What multitrack recorder should I buy?

Analogue or digital?
I'm considering entering a bidding war for a TASCAM 488 (8 track cassette)
*OR* I could just buy a TASCAM DP-03SD (8 track digital, pictured)

Would be grateful for thoughts/advice

Attached: dp03sd.jpg (900x621, 118K)

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A crap analogue will always be worse than a good digital. It depends on your particular setup and goals.

I’m a professional audio engineer. I suggest going the digital route, possibly investing in an interface, a good microphone, and pro tools or logic or reason. If you don’t want to go that route the digital tascam is a good choice

just want to mess around, try and make some catchy tunes, analogue warmth vs ease of use with digital

I only record on my 424. I love recording to tape, it has a much different sound than digital. Some people think it's a pain in the ass but i can't stand working on a daw. Never used a digital 4track though. I've been dying for a 488.

thanks, again it's just a hobby, I remember when I was younger my older cousin had an old Yamaha 4 track and it's like that

Ok, since it’s a hobby you either are going for workflow and ease of use vs aesthetic and sound choice. So it’s between digital and analog, what kind of music do u make?

Yeah, I imagine recording onto cassette is a steeper learning curve, thing is all these old analogue multitrack home recorders are obvs discontinued and they're vintage and all that so they go for a lot of money, and then there's maintenance to consider

I don't really make music, I play piano and guitar

Ok, then either would be a good choice. As a hobbyist you may have more fun with analog (tape loops, tape distortion, etc etc) and with digital you have looping and various digital effects, cutting band pastings etc. many choices to consider. I hope you enjoy, I remember my first dive into recording music.

*cutting and pasting

If you were in my shoes which one would you go for?
I'm also thinking about maintenance on the 488, having to get it repaired, all the affordable old cassette multitracks online are 'used' and with no return policies, I'm thinking dp03sd but I'm not sure, also I'm unlikely to win this bidding war, idk which one to go for

I’d say go for the 488 and get the maintenance on it, or any other reel to reel tape player for fidelity and also just because they’re cool as fuck. The classic Tascam portastudio 144 or whatever they’re called are amazing if they’re in good condition. Just keep your eyes peeled, good tape machines pop up all over the place on eBay and craigslist, and once u get the right tools in terms of fixing and cleaning them it’s easy to do it yourself. It’s usually a matter of replacing the motor and the belt like on a turntable.

Bear in mind that at 1/8-width of a cassette per track, you're going to get worse fidelity than even a standard stereo cassette. I'd go digital. There's no reason not to, except "analogue authenticity."

Yeah maintainence is expensive and difficult to find (I'm learning to do it myself), and tape decks or 4tracks always come with a couple problems. I'd recommend a 414, they're a good deal cheaper.

OP here, think I'm going to go with the digital

Or should I go for the analogue?
FUUU
I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go digital

Check the other points provided here and go from there. It’s more a choice of practicality and work flow and sound choices with analog vs digital.

You can always get a cheap tape player and run your mix thru that to get that lo fi sound

I kind of like that low fidelity sound though, like early Ween or haunted graffiti or Daniel Johnston tapes, it has a kind of inherent charm to it, but maybe that's just conceptual laziness on my part, and part of me wants to go digital just to rebel against that way of thinking, like 'hey, I live in a digital age, I have to make it work, I don't want to go backwards'

Is this true? Could I run individual tracks through a tape player into a digital multitrack input

No you do what feels best for your art. A lot of music from around ten years ago utilized this aesthetic such as hypnagogic pop (James ferraro/emeralds/OPN) and shitgaze (early wavves).
Yes bands do this all the time. Often time bands record to professional tape players for the natural compression and sound and dump the takes into a digital workstation. It’s very common. And if you’re just doing it for the lofi aesthetics than that’s super normal too

thanks for info, in that case for me it's got to be the 03sd

Glad I could help!

Tape multitrackers are heavily overpriced currently

>analogue warmth
Just kill yourself.

I agree. It ebbs and flows in terms of popularity and coolness, much like analog synthesizers.

i've had a DP-00DEX for about a week now. The mics sound really good on it, haven't tried out the xlr/line inputs yet.