Tascam Porta02 tutorial: recording and mixing. Can you bounce on a Porta02? 

Great tutorial on the porta02 mkII. It goes to show that less is more for recording to tape. I love the Twscam and have been thrilled with the quality and mastering to DAT.

Just rewatched this one again and really had to say I like how the bass directly into the HiZ input sounds more than a bit like a tuba in the mix, which actually sounds cool! Looking forward to new content when you've got it.

You are way too hard on yourself. I absolutely enjoyed this tutorial on this machine. Great song to feature and loved your guitar and your voice was just fine. Thank you for the help.

Picked one of these up as a bargain recently. Great video for me to get started. Thanks!

Thank you for this thank you for this video someone just gave me the portable too after watching your video can't wait to play with it it looks like a great device for just getting ideas down thanks

thank you so much for doing this. it was all I needed to get going with my mkii

A workaround I used to use with this very devuce was to do a stereo mix to minidisc then bouncing that back to 1 or 2 tracks , rinse and repeat if necessary (3 bounces was when the noisefloor was too much!) did over 50 recordings using this , was great fun and a necessary workaround!

Dude! that was amazing!

Pretty nice recording. I have the 02, and I use it for making ambient guitar music. I run guitars into an old Korg Pandora, then into the tascam. Not too sonically clean, but I can still get interesting sounds. It’s a fun machine that takes me back to the old days.

great video! I got close to being able to bounce on a Portra03MkII once. By panning the bounce tracks to the left, then routing the left Headphone Out channel to one of the inputs, I was able to record some signal onto the destination track. however the resulting signal was really quiet, and raising the input gain past a certain point created that feedback squeal. it would be cool to have a workaround for in-machine bouncing, since the resulting bounces are in sync with your current recorded tracks -- and that can have advantages when layering rhythmic components. as opposed to mixing everything down to another machine, then recording that back in...

useful video, thanks for making it.

Great video classi recording style

Great wee machine - I just sold mine, used to use it live playing the channels like a cheap mellotron. Don't gig now so it was just gathering dust as I use my Porta one for recording in my studio.

Thanks for the help.

Fun stuff! The high frequency boost during recording is interesting. I don't think my machine had that, but it did have excessive hiss even when the tape wasn't playing. I guess these old machines just have their quirks. ✌️

The late Gerry Rafferty of Stealers Wheel lived just along the road from me in a place called Ferguslie Park. He even made an album of the same name.

so good!!

VERY GOOD Job!

Thanks for making this! Is the only difference between the original porta02 and the mkII the addition of the guitar input/pre?

i use a boombox to bounce. record your output to another tape using a boombox, then put the new tape into the 4-track. once you do this you should pan track 1 all the way to one side and pan track 2 all the way to the other side, make sure they have relatively the same volume. now youu have 2 free tracks and it is all still in stereo and you can repeat this as many times as you want to.

Hi! Recently purchased but the lights don't turn on to detect sound when I plug in my mic, any solutions?

I have had one of these for years and never used it ive got loads of blank tapes to use as well just got it out to keep me occupied, ive never been good with technology no matter how primitive it is but its give me some hours of fun and help my guitar playing. One question i have when I have used all 4 tracks I can mix them send to another cassete tape but then can I use the mixed cassete and add 3 more track mix them 3 tracks send to another tape then add more tracks and so on ? Also nice video and great explination I had it almost right the way i was using mine and yours video has quashed any doubts i had about what i was doing

I owned two of these back in the day. The transport buttons wore out do to excessive starts , stops, and pauses. Elected for Tascam's higher end models. Their original black model had a better, stronger transport.

Thx good job..!! 🎸

I liked your rendition of that. Shame you don't have one more channel to put in a harmonizing part. I have a Porta03. I haven't used it in a long time and I am going to get a digital version. The 03 has Dolby but yours has a 4 LED meter which is better than the 2 on the 03. I didn't know there were fans of these out there.

howdy - thank you for the tutorial! I'm trying to determine how to mix down to a master stereo cassette from a Porta 02. Would this necessarily require purchasing a professional mixing recorder (ex the tascam 102)? or are there less costly/space-consuming (maybe more modern?) workarounds? I just want to make lots of tapes!

A very nice demo. Weird, that high presence, but the recording is ok. Maybe try a different dynamic microphone, and no extra pre-amp.

im sorry if you already said in the video but do you know why there's terrible high end when recording only? my fostex does the same thing.

Great video, you got a pretty good sound! I don't think cassette can reproduce the high frequency as good. I'm guessing your machine goes up to 16khz, but where does the high frequency start to roll off at? My Fostex x26 can only go up to 12khz. So even though you have a basic machine, it sounds way better than a cheap machine with all the bells and whistles.

Hi! Thanks for the nice video! Quick question, what kind of cassette its recommended for quality recordings in models such as this or the Porta 03?

if i wanted to erase a take on a track how would i go about doing this ??

I have one, but it has terrible hiss - even when there's no tape in and the headphones are down to 0. When I record, this is picked up. If I transfer the tape to digital, there is still bad hiss, although not quite so much as when I'm listening through the headphones. Do you think it's possible for me to fix that if I look inside? (I've already checked things like, making the input as hot as possible etc. I couldn't even imagine turning the trim towards the mic setting!)

