Rhett has taken the dive off the cliff... Modular synth into tape machine... We will see you in a few years Rhett!

This makes me so happy.

My father surprised me with a 388 for my 40th birthday. He said, I told you I get you a studio it just took me a little longer than expected. Mine is pristine and even included the original factory manual with hand drawn schematics. Really cool

Recorded my first studio session ever in 1987 on one of these. I was 16 and few of us had a rap group back then. We carried a drum machine, a turntable and records on the bus to a studio all the way across town (Baltimore). It took us 2 bus rides, a subway, another bus and a cab to get there. My father came to pick us up because we missed the first bus we needed to get back home. Fun times... EDIT - Now I want one just for the warmth it gave!!!

I still have the one I bought in '87. I wore it out until the recording heads had to be lapped, and again two years later. And then when I needed it a third time in '96, the tech said it was hard to find parts. I was on it all the time. Many VU meters had burned out lights. But I learned SO much.

When I was young and just starting on my musical journey, I was given Hi Fi gear, speakers, fx pedals etc. I made use of them until I destroyed them or they crapped out. People may think I'm an idiot, I have never sold anything.... I have given away, guitars, pedals, monitor speakers, digital recording systems, patch bays, eq's, compressors, anything to people who are going to use it and benefit from those things. The only thing I never passed on was my Tascam Porta 1.... used it until it died. It was such a fantastic tool which allowed me to experiment, learn, expand , play and generally gave me so many years of creative fulfillment that I can honestly say that it was the one piece of equipment that totally transformed my life.

Rhett, it is so pleasing to see you get this video out there. I feel comfortable again, building music on tape regardless of what has happened to the digital audio space in the last 20-30 years. That tape forces a performance to be real and truthful to the moment. I own a few portastudio’s and they always keep me interested in who is doing things with TASCAM products. Thanks man. PS. There are 138 comments here so far and they are awesome to read.

Thanks for always taking us down the best rabbit holes. We go ever so willingly and always learn so much.

Love seeing the Moog sound studio. Hooked to my OP-1 Field for the committing of takes. Priceless artistic integrity and imperfection. Good on you, Rhett! Love the pass it on idea too! For the love, baby! Is all about the jams!!

I understant everything about this piece of gear that you described , the adhd hours glued to the phone looking up for what the hell is that machine , the moment you find one and go test it and OMG it sound awesome , the glorious moment you put it in your car trunk ... I wish that mine was free like yours but the seller was a very nice guy and sold it to me at a fair second hand price not giving attention to the hype , he even gave me a month to gather the money whilst people were calling him all day telling they could come fetch it immediately , he really was a nice guy . It is a unique piece of gear that definitely has a color , you like it or you don't . It is the perfect example of "don't fight it , go with the flow'

Wow! I'm totally impressed! i never ever thought I'd see you using the Moog Trifecta! Cool that you got this tape machine.

I absolutely LOVE the vibe of a good tape machine. This is awesome and what a blessing from RJ 💪.

I just listened to the album you linked in your description. Sounds really good and I do like the songs as well. Great video, thanks for sharing!

This video was amazing man. You’re soaking all this up like a sponge. Perfect for your studio and production goals ❤

This is the definition of the perfect KZfaq video to a guy like me. Thanks bro. You have consistently given us amazing videos for years now and you have taught me so much about my hobby I truly have grown as a musician and I have you to thank.

Thank you 🙏 for producing this man. A great piece of history and gear. I still have my tascam cassette 4 track machine. Haven’t used it in over 20 years but with a little cleaning and tlc i am certain she still works just fine.

Back in the late 90’s I had a tascam 488. That thing made the best sounding demos. Not as easy to get sound down as ableton but it sounded so good. I’m wanting a 388 after this video.

This is one of my favorite vids you have done! That thing is so cool!

Great video. Looking forward to listening to what you do with it!

Great video! It brought me back to 1995 where I have started learning recording techniques on this Tascam 388. I ended up releasing my 1st CD in 1996 from it. Thank you Rhett.

Fantastic. That looks a great piece of kit. I have a few friends that have been recording on portastudios for some years. Happy for you.

Bad ass , That’s funny man, I’ve seen that thing in the background on R.js live streams and even made a comment that he should do a show about it. I’d love to see more content like this , thanks Rhett.

Ooooh that warmth! And I love what you are doing with it...And the previous owner was so nice and talented. Thank you Rhett.

Such a cool thing to see. Hoping to see a lot more of it on the channel! I had a Tascam 4 track in the 90s and I CANNOT find the damn thing. I’d love to have it back now

Loved this video, your joy and appreciation for this machine is bursting off the screen 😊 And I can so relate to the week long deep dive feeling, although in my case it's usually about different things than gear 😄

I'm an old Tascam lover from back in the 80s. I still have my PortaOne and my 424. I also did not know about the 388 until just a few years ago. I would have loved to have had this monster back in the mid 80s. I did good demos with the 4trks, but the 388 would have been incredible to have back then. Or even now, like how you're enjoying it. That was so damn nice of RJ, even though there are some problems with it and you'll have to keep up on maintenance, it's a win win for you both. You'll be great friends forever! ✌

Love this for you Rhett! I'd love to see some "8 track workflow" type videos, from practical things like "how would you record a 4 piece with drums" to "how could we all apply some of the wisdom of having limitations to in the box production"?

I had my first hit Reggae record with a vocal recording that I did on this machine. We moved on to the cassette eight track a year later but I will always hold the Tascam 388 in a special place in my heart. Subbed

Nice that you took us along for this journey, Rhett. Good stuff. Make more vids like this. Just sub’ed your second channel

Wow, very cool gear! And the story too! And the fact that you gonna give it away like RJ did! Awesome! Greetings from Poland :-)

One of my favourite vids of yours. Excellent

I bought mine new in 87. I used it very heavy until 1998 when I started to try computer recording. I re-recorded over 80 Beatle songs by myself on the 388 over those 11 years. I was in a duo and all my backing tracks were recorded on the 388. I also have a Teac 80-8. I've had the 388 power supply done in 2002. It's still going strong. Great video Thanks.

I was wondering when we would see some synth content from you! Awesome patch. And Mac De Marco is also awesome.

A local music store in my Hometown had a 388 and a Otari MX5050 to book time it was $9 and hour for the 388 and $12 an hour for the Otari. My band in high school did our first record in the 388 room they had and our second record on the Otari since the Otari room had a Soundcraft mixer and 4 compressors. But we always liked the 388 record the best.

Dude this was awesome, really enjoyed seeing the Moog sound studio stuff in addition to the 388.

Can’t wait to see lots of projects on the 388 and see all the process. That’s the real fun

that was a great video. I had mine back in '87 and loved it.

Why am I suddenly not subscribed?!? The hell, love what your doing man I remember all the tascam gear

I still keep a Tascam 38 in my studio for adding tape compression. My band 'The On' recorded an entire album on one (with a late-70s Studiomaster 16:8:2 desk), and it took us eighteen months, from Sept92 to March94, bouncing meticulously as we had string and brass sections, choirs, real Steinways and Harpsichords etc, on top of the regular band stuff. People still comment on how great it sounds... blame George Martin, who I'd spent a day with at my uni in Salford, beginning of 1992, looking at the Peppers tapes for a 25th anniversary 'South Bank Show' special doc. Look forward to you developing '8 track mind'.

Sounds awesome! This video made me miss living in TN, too. Good ol' 40 west. Can't wait to hear what else comes outta that thing Rhett! ✌🤟🤘

ugh, I've wanted one of these for SO LONG. Maybe I'm next to find one? I've been writing songs that I'm so excited about and it would be epic to record a whole album a 388... like WOW. Thanks for this vid!!!

Man, I'm listening to ATL EP right now and I can't describe how incredible it sounds! man, what a beautiful thing that EP is!!! You should have done a Behind the Scenes of that album and the process of recording and producing.

Dude, love the idea of passing it on for free! Awesome.

This video made me happy for Rhett, and pleased he's in my feeds. Some more TLC on this 388 and all is good! What a great piece of kit.

Memories. I got a brand new one of these sometime in the mid 80's after having used a couple of their 4 track machines before that, which I still have. I was able to open a project studio and I was transitioning from a band to a solo act so I no longer needed the 16 channel mixing console for live work so I put it beside this little beast. Recorded many happy albums with it. I used channel 8 to sync a Yamaha midi recorder and it was heaven. I "moved" up to the ADAT 8 track digital machines within a few years using 3 of them for 24 tracks. Then moved to the ADAT 24 track hard drive, also a beast, but sounded quite good for digital. By the early 2000's I had a computer built that was fast enough to put Sonar to work as my main recording medium using a Yamaha DM2000 automated board and two 24 track Hammerfall lightwire interfaces for 48 tracks of bliss!! Still use that rig to this day and it sounds amazing. Still have the 388 but haven't fired it up in many years now. But so many fond memories!!

