So my favourite picker has found this for me but I know nothing about them. It’s a Teac A3440. Obviously I’ve had a google but wondered if anyone had any experience of them? It’s all there and seems to work he reckons (I don’t have it yet) Cheers
With four independent tracks I would say it was designed for a small recording studio rather than home audio. I expect you have seen this already http://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/RecordersTeacA3440.html
I would guess you could just use the appropriate two channels. If you used the other two they would be playing backwards. The most important thing is whether it covers the appropriate tape speed assuming you want play other peoples tapes, which seems to be one of Techmoan's favourite activities. which includes your Teac Did you notice the price in the earlier link. The average garage band would have been more likely to have been using something like this at about 1/4 of the price. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portastudio
Missed that on the first read. $1500! Wow. I’ll watch the linked video, thanks for this. I really have zero clue about this stuff lol
I don't have any of the four track TEACs so I can't help you with it but they are really cool looking machines and you got the sweet Maxell Reel with it. I have three or four stereo units somewhere around here and always enjoyed the look they had. My musician neighbor had two similar to yours, he said they would record the four different tracks and mix down to one track and add more tracks if needed, so the machines usually are found in twos. I also have a Tascam Portastudio 244, I got it cheap years ago and now they are appreciating nicely. It does need a re-belting but it works on the same principle of mixing down to one track and starting over adding more tracks, although at a budget price which was revolutionary in 1980. I do know that once you record on the Portastudio you will only be able to play back that tape and hear it normally on the Portastudio. Sometimes I get these dirt cheap because the owner doesn't know that the tension bar needs tape on it to work. Without the tape threaded all the way, there's no tension on the bar and the controls won't work even when plugged in.
An article I spotted yesterday pointed out that most of the Beatles tracks were recorded on four track machines in the manner Mister X describes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles'_recording_technology
I was talking with another studio guy and he mentioned that recording tape was ultra-expensive and they would re-use tape when they didn't like the recording. The TEACs probably brought down the price of recording considerably with their use of normal reel-to-reel tape, the same way the Portastudio brought it down even more with the use of common cassette tapes.
