Tim Smith Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Tascam is re re releasing cassette tapes for their portastudio. Tapes are not out yet. LINK HERE The formulation is a bit different than the original tapes due to the inability to obtain the exact same oxides. Apparently the factories where they make the oxides have either changed or they can't get exactly the same materials. Is that crazy or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc H Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Does this mean I get to break out the Analog Audio Workstation again? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 (edited) 38 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: Is that crazy or what? No, not crazy at all. Analog is making a comeback. It actually never went away. I was also reading that kids are finding that they can get a nice natural distortion out of them. LOL. Everything is coming full circle. LP's are coming back, cassettes are coming back, analog recording is coming back. I've tried them all from Radio Shack, to Memorex, to Normal to Metal, and all points in between. The best tape I ever used was the Maxell UDII 90. The gold one. The cassette plastic and label colors changed over the years, as well as the quality. There was a newer version with a grey plastic case. They were garbage. Almost every one of those I used have a warbling sound on them now and some of the masters are destroyed. But at a certain point you couldn't get the gold ones anymore and I had to switch, back before the internet and eBay. I still have gold colored master tapes from the 80's that have not aged a day. Never stretched, never lost any frequency response, still roll smooth. I used them in my car, spilled coffee on them, soda, squished donut icing all over them. Still play great. If you can find NOS ones of those, jump on them. Here's a pic of the ones I use. Borrowed this photo from eBay. I just bought a vintage Tascam 4 Track on FB marketplace to replace the one I used decades ago that died. I've been transferring my old masters in to my DAW and having a blast. I also have a Tascam 8 Track but it only has 4 outputs. Honestly, the 4 track sounds better. Must be the tape speed because it is normal speed while the 8 track is double which may be why the tapes make a warbling sound over time as well. I don't know. This was back when I got my 4 Track on Facebook marketplace. Edited January 3, 2022 by Shane_B. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 It might be fun to break put the PortaStudio One and create a song on it and only it. Just like the old days. Nah! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 I would guess used Portasudios are going for a good price right now, that is, until and unless cassette tapes become a 'thing' again. I worked with the old Wollensak and Recordex duplicators, also renewed the rubber drives in various cassette decks back in the day. For that reason I would be leary of an old Portastudio unless you can still get fresh rebuild kits for them. After awhile anything rubber in a transport mechanism becomes like chewing gum. I have an old Sony cassette player in storage. The last time I pulled it and played a tape in it , the thing actually worked. It must have a direct drive mechanism in it. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why it would still work being 30 plus years old. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmcleod Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 32 minutes ago, Shane_B. said: No, not crazy at all. Analog is making a comeback. It actually never went away. I was also reading that kids are finding that they can get a nice natural distortion out of them. LOL. Everything is coming full circle. LP's are coming back, cassettes are coming back, analog recording is coming back. I've tried them all from Radio Shack, to Memorex, to Normal to Metal, and all points in between. The best tape I ever used was the Maxell UDII 90. The gold one. The cassette plastic and label colors changed over the years, as well as the quality. There was a newer version with a grey plastic case. They were garbage. Almost every one of those I used have a warbling sound on them now and some of the masters are destroyed. But at a certain point you couldn't get the gold ones anymore and I had to switch, back before the internet and eBay. I still have gold colored master tapes from the 80's that have not aged a day. Never stretched, never lost any frequency response, still roll smooth. I used them in my car, spilled coffee on them, soda, squished donut icing all over them. Still play great. If you can find NOS ones of those, jump on them. Here's a pic of the ones I use. Borrowed this photo from eBay. I just bought a vintage Tascam 4 Track on FB marketplace to replace the one I used decades ago that died. I've been transferring my old masters in to my DAW and having a blast. I also have a Tascam 8 Track but it only has 4 outputs. Honestly, the 4 track sounds better. Must be the tape speed because it is normal speed while the 8 track is double which may be why the tapes make a warbling sound over time as well. I don't know. This was back when I got my 4 Track on Facebook marketplace. I used to use the Yamaha MT1X, then the Yamaha MT8X. I found the best cassette for these was the Maxell XLIIS. I did use the Maxell UDII for general listening though. It was a really good cassette. In fact my only reason for not getting a replacement cassette based portastudio was because you just can't get the cassettes any more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: I would guess used Portasudios are going for a good price right now I paid $250 for the one I got on Facebook Marketplace. It was the 4 Input, 4 Track, 4 Output version. He had a 6 Input, 4 Track, 4 Output one he wanted $325 for IIRC but I didn't want it for recording, I just wanted it for playback. The original one I used was a different version of the 6/4/4 but luckily the heads lined up and the I could adjust the speed to make it work. I wouldn't be surprised to see Tascam release a new tape based machine. 