Awesome video!!!!!!! cheers from Brazil 🥂

Great to see you vibing with the moog studio!

Happiest day of my life was getting reels out of my studio. Glad you love it. Back when it was the only option - not so much for me🤘

I own the TASCAM DP-24SD 24-Track Portastudio and it's such a great piece of kit. Not that I need 24 tracks, but I use it to make my own backing tracks. It's silly, but to record drums, I put a mic on my amp which plays the Beat Buddy drum pedal. I catch it on three mics. Right on the speaker, in the rear of the cab and the room. The unit has it's own mix down and mastering to blend in all three. I also use it for paranormal investigations. All my mics work great to capture EVP's. I basically turn the house I am investigating in to one giant sound stage. Mics, pre-amps, cables...works great.

Great video! Would love an updated home studio tour of your bedroom studio!

As a PortaOne Studio owner since 1987, this video makes me smile. Somewhere there are a handful of cassettes that are degraded beyond recognition. I still have the unit, but a drummer i worked with broke it by plugging a power amp into it (I think). Id still like to get it repaired. I also have my dad's TEAC stereo reel-to-reel that needs some TLC, and a box of reel-to-reel tapes id love to hear again. Thanks, Rhett 🙏🏻🤘

Passinf the 388 on to the next person. I love that.

Thanks Rhett, I still have mine. bought it in 1985, in Branson mo…..I still get it out from time to time….I like your analogy…yes, decisions, decisions, when recording tracks, but manipulation of the mix, live is worth it to me.,,,I always record a click track on track 8, premix,ping pong tracks as needed, making eq adjustments as needed…..I wrote many a radio commercial on my Tascam……thought of getting rid of it at times, so heavy. but just keep it, clean it, baby it………It truly is an amazing machine, as amazing as it was back in 85……..Keep up the good work, and take care

I love the old, analog, bulletproof Tascam gear. If you did your part, including maintenance, It just worked. Every time. The parametric EQs on their boards were so great. Thanks.

Wow, a not-so-portastudio from Tascam, never saw this one before! Never knew you were a synth person too! I bought a PRS Standard on the strength of your video but I'm much more a synth player Fantastic video

I still occasionally fire up my Fostex 160 4 track I bought in 1988. I loved that thing so much. After over 35 years it’s still the greatest piece of equipment I’ve ever owned.

Very cool! Never seen one of these before. 🤘

Amazing piece of kit. An absolute classic.

Just recorded a band to my TASCAM 688 and recorded a live video. 8 tracks, room mic, bass, 2 guitars, fiddle, drums (2 mics), and vocals. Worked like a charm.

Great job on that album.. sounds amazing.

I along with a good friend was gifted a 388, about 14 years ago, by someone who's no longer with us. I've done some special recordings with her --- it's how I learned how to record. I haven't used it in quite a while. This inspires me to get it serviced, go find some reels, and fire her up again. Thanks.

That's so much fun to watch! THX I used to record on a Tascam 38 (without the mixer) loved the Sound.

This is awesome. You guitar stuff is certainly good, but I didn't realize you've also gotten into bloops. Kudos for the versatility, don't let the haters get to you!

I had one of these back in 1986 and loved it. Might have to seek one out and get back to basics.

This is fun. Not only is the gear super neat, but there's a story that goes along with it. It's all about the narrative.

I had a 688 that I purchased because a friend of mine in college had one as the heart of his studio and he recorded about 40 maxell xlIIs cassettes worth of music. He died in the late '90s but our friend Kenny had all of the cassettes and kept them safe this whole time. When I heard about that, I put up a GoFundMe in order to buy a 688 and get all that music onto my hard drive. It was funded within hours of me posting the project, we went to a music college so so many people were actually on those tapes and stepped up with cash. I had so much fun working on that project but unfortunately, I had really no use for a 688, let alone the space when I was living in an apartment, they're pretty big units lol, so I sold it on reverb and put the money into Bitcoin for my friend's son. The best part about this whole project is that he died when his son was very young, I think maybe 2 years old or so, so this gave me the opportunity to show him how incredible of an engineer his father was. Old gear is so much more to some people, in this case it was the heart and soul of my friends legacy.

the music on this vid was awesome! feeding the 'analog = magic' mythology! great stuff

That really sounds man! Awesome!

