Using a cassette recorder/mixer as guitar input

Hello there.

I'm in the process of getting a Tescam Portastudio 414, this fellow right here:

I'll primarily use it to run samples and tracks through it to get that much desired analogue warmth and tape saturation.

But I know it can also be used as a pre-amp thing to record guitar/bass/alike through it. My main question is: How will it sound if I record guitar through the Portastudio and straight into my laptop? Will it distort and saturate the sound?

I want to be able to do live guitar loops with a very dirty and gritty analogue sound, such as Aidan Baker. All though he uses pedal effects, I want to be able to use various effects in Ableton Live/alike.

Cheers.

I'm no expert on this field but I suppose that if you were to record your guitar onto a casette tape through the Tescam Portastudio 414 and then afterwards record that into Ableton you would get a lot more saturation as the cassette tape (if old) would increase the saturation. But be aware that you'll quickly end up with a LOT of tape hiss if you plan on doing a lot of bouncing inside or to/from the Portastudio.

  On 7/24/2011 at 5:33 PM, Squee said:

But be aware that you'll quickly end up with a LOT of tape hiss if you plan on doing a lot of bouncing inside or to/from the Portastudio.

"Bouncing inside" as in how? When it comes to the live looping I was talking about, I would plug my guitar to the Portastudio, which would be connected to my laptop running Ableton Live with effects. Guitar -> Portastudio -> Laptop w/Ableton Live which records it all. No signals would be sent back into the Portastudio.

  On 7/24/2011 at 5:12 PM, Hasselbalch said:

How will it sound if I record guitar through the Portastudio and straight into my laptop? Will it distort and saturate the sound?

 

i guess it will sound clean, the tape is what makes it distort and saturate...

  On 7/24/2011 at 6:05 PM, Hasselbalch said:

When it comes to the live looping I was talking about, I would plug my guitar to the Portastudio, which would be connected to my laptop running Ableton Live with effects. Guitar -> Portastudio -> Laptop w/Ableton Live which records it all. No signals would be sent back into the Portastudio.

if you don't burn on tape it won't have that vintage sound you're after... the portastudio will work simply as a mixer.

you could use the portastudio as a mixer if you want to be really cheap, the real time audio out will not have the tape audio as far as I would assume. Then you could take that unaffected output to a cheap tape to cd adapter in a cheap cassette player like this

/cheap-tape-saturation-hack-delicious-distortion-with-a-tape-to-cd-adapter/

(That idea was posted here recently btw)

  On 7/24/2011 at 5:12 PM, Hasselbalch said:

Hello there.

 

I'm in the process of getting a Tescam Portastudio 414, this fellow right here:

 

 

I'll primarily use it to run samples and tracks through it to get that much desired analogue warmth and tape saturation.

 

But I know it can also be used as a pre-amp thing to record guitar/bass/alike through it. My main question is: How will it sound if I record guitar through the Portastudio and straight into my laptop? Will it distort and saturate the sound?

I want to be able to do live guitar loops with a very dirty and gritty analogue sound, such as Aidan Baker. All though he uses pedal effects, I want to be able to use various effects in Ableton Live/alike.

 

 

Cheers.

there is a startling level of ignorance going on here!!

1. PortaStudio is just a 4-channel mixer with a tape deck wired up to it.

2. Each of these 4 channels will have a pre-amp. If you run audio through it, it will get distorted. I doubt the PortaStudio's preamps will be gold in this department. It will probably not be the distortion you're looking for

3. If you record stuff really loud to the tape, then play it back, it will sound a different kind of distorted. This is probably more what you mean. Squee is quite correct in saying this distortion will also come along with HISSSSSSSSSssssssss

what you actually want to know: micing up guitar amps is a royal pain in the ass. so, why do people bother??? because guitar recorded direct sounds like SHIT. people would not bother micing up a guitar amp if it were better than fisting a portastudio. do not fist a portastudio. i think what you are actually looking for is a cheap tube preamp, such as the PreSonus BlueTube. that will let you ~GRUNGE OUT~ your ELEKTRO GUITAR PRODUCER VOL 3 sample pack without having to fuck about with cassettes.

  On 7/25/2011 at 8:40 AM, green3y3d said:

you could use the portastudio as a mixer if you want to be really cheap, the real time audio out will not have the tape audio as far as I would assume. Then you could take that unaffected output to a cheap tape to cd adapter in a cheap cassette player like this

/cheap-tape-saturation-hack-delicious-distortion-with-a-tape-to-cd-adapter/

(That idea was posted here recently btw)

that's a much better idea than a portastudio, but i still say just buy a cheap tube preamp

lol at using a portastudio but omitting the actual tape part. just like, don't use the portastudio mate.

The tape-to-CD adapter sounds very much interesting, I'll look into that.

Thanks for the enlightement, though it made me feel like a n00b.

  On 7/25/2011 at 1:16 PM, Hasselbalch said:

The tape-to-CD adapter sounds very much interesting, I'll look into that.

 

Thanks for the enlightement, though it made me feel like a n00b.

You're welcome, and sorry for the tone. My pen is harsh and you're running into my thinly-veiled contempt for PortaStudios