Came across this tutorial while experiencing/exploring the exact same high frequency issue as this one has. Found out that the high frequency increases when you raise the level of the tracks on the other recording track (so if you have track 1 armed, track 2 or 4 will cause the change in sound and vice versa). When you mute those tracks the armed track will sound normal during recording. Some weird feedback issue maybe... Did your reparation also target this issue or was it done before the recording of this video? I thought these caps might have something to do with the sound changing, like a tone knob on an electric guiter (idk, just guessing). Anyway, great vid!

if you wanted to bounce could you do this? - Once you have all four tracks filled, record that onto a computer program using the RCA cables as one track on the computer. Then play that track and record it back onto track 1 on the Tascam using one of the "line ins". Essentially freeing up tracks 2,3,4 to record ontop of? would that work?

Do you absolutely need a dynamic mic to record instruments like electronic drums and electric guitar? Would I just go from my LINE OUT on the back of my Amp to the back of this recorder?

I bought an Art Studio V3 after watching this video . I used it for about an hour and when I went to unplugged the A/C adapter , it was quite warm . It was almost hot . Do those preamps cause that ?? I'm too scared to use mine now :(

If you had two of these, could you bounce it down on to the other one by plugging the output of one into the input of the other? You’d lose quality but would it have a feedback loop?

I have one of these as new at home, barely used.

Can I use tdk ferric 90 min tape & also scotch bx 90 min in this machine?

Thanks I just got mine from a cousin I had asked him about it for awhile and he said he would fix it for me he maid it usable but for some reason track 1 and 2 don't work but 3 and 4 do im just glad it works but would you have any idea what the problem might be awesome video btw

Hey Dennis, I bought this tascam on ebay sometime ago now. Just last week I finished my complete setup with a condense mic, supported buy a phantom power supply. Only thing is that the tascam doesn't pic up any sound from the mic like in your video. any idea what could be wrong?

Hey Dennis, I have one more question. My device works okay now. For a friend i want to convert the cassette to a digital file on my Macbook air. Unlike older mcbook airs, mine doesn't have a audio input. Do you have any idea on what external device to use? thanks again for the great video's

Does the v3 have enough clean gain for sm7b

Great video, Help... I just bought a porta 02 mkii, can I record on any cassette type? just to try it? I plug my electric guitar and I get sound out of it but when I record and then rewind and playback I hear nothing from the headphones at all... Im using a regular cassette just to try if it works, should I get another cassette or is it a problem with the unit? thanks brother

Couldn’t you just record to a second decent tape with Dolby C NC, perform even a 5th track while recording, and then record that whole mix back into just track one, giving you 8 possible tracks in all? Is it just too noisy? Cuz if I wanted a clear sound I’d just use GarageBand on my iPhone lol

I wouldn't consider it cheating to mixdown to a standard (quality) cassette deck, then put the mixdown tape into the Pota02 for an extra 2 tracks with a decent amount of stereo image preservation throughout. Especially since this only runs at the speed of a standard cassette deck. I'm planning to do a project soon with my 2 portastudios, and I'm going to be doing all the bouncing to digital with tape emulation, or possibly bouncing between the two 4 tracks or syncing them to my DAW with SMPTE (if that's possible) to create a six track. We shall see. I love all the ideas an planning that you have to put into getting around the limitations of these. Even though I was quite glad to leave them behind for computers back in the day.

No double speed..... But what IS the speed?? Most 4 tracks record at 3.75 ips. What speed does this record at???? Thanks.

Good day master!!! Could you possibly recommend sites where I can buy such gadgets?

7:59 When the bass part rudely refuses accept your request.

I had an idea for bouncing (kinda) keep track 4 open. Put the tracks you want to bounce on “safe” then take headphone output of recorder and send it to input 2, then hit record on track 4 and it should in theory send the headphone signal into track four. Then you can record over the other three. I have to try this and see if it works.

You can bounce with it or ping pong .i have the silver one alll you do is line out to tape deck then record it there then the tape from tape deck putt in 4 track recorder it will be on track one and two

I miss my porta2. 😢

Can you record to 2 tracks simultaneously?

Couldn't you just come out of one side of the stereo out, return it to an input, and assign the input to another unused track?

Of course you can 'bounce' tracks. It's very simple. You record your tracks, mix them down onto a standard cassette player, then use this tape to record from onto the 4 track again leaving you with extra tracks. Planning the tracks in advance is important. When I was around 10 I realised that when I pressed record on my little tape player the two heads would touch the tape. I worked out that one was an erase head and the other a play/record head. I would stick tape over the erase head and make multi-track tapes.

So do you actually mix while the tape is playing? And then when you take it out and put it in a cassette player it will play how you mixed it? I just did my first test and when I put it in a walkman style cassette player, each track is panned all the way right or left in the headphones. Keys play in the left ear and drums in the right? Am I supposed to mix the tape to another tape at that point?

why is the mike 1 on the input 2 side

WHAT IF YOU USED TWO CASSETTES AND RECORDED YOUR OUTPUT TO A NORMAL TAPE RECORDER? AND THEN PLAYED IT BACK TO THE TASCAM TO A SINGLE TRACK??

Do you live in nyc?

Can bounce to pc or what ever. Phone..

The output level of your guitar preamp needs to be line level to start with. Don’t plug an amp level line into those inputs - could be problematic.

I'm from India, gujarat, Vadodara.

I remember these were not normal cassettes...these were the ones to overdub...that s to say to re-record over what was recorded already...different from normal cassettes which got erased when recording back...recording now only the last record...

I have the port 1 to bounce you have to bounce to a tape deck what strange it from tape deck take that tape putt it in the recorder it a be on track 1 and 2 my ideal is just record over 2 again so you can get 3 more tracks to record over

you're voice like lou reed from the velvet underground

Cuanto vale nuevo

Can your finished product be transferred to garage band?

Wow! That's tiny!

Lekker, pik