The 4-Track years

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Did you have a 4-track?
Do you still, or did you move on to making music on a computer? Why?
Did you ever think that having a 4-track was the ultimate lifestyle accesory?
Is the 4-track a well covered area in the history of music/technology?

I was just thinking how fun my uni years were when I used to spend evenings and weekends recording songs on my second hand fostex. I still have a 4-track now, but it's far more elaborate than my old machine and I hardly seem to have the time to record anymore. *sigh*

Talk about recording songs in your bedroom!

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

i hate bold

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a little Tascam 4 track Portastudio which I bought brand new for about $190, and as much as I love the thing (I have done a lot of stuff on it lately), I wouldn't mind some new equipment--when it comes to compositional clarity, sometimes the ol' 4-track just doesn't cut it (not to poo-poo what it can do, it's just that it is really hard to get good vocals on one without some compromises).

As for bedroom songwriting/recording, what better place to do it? I have finished making some William Burroughs inspired cut-up music, as well as some wonky-tonk poesy, a stomp-bossa-nova song about urinating in the bathtub for pleasure reasons, a "Disco Duck" parody set to Radio Shack keyboard bad techno sounds called "Disco Dyke" and many other things.

I will always have a soft place in me heart for the old 4 track.

― Ashley Andel, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I love my four track. These days I mostly use it to route lines into my computer -- clean up signals, pre-EQ, mix mics to a single track, etc. -- but I very often get the urge to go back to just sitting down with a pair of headphones, one mic, and a guitar and keyboard, which I think is a perfect raw form and inducement to great ideas. Ideas are really all you can work with, at that point, especially if you're really just working with four tracks: you have no choice but to think of really good material.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

hahaha "really"

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to have a Yamaha MT something or other. Nice at the time but I wouldn't want to go back to all that hiss, bouncing etc.

― David (David), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 21:11 (twenty-three years ago)

i have one the same as ashley. i still use it when i have the time, not often, mostly to record band stuff. i miss tinkering away at a solo project though, its been so long. *sigh* i will have to make up for this over the summer. i can't afford a computer, and i'm happy with the gear i've got.

― di smith (lucylurex), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 21:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I have one but rarely ever use it. Because I'm constantly moving my gear from my house to rehearsal and back again, having it always set up is impossible and setting it up takes so long that I lose the urge. Oddly, when I didn't have it I always wanted one, and was sure i'd use it all the time.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a Tascam Portastudio, a Tascam 414 and a Tascam MD 4 track. I love them all. I feel like I play "4 track" more than any one instrument. But I really lwish I had an 8 track

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

4trax rooool! don't really use my yamaha mt????? thing any more (curse you, nuendo) except for one thing -- bouncing guitar after guitar (playing the same thing) to the same track over and over.

sometimes it doesn't work properly (ok, more than sometimes), but when it does, you get the most beautiful, weird sounds come out of the combination ov overtones -- like, what the hell was THAT (, scoob)?! -- that you can then sample and doowutchyalike with...

everyone should be issued one in the 10th grade.

― mbosa, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 02:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i had a 4 track. now i use a computer and a digital 8 track. it was a tascam porta 07. i think. 4 tracks ruled. i don't have it anymore.

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 13:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I bought a used Teac 144 about 6 six years ago. I tried to force myself to strip the music down to it's bare essentials but the BOUNCE kept calling me until I finally gave up and bought a used fostex 8-track reel to reel. The tapes on the fostex have about 18 minutes of recording time so inevitably I'd have to respool the thing, usually with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. I then bought a tascam 788 digital eight track which is much easier to use but it's going to require a decent preamp to get a good sound.

Thread hijack alert (code orange): Anybody know what keyboard can produce the heavy (phat I believe the kids call it) basslines as in hip-hop?

― lawrence kansas, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I bet a Casiotone could, coz Casiotone can do anything!

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Anybody know what keyboard can produce the heavy (phat I believe the kids call it) basslines as in hip-hop?

The best deep basses are often a sine wave (Yamaha DX series and Akai samplers are good for quick access to pure sine waves), possibly mixed with something else if you need it to be properly audible on non full-range systems.

― David (David), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

The only time i messed with something like that was in my bands first rehearsel where we put 2 guitars, a keyboard and a mic to a 8-track and recorded a cover of "Bad Touch". Best band rehearsel EVAH

― vic (vicc13), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 16:51 (twenty-three years ago)

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