53 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: I worked with the old Wollensak and Recordex duplicators, also renewed the rubber drives in various cassette decks back in the day. For that reason I would be leary of an old Portastudio unless you can still get fresh rebuild kits for them. After awhile anything rubber in a transport mechanism becomes like chewing gum. You can still get the rubber pinch rollers but I've never needed one. Keeping them clean with Distilled Water is the key. I used to work on office and business machines. Copiers, cash registers, printers. There is a chemical called Fedron that will actually bring rubber rollers back to life, but it's a last resort and it is nasty. If it touches anything plastic it melts it. Distilled water is the only thing that should ever touch a capstan rubber pinch roller. Alcohol dries them out and kills them. Distilled water without all the tap water chemicals cleans and rejuvenates them. That's all I've ever used on my tape machines. A tiny bit of oil also cleans them and brings them back to life on office equipment but I would not do that on tape machines. Distilled water on the capstan pinch roller, alcohol on the plastic and metal, and I still have my Realistic Tape Head Demagnetizer. When I was a kid I used to put drops of 3 in 1 oil on the back tires of my AFX race cars and hold them there. They would start to smoke and get really tacky. You could take corners at full trigger throttle and they wouldn't come off the track for about 5 minutes. Hah. Edited January 3, 2022 by Shane_B. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 In related news, the computer industry is returning to 96kb 9" floppies for storage! ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 33 minutes ago, Shane_B. said: You can still get the rubber pinch rollers but I've never needed one. Keeping them clean with Distilled Water is the key. I used to work on office and business machines. Copiers, cash registers, printers. There is a chemical called Fedron that will actually bring rubber rollers back to life, but it's a last resort and it is nasty. If it touches anything plastic it melts it. Distilled water is the only thing that should ever touch a capstan rubber pinch roller. Alcohol dries them out and kills them. Distilled water without all the tap water chemicals cleans and rejuvenates them. That's all I've ever used on my tape machines. A tiny bit of oil also cleans them and brings them back to life on office equipment but I would not do that on tape machines. Distilled water on the capstan pinch roller, alcohol on the plastic and metal, and I still have my Realistic Tape Head Demagnetizer. Not sure if this is applicable or not, If all the mechanism needs is a belt I believe there are small belts in various sizes you can still get that haven't been on a shelf for 30 years. Where you would find them though is anybody's guess. The bad thing about a tape machine that has sat in the engaged position is you now have a small divet in the rubber wheel. When it goes around you get a kathump very time it comes around. You were very fortunate to get one that still works. For anything that has sat in an attic, forget it. That rubber is long gone. I have had more machines apart on a bench than I care to remember. Probably hundreds of cassette mechanisms.I had a magnifier with a built in light to see all of those small parts. I was in A/V for awhile and that was everything from those gross film machines coming from the porn shops to projectors coming from schools. Video projectors were just catching on then. Almost no mechanical anything in electronics now, and no one who knows how to fix any of it. At one time we could cross reference any electronic component in a unit from a book and have it in our shop in a day or two. Not as much any more. I enjoyed the tinkering part of it. My eyes aren't what they used to be now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 2 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: Not sure if this is applicable or not, If all the mechanism needs is a belt I believe there are small belts in various sizes you can still get that haven't been on a shelf for 30 years. Where you would find them though is anybody's guess. I usually get my belts at Target, but I'm not sure how helpful that is... ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 3 minutes ago, craigb said: I usually get my belts at Target, but I'm not sure how helpful that is... ? At least we know you wear pants. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 5 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: At least we know you wear pants. You're supposed to wear pants??? ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 10 minutes ago, Tim Smith said: Not sure if this is applicable or not, If all the mechanism needs is a belt I believe there are small belts in various sizes you can still get that haven't been on a shelf for 30 years. Where you would find them though is anybody's guess. The bad thing about a tape machine that has sat in the engaged position is you now have a small divet in the rubber wheel. When it goes around you get a kathump very time it comes around. You were very fortunate to get one that still works. For anything that has sat in an attic, forget it. That rubber is long gone. I have had more machines apart on a bench than I care to remember. Probably hundreds of cassette mechanisms.I had a magnifier with a built in light to see all of those small parts. I was in A/V for awhile and that was everything from those gross film machines coming from the porn shops to projectors coming from schools. Video projectors were just catching on then. Almost no mechanical anything in electronics now, and no one who knows how to fix any of it. At one time we could cross reference any electronic component in a unit from a book and have it in our shop in a day or two. Not as much any more. I enjoyed the tinkering part of it. My eyes aren't what they used to be now. This one I got was sitting somewhere damp a very long time. It smells moldy. I cleaned what I could get to and it worked so I transferred as much as I could while I could. ?But yeah, I imagine whatever drives it if it is belt driven will eventually die. You can buy packs of belts in various sizes. Belts were a little different. I always used oil on those. I've never had a tape based machine of any kind that would keep the roller engaged unless it was playing. I know the mechanically activated ones you could, but I guess I knew better even as a kid. I had a high end Sony dual cassette one time. All digital controls. I wish I still had that. My first Tascam 4 Track was mechanical IIRC, but I never left it in the play position when not in use. But yeah, I could see