There can be no doubt that, in the minds of the home recording masses, the classic four-track cassette machine is still the Teac Portastudio Model 244. They started it and it seems that they intend to finish it with their newest offering, the Portastudio 246 (see news page for details). How much add-on sophistication can the humble cassette format justify? Are we in danger of having a Rolls Royce with the heart of a Mini? Maybe it's time to take the Portastudio idea to its next logical step.

If Teac consider themselves lords of the multitrack cassette market, they would have to concede that the Fostex A-8 has found its mark most convincingly as the home recordist's eight-track machine; even if it is largely due to its low price.

And now, after all but sneering at the idea of the 1/4" eight-track format, Teac have taken the plunge with what amounts to their new eight-track Portastudio, the Tascam Model 388. Basically an 8 track 1/4" tape deck built into an 8:8:2 mixer, the 388 is more like the Akai 1212 than anything else, though with a somewhat more practical design and a virtually 50% price tag. It's probably worth mentioning that it was actually a pre-production model which arrived with no owner's manual and in fact precious little information at all. Therefore I can't substantiate my comments with specifications or official Teac statements. It's all down to a bit of fumbling around, although I am assured that nothing is going to be changed between this unit and the proper production models.

The Mixer

The mixer section runs along standard Teac lines, being an 8:8:2 with a separate monitor section, although there are a couple of unusual inclusions and omissions to be mentioned. Mike inputs are balanced XLR, line inputs are unbalanced 1/4" jack and each channel has an insert point using two separate 1/4" mono jack sockets for send and return. This use of jacks for the breakpoints is certainly progress from Teac's original scheme of using a pair of phono sockets with a link lead for this purpose, though some might have preferred to see the more or less standard format of a single stereo jack socket using the tip as send and the ring as return. The latter method is possibly a little more economical in terms of connectors, and you have less plugs to insert operationally. On the other hand it requires special 'Y' leads to be made up, whilst with the 388 you can feel safe in simply making an enormous bunch of jack-to-jacks; and you can never have too many of those blighters.

I find it a little disconcerting that there are no level dropping pads before the mike amps and that the input level trim pots only effect the mike inputs leaving the line inputs with no means of gain control. When recording, if possible, I like to set each channel fader (and group fader if they exist) at its zero point and then adjust each input control to achieve the desired level going to the multitrack. In this way you not only establish the best gain structure for the mixer but you also safeguard yourself against inadvertently knocked faders — you know that they should all be on zero. When using, for instance, the separate outputs on a drum machine, you probably won't have any control over their levels, and so you are asked to assume that they will match the mixer's inputs adequately without adjustment. With all the different 'standard' line levels abroad (-20dB, -10dB, 0dB and +4dB) this seems a little hit and miss to me.

The Eq section is three-band sweepable ranging from 50Hz to 15kHz using three sets of dual concentric pots. There can be no complaints here — it all works very well and offers a good level of control.

There are two auxiliary sends, one post fade for effects and one pre/post switchable allowing it to be used for foldback during recording and effects during mix down (more on this point later). There are also a couple of effects returns to bring effects back into the desk without taking up any input channels. Bearing in mind that there are only eight channels to cope with an eight-track machine, comprehensive returns are important, and it would have been nice to have at least one of these routable to the multitrack. I say this because when working with a limited number of effects units, as most 1/4" eight-track users are, it is often necessary to record each effect on the multitrack as the relevant instruments go down. Routable returns make this a lot simpler, but on other hand, in practice it is unlikely that channel eight will be in use until final mix down and so it could be used as a dedicated effects return until that point. In this way you also get the benefit of full Eq and effects sends for creating more complicated looped effects such as stereo repeat echoes etc.

Strange Routings

Some strangeness is to be observed with the channel routing: It consists of four buttons, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8, allowing any channel to be routed to any or all of the eight group/track buses. There is also a L-R button for routing to the main stereo outputs, but if any one of the channels has this button depressed it negates all group routing on the board. It's not that you can't send a channel to a group/track — the group meter continues to kick most convincingly — the problem is that there's no way of listening to it because the monitor section is rendered dead. The ramifications of this fact are far reaching.

For example, you can't have half the board routed via the groups with the other half going straight to the stereo/monitor outputs. This is unfortunate, not to mention unusual, because it is well known as standard procedure that after doing the initial backing track only a few input channels are generally needed for overdubbing which frees the others to be used as more comprehensive monitor channels with full Eq and auxiliary sends, etc. For this you need to be able to mix group and stereo routings across the board. In its defence, the mixer does include a monitor section consisting of eight gain controls and eight pan controls — but no Eq or auxiliary sends.

In effect, then, you are forced to use the monitor section throughout the backing track and overdubbing, although with only eight channels available you might well have to do that at some point anyway. In a 'proper' studio, it would be desirable to set the board up so that the musician(s) had a completely separate mix in the headphones to the engineer's monitor mix. In this way the engineer can decide, for example, to listen to just the vocals as they are being recorded, without disturbing the singer. This can be achieved with a relatively unsophisticated mixer by using the normal input channels, routed to the L-R outputs, as monitor channels (as outlined above), and feeding the artist's cans from the auxiliary sends. With the 388 this isn't possible because during overdubbing the only source for monitoring is the monitor section. Thus you and your artist are required to share the same mix. In many cases this may not matter at all, but it's an unnecessary limitation which comes down to the inability to route to groups and main outputs simultaneously.

As if to add insult to injury, it isn't possible to use these eight sets of monitor gain and pan controls as effects returns/extra inputs, during mixdown. This is such a well trodden path now, it might have been reasonable to expect Teac to include such a useful feature on a major new product, especially when there are no spare channels to be had.

Although there aren't eight separate group output master faders, there are two 'PGM' (programme) masters, one of which controls the overall level of all odd groups whilst the other effects the even groups. This is a good compromise and generally works well in practice.

If you want to use the mixer separately the eight group outputs are available on phono sockets on the rear panel, as are the eight inputs to the tape recorder section should you wish to by-pass all but the two PGM master faders of the mixer. The main stereo outputs are available both as balanced lines at +4dB and unbalanced on phonos at 0dB.

The Tape Recorder

One of the things that Teac are definitely very good at is tape transports. The 388 uses a similar design to the 40 Series, though with slightly less powerful motors, and it's a joy to use and undoubtedly superior to the Fostex A-8. It runs at 7½ips as opposed to the A-8's 15ips, and thus shuttle times are effectively shorter. In addition to a return to zero function, there is also facility for a cue point which can even be entered on the run and then returned to at will with the push of a button. Having entered the zero and cue points the machine can be set to repeatedly cycle between them. This is great for rehearsing overdubs and makes a surprisingly big difference to the ease with which a self-op session can go. It all runs beautifully smoothly and both the RTZ and STC (search to cue) are 'intelligent', in that as they get near to the point, they slow down, thus avoiding overshoot which is a drawback with the A-8.

Choosing to use a 7½ips tape speed is odd in that Teac always claim to aim some way above Fostex with their products, and in many ways the 388 is superior. 7½ips gives twice the record/play time but is bound to have an adverse effect on sonic quality. Dbx noise reduction can be very effective, but it really doesn't like highly transient sounds such as drums and percussion — hi hats in particular — and in this respect the 388 is no exception. The quality coming off-tape is good without noise reduction but definitely too noisy, especially for instruments with a wide dynamic range. To allow selective use of the dbx it is possible to switch it off, or 'defeat' it, for tracks 1-4 and/or tracks 5-8. The idea is that the kit should go down raw while most other things have their noise reduced — as it were. In practice, however, when using an eight-track, the kit will generally go down on a stereo pair of tracks, and then you're left with two tracks (3 & 4) without NR on which you might want to record bass and guitar. With the recording of time code in mind, the dbx can also be individually defeated for track eight. Dolby C does appear to be more tolerant of inaccuracies in record/replay linearity, and thus is more suited to this lower budget end of the market. In this respect, the Fostex has the upper hand.

It's a two-head machine, as is the A-8, which makes it tricky to adjust its electronics and also means that you can't monitor off-tape as you're recording.

Conclusion

At the moment I am working with an A-8 based system at home which I had to take apart in order to test the 388. In doing this exchange it became very clear just how nice it is not to have all those interconnection cables to worry about. True, once you've plugged everything up, as long as your soldering is good, you arguably don't have to worry about it again. However, if you can't leave it all set up permanently, the convenience of having everything self-contained is important.

In a way the 388 is more compact than a mixer A-8 system, but the fact that it's all in one box can make it effectively more cumbersome. Subtracting £1,550 as the approximate cost of a fully blown A-8, you are being asked to pay £1,250 for an 8:8:2 mixer, and that isn't cheap.

The combination of slow tape speed and dbx makes the audio side of the tape machine a little more fussy than the A-8 which somehow throws a bit of a shadow over proceedings. I wonder if the final production models will be better aligned and thus perform better? If that turns out to be the case, we will certainly let you know. The mixer, too, whilst almost being good, is a little awkward in use because of the points mentioned earlier.

My feeling is that there's a great machine lurking somewhere inