Hello fellow songcrafters

[chapperz66]

Yes, that's the one, although I bought the rack mount that it all fitted inside.  The mixer slid out from underneath the main recorder section, and it had a nifty routing switch section to make it easier to bounce internally. 

I'm sure I will have loads of tapes that I recorded with it somewhere.  I'll try and hunt them out - and then see if I can borrow a cassette player to play them on.

Paul

[Black Mary]

Yeah it looks well laid out & user friendly. Bouncing on my Tascam always involved lots of panning tracks left or right. Hope U manage to dig out some tapes. I'll see what I can unearth too

[Black Mary]

Welcome, finally, Black Mary.  You already have a glossary entry named after you, but I haven't properly introduced myself.

I had a Yamaha version of your Tascam casette 4 track.

And I still have a Ross 4x4--a lesser known, but similar 4-track recorder.  I also still have my Roland TR-505 drum machine that I used when I was using the 4x4.

I still have all of those working cassettes too. I'm thinking, as an experiment, of resurrecting one of my old songs, using all of the original tracks, by dumping them into digital files, and also dumping the drum data via MIDI into Garage Band.

The idea of it sounds like bringing a dinosaur back to life from it's bones and bits of DNA.

Hi Ted. Thanks for the welcome. I love this site. Wish I'd known about it sooner. Yeah Resurrecting the old 4track is definately 'Jurrasic Park' lol.But that's the way we had to do it in the olden days. It was just fantastic being able to record overdubs. Hope U manage to extract the DNA from Ur old cassettes
John

[chapperz66]

I found an old picture of the MT44.  Its the lump under the record deck.  I also just noticed in the picture the placement of a cassette on top of the speakers at the side of the recorder.  That probably doesn't bode too well for the condition of my tapes - assuming that I find them....

[Black Mary]

I see it. U had a great set up. Could U drop in ok? was there a footswitch for that? My Tascam had 1 but could never get it to work. I literally had to put the 4track on the floor & use my toes 2 press rec & play at the right time lol.  This is how we had to rig it to solve the problems.

[chapperz66]

It did have the facility to set a record point but it was pretty hopeless to be honest and I gave up on it - and tried to live without drop-ins.  I can't quite remember how it was supposed to work - but I do remember it didn't work in any usable sense!  I guess it was the combination of the mechanical counter and the relatively slow tape speed of cassettes. 

Having said all that, it was a great piece of kit at the time.  In some ways having limited functionality made things so much more immediate.  Now I've got a 16 track BR and a couple of keyboards with 16 track midi recorders built in and yet my work rate (in terms of finished songs) is a fraction of what it was.  Things do sound a bit better though....

Paul

[Black Mary]

WOW|!! We could'v only dreamed of that setup not so long ago. Make our forefathers proud. I'm jealous What's Ur plans? I'm intrigued?

[Black Mary]

It did have the facility to set a record point but it was pretty hopeless to be honest and I gave up on it - and tried to live without drop-ins.  I can't quite remember how it was supposed to work - but I do remember it didn't work in any usable sense!  I guess it was the combination of the mechanical counter and the relatively slow tape speed of cassettes. 

Having said all that, it was a great piece of kit at the time.  In some ways having limited functionality made things so much more immediate.  Now I've got a 16 track BR and a couple of keyboards with 16 track midi recorders built in and yet my work rate (in terms of finished songs) is a fraction of what it was.  Things do sound a bit better though....

Paul

I can't wait wait 2 hear Ur next composition mate. Dig the old cassettes out. I already posted 1 to break the ice.

[chapperz66]

WOW|!! We could'v only dreamed of that setup not so long ago. Make our forefathers proud. I'm jealous What's Ur plans? I'm intrigued?

Yes it's pretty amazing how technology marches on.  My plans?  Well - Nicky (Nightcaller) and I are getting near to completing our album of re-recorded False Prophet music which we intend to get professionally duplicated (in fairly limited quantities).  We will send it off to a few contacts who might be interested and we might even try to sell a few.  In all honesty it's a bit unlikely that any of us would be in a position to gig this stuff - in the very (extremely) unlikely event that we were asked to do so.  We don't even live in the same country any more and as you probably gathered, we are not in our first flush of youth.  I think I'd need a roadie just to carry my oxygen and defibrilator!  (This is a joke - I'm reasonably fit really although I believe the Stones have this).

I guess I'll just carry on knocking out solo stuff and any interesting colaborations that crop up.  I'm semi-retired after a career in business so I should find time to knock out a tune or two now and then.

Where did you post your old tune from the days of tape?  I had a quick look but didn't spot it.

Paul

[Black Mary]

WOW|!! We could'v only dreamed of that setup not so long ago. Make our forefathers proud. I'm jealous What's Ur plans? I'm intrigued?

Yes it's pretty amazing how technology marches on. 

Paul

Hi Paul. Just listened to 'The Source'. Rock at it's finest once again. And you have an 'albums worth' of this fantastic Pomp/Prog Rock??? It's truly awesome. U'v got progrock solid foundations. I can hear them. Listening to 'Nightcaller' now. I wouldn't know where to start composing a song like this. Absolutely love the flute/Tull section. Inspired !!
Yeah we have different responsibilities & aspirations when we're younger. I'm 45 now. a 20 year old me would have said 'we have different responsibilities and aspirations when we're 'older'.
Both valid. It depends where you are though. I couldn't get a band together either and start gigging again. Dunno if I'd want to actually. This is the best way to do it. On the Net. Virtual collabs or DIY. A lot of great songs have been made this way. Remember Paul MacCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory? Well that wasn't one of 'em  (Oh that 4Track demo was reply #14 on this thread, U'v missed nothing lol).
Anyway mate. Good Luck with the CD. I will be buying it. Prog Rules