Hi dear Rhett! 😃 This is a new side of you i didn't knew about you, that you like to tweak analog synthesizers and this 388 reel to reel,... i only knew you as a awesome and humble guitarplayer,. Love what i hear here, Much respect and love to you dear Rhett🎸❤🙏

This was going to be my first 8-track back in the day (I had seen Yngwie's when I went to his house during the demoing phase of "Trilogy"), but alas I went with the 688 - the cassette version that came out later. Still wish I had held out, saved up and bought the 388. Then again, I could get one now if I reeeeaallly wanted I guess. Nice to see this all tuned up and working so good, Rhett!

If the only thing this machine had given us was the live to tape series it would be a wonderful story but the idea of a machine that goes from one person to another based on what it gives rather than what it costs is just magical. A few weeks ago I killed our car. Drove into some water and somehow the bow wave from a puddle a few inches deep went straight up the front, into the air intake and into the engine. Dead engine. Dead car. But some people helped us out. Looked after us until we got transport home. Even drove us an hour closer to home to make it easier.. Got the replacement car last week and yesterday helped a family with two young kids get their car out of the mud they had embedded themselves into. We were the only people who stopped to help but I felt duty bound. Someone helped us so we passed it on. But I also put a geas (look it up) on the family. They now owe someone else the same help. It's not hard and it makes the world spin a little better for everyone.

Absolutely incredible.

I bought one of these in 1988. Loved it. Someday maybe I will have one again.

In 1988 I was a student at Indiana University and they had an electronic music class that had a 388 as the centerpiece. Along side that was some roland sequencer/sound module with a keyboard controller and an alesis HR16 drum machine. I could get into the room 24/7 when classes weren't in session. It was quite awesome. I recorded a metal band as my final project but I don't really know what happened to it. I don't think it was ever mixed to stereo because the finals were just showing your work by playing it on the tape machine. I enjoyed the recording process but at the time I was very much a guitar player. I had no idea that being a recording engineer was my future job. My first recorder was a Teac 3340S so the 388 was huge leap forward. Cool machine.

what for a beautiful piece of technical history...!

I love Tascams,I have a 242porta that rocks,and 202porta for tape loops and other Tascam recording units for CD mastering and Tape duplication,the 388 is just the bad mamma jamma of the group,subbed.🗽🤖♥️

At the time they were an amazingly useful thing. And they made solid recordings, as long as you didnt try to do too much or overwork the tape.

Awesome Rhett!!! 💯🤘

Been waiting for this video 😎👍

Rhett, the timeline from RJ to you with all that has gone into creating sounds via the 388 is amazing. I say you need to do a few tracks with you and RJ. That would be to put it bluntly, "badass"

Awesome... loved your synth jams too... The committing to 8 tracks is a big part of the creativity and decision making... far too easy with endless tracks to just keep on "painting"... back in 1986 I had a 244... loved it for my little synth driven tracks... but it 8 tracks would be way more flexible...

I have collected about four of these in the last 20 years. Solid, some re-capping work and the spindles and rollers get funky because of the rubber they used.

It’s all about what gets you excited to make music, enjoy the process! It’s supposed to be fun, sound great, and have some vibe. We’ve all be sold the convenience concept.

This is so rad. I own one of these bad boys and they just have such a cool feel/sound. Would be rad to do a thorough run-through as you dig deeper!

I’ve wanted one of these since 2010 when I got to record on one. These have had a special place in my heart for a long while. Ohey! The Acorn amps guy! Side note, put me on the free eighty-eight list, I’d absolutely rock it in my studio :)

That ATL ep sounds GREAT!!!🔥🔥🔥

I had one, and wish I could get it back! It has a vari-speed control where I sped the tape up to it's max, and it sounded amazing. I AB-ed it to a Tascam 16 track, and I liked the sound of the 388 better. It is warm and fat. Should you decide to let it go, I'd be MORE than happy to take it off your hands for real. Ever so often I daydream about having it back. it's almost impossible to find one. Very cool dude!

Great video! I bought a 388 a couple years ago that was previously owned by Dan & Pat (Black Keys). Evidently they had several of these at one time. I believe many radio hits from the 80s were recorded on the 388, including early work from the Beastie Boys and I /think/ Baby Got Back too. Recording on this is the polar opposite of recording using a DAW, and a refreshing change.

The repair dude sounds like he’s extremely knowledgeable about recorders and extremely expensive lol but definitely worth it!

10:25 I hadn’t thought of the term “percussive maintenance” since my days as a copier tech. Thank you, Rhett.

Great Video. Now I’m missing mine again.😢

LOVE this machine. Many of my clients fear to record on it, but for those who do, damn, what a sound! No extreme highs, no extreme lows, but it still sounds fat, stuff just sounds great and extra "tapey" for lack of a better word. Mostly I've done metal and punk projects on it, and while I know it's not exactly known for those genres it's amazing how flattering it is on all sources. If you have another mix console with busses you can greatly expand the flexibility going into it; for example I'll often have a metric ton of mics on the drums but use the busses on my console to go down to just two tracks. That leaves you with a bunch of open tracks. Obviously the unit has its own buss system but you're limited to 8 channels at a time. So the console is handy. It also forces you to commit and forces a singular performance, which is a really, really great way of recording, and in my opinion, leads to a better vibe on the finished product. Also works great in a hybrid situation, where you dump the basic tracks to your DAW and add overdubs in the box.

Atta boy Rhett, it’s about the music, the vibe. A take that says it well does not need to be perfect.

PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME after your done enjoying it that is LOL My dad used one for years in the late 80s and 90s. He was a DJ and made all of his jingles and commercial works using this board. My dad was my best friends and sadly passed away a couple years ago but I came across a good amount of Tascam 388 reels and Ampex 457. I never got to use one myself but the first one I can afford I will hopefully snag. I went down the same rabbit hole as you. I even feel"somewhat" confident in repairing one as long as it isn't a cracked board :D Since I have been in most of the 388 groups luckily tend to know some good Ol dioxit d5 can bring back some life. Loved the video Rhett but hopefully this doesn't make it harder for us poor 388 lover to get our hands on one

Rhett, I’ve said it before. You should be scoring films. Your instrumental pieces are perfect soundtrack material.

I restored a Tascam M208 free-to-me mixer that is very similar (without tape). Deoxit on all removable ribbon cables and pin connections. Also deoxit in the PAD buttons fixed some issues. Non-functioning headphone amp brought back to life with new caps in that section. And the best part new LED lamps in the meters.

I had the Tascam 388 which was also called the Studio 8 by the way. I had one customer who wanted me to record Handel's Messiah in a cathedral. I carried the Tasm 388 to the church, used two Rode NT5 mics and recorded the concert. It came out great. I loved the way music sounded when recorded through it as it had a warmer (duller) sound. Here are my thoughts on it. The mic pres are clean but not too clean or sterile. Nothing amazing about them but nothing bad either. They don't have that sparkled top end but have a slight warmer mids. The EQ is one of the weak things about this unit. They are ok, but I have many plug in EQ's including the Cubase Studio EQ which are much more powerful which include hp filters. The EQ is a little grainy, but it does the job. The transport worked very well, and I never had an issue with my machine. It was fun using reel to reel even though it took longer to record a song because you needed to wait for the machine to get to the beginning of the song with rewind. In using tape, the more you redo a part over and over again, you start to lose the high end a little. I always cleaned the tape heads and I demagnetized them after a certain amount of time. I bounced tracks all the time to get more tracks to work with. I used it with a Roland R8 drum machine with this unit. But once drum software came out like the original BFD drums, this unit started to be more limited compared to what the latest technology had to offer. Unlimited tracks with Cubase, so many EQ's, reverbs, and compressor plugins to use on every track. Then with 24-bit recording which was cleaner and had more headroom. I had a Alesis Quadraverb that I used with the 388 but it seemed like working with a dinosaur compared to DAW recordings that not only offered so many more features, but it was faster to record things as well. One concern after using this for a couple of years was the heads started to get worn and it would have cost a good junk of change to upkeep the unit. Since I needed money to switch over to Cubase with a A/D, D/A box with mic pre's, I sold my Tascam 388. I wish I could have kept the machine to do special recording projects with it. In addition, you could get the 2 bus out and input it into Cubase. Then add plug ins and drum software like Superior Drummer 3. Having a hybrid studio with Tascam 388 and Cubase would have been interesting to do at times. I will admit it, I miss the Studio 8.

Beautiful old machine! I had the 488 MkII and a Zoom2020 patched into the effect send return of the recorder, on the U4-2 patch of the Zoom sounded so lush on electric guitar it was incredible. The old 388 might do well with a visit from a de-gaussing wand ;-)

Looks like a massive 244. Loved the parametric eq on the 244.

I’m a believer. ATL EP sounded great. Very warm but clean. I volunteer to be the next steward!!!