rollers getting dented. It happened on copiers and especially printers because they would sit for long periods of time without being used. There is a unit called the fixing assembly. It bakes the toner to the paper so it doesn't smear off. The top roller is aluminum coated with teflon with a 1200 and higher watt lamp running through the middle. The bottom is a heat resistant foam roller. Those would get dented if they sat for a long period of time and it would cause problems. Then they changed from aluminum rollers to a heat resistant "fixing film". I could definitely see it with the pinch rollers in tape decks. I hate how things have changed in electronics. I had 3 of those 4 sided 5 foot tall spinning parts racks at work. Filled with belts, IC's, transistors, diodes, and other specialized copier and cash register pcb components. I remember changing the ribbon and ink in the old mechanical brassy National cash registers back when they were still used regularly. All but gone now. My brother started out in the business working on those and started his own business and I worked for him. He could tear those things down to the base and put back together in his sleep. Those and IBM typewriters are mechanical miracles. All but gone. I hear you about the eyes not being what they used to be. When I was in my early 20's I could hold a PCB up to my face and look for cold solder joints and broken tracings. Those days are long gone. I had one of those lighted magnifying arms on my bench but never used it although my brother who is 12 years older than me always had to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Is that where the term "moldy oldies" comes from Shane? ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 1 hour ago, craigb said: In related news, the computer industry is returning to 96kb 9" floppies I guess that even silicon valley types get old eventually...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 A bit of a decline in the porn industry too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted January 4, 2022 Author Share Posted January 4, 2022 7 hours ago, Shane_B. said: This one I got was sitting somewhere damp a very long time. It smells moldy. I cleaned what I could get to and it worked so I transferred as much as I could while I could. ?But yeah, I imagine whatever drives it if it is belt driven will eventually die. You can buy packs of belts in various sizes. Belts were a little different. I always used oil on those. I've never had a tape based machine of any kind that would keep the roller engaged unless it was playing. I know the mechanically activated ones you could, but I guess I knew better even as a kid. I had a high end Sony dual cassette one time. All digital controls. I wish I still had that. My first Tascam 4 Track was mechanical IIRC, but I never left it in the play position when not in use. But yeah, I could see rollers getting dented. It happened on copiers and especially printers because they would sit for long periods of time without being used. There is a unit called the fixing assembly. It bakes the toner to the paper so it doesn't smear off. The top roller is aluminum coated with teflon with a 1200 and higher watt lamp running through the middle. The bottom is a heat resistant foam roller. Those would get dented if they sat for a long period of time and it would cause problems. Then they changed from aluminum rollers to a heat resistant "fixing film". I could definitely see it with the pinch rollers in tape decks. I hate how things have changed in electronics. I had 3 of those 4 sided 5 foot tall spinning parts racks at work. Filled with belts, IC's, transistors, diodes, and other specialized copier and cash register pcb components. I remember changing the ribbon and ink in the old mechanical brassy National cash registers back when they were still used regularly. All but gone now. My brother started out in the business working on those and started his own business and I worked for him. He could tear those things down to the base and put back together in his sleep. Those and IBM typewriters are mechanical miracles. All but gone. I hear you about the eyes not being what they used to be. When I was in my early 20's I could hold a PCB up to my face and look for cold solder joints and broken tracings. Those days are long gone. I had one of those lighted magnifying arms on my bench but never used it although my brother who is 12 years older than me always had to. You would get along well with a friend of mine 40 years working on copiers. At least they haven't all gone away. We had an electrical parts supplier right down the street and we kept some stock. They had almost everything there but occasionally we had to order it. When I worked in the A/V and stereo shop it was a cool job because you could listen to music all day on nice stereos and get paid for it and they brought some really high end gear into that shop. I then went to two way radio from there because it payed better with govt. contracts and all. Police and fire all need it. Then I made a really big jump to climate controls and HVAC. That trade was 80% electrical. Now it's probably more like 90% electrical. I paid my dues and now I work with Automated Logic (owned by Carrier) as a user of their software to manage large installations remotely.. I mean LARGE installations. I manage probably one of the largest in my area with thousands of points. It was ARCNET but is migrating their new hardware to IT based control. 7 hours ago, craigb said: A bit of a decline in the porn industry too... It's still around it has just changed the approach. Not that I know much about that *ahem* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc H Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 9 hours ago, craigb said: In related news, the computer industry is returning to 96kb 9" floppies for storage! ? They sound better with compression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Boileau Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 9 hours ago, craigb said: You're supposed to wear pants??? ? Ha! Now we know where the smelly posts come from! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 You can also buy new tape cartridges for your Roland RE-201 Space Echo. If you're that gullible, anyway. Last price I heard (a couple years ago) was $250 each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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