When I started out writing/recording music, my friend and I were using a Fostex X-18 4-track recorder. I've hankered after those days many, many times since. Even though I now use Ableton, and have enough processing power to record as many audio tracks as I wish, there was something about needing to plan ahead on a four track, and the sound from the recordings.

Yesterday, i vibed hard with my yamaha MT-50, when I brought it into my bathroom in order to use my tub as a literal reverb tank, recording a small amp placed in the tub. The sound turned out really cool. I truly think the inherent limitations of tape recorders like these, having no onboard effects, allows for a very different experience than using a DAW. An experience which at its best really inspires you to make music. The portastudio is very much a performers' recorder which in my opinion is much more fun as opposed to MIDI programming which at least for me really halts my creative process

I used mine as a microphone amp for vocals and for direct injection for guitars, bass, keyboards, and drum programming.

Tapes are amazing archival mediums. So much better than SD cards or Harddrives. This is why it is so much easier to go back to an old 4 track or 8 track recording, toss it into your 4track or 8track recorder and mess around with it, rather than loading a project file in a DAW or having to manually re-arrange and line up every single recorded track again. So from a practical standpoint it is VERY handy to have your recordings all on a tape and stored.

Excellent Video and info Landon!!! Thanks!

great video, landon. I’ve watched many of your videos multiple times. you’re one of the only people on youtube making videos on these machines. I think if you can’t make a song on a 4 track, you need to practice more. anyone who says they’re only good for a paper weight probably makes boring music. possibly a cynical outlook, I suppose i’m just biased (pun intended)

I use to play the tape reverse and send the vocal to a Delay / Reverber and record it in another track. The same effect is used by Ozzy Osboune vocals in Perry Manson.

I usually use my 4 Track to record ideas and stuff that doesn't require more tracks. I also use it to create analog Stereo Master Mixes and have a real analog master tape with 9,5cm/s speed while at the same time recording the mix to a digital recorder as well and creating 2 identical mixes at the same time. One analog, one digital. All in one go. I'm using a Yamaha MT400 which has a selection switch to chose between recording 4 tracks or 2 tracks Stereo (basically normal cassette recording mode). This is what i use to create a tape that could be played back in any normal tapedeck, should you need to transfer it to the digital domain again and don't have a 4 Track recorder available. With the only thing left to do is to double the speed of the digitized recording afterwards, to have the correct speed again.

Tascam 424 MKII over here. I use it on a fairly regular basis. I like tweaking knobs and the sound and I'm just familiar with it.

I grew using the 424 mkii but I always loved the look of the older tascams with VU meters. Are they less reliable or have any noticeable strengths or weaknesses? Would love to know either in a comment or future video. Thanks!

A paper weight?