[andy.ling at quantel.com]

Allan Brown wrote on 22/06/2010 15:03:56:

> Did anyone ever own one of those old TASCAM 4-Track machines? You 
> could use a normal blank cassette (perhaps they had to be a specific
> type, chrome or something) but it only used one side and recorded 
> onto them at a much faster speed. So a 60 min cassette gave you 15 
> minutes worth of recording.
> 

Yes, I never had one myself, but have friends that did.

A normal cassette player records four tracks on a cassette. It
records left and right channels on side one and left and right
on side two. It does this by having a head that is really
two heads, one mounted above the other. When you turn the tape
over, the head lines up with a different two tracks to record
the other side.

The TASCAM had the equivalent of four heads all mounted on
top of each other so it could record all four tracks at
once. It ran at a higher speed to improve the quality. So you
only got 15 minutes.

You could also do a certain amount of multi-track editing where you
could "bounce down". You could play two or three tracks, mix
them and record them on the fourth track.

If you turned the tape over, you could listen to your recording
backwards.

Regards

Andy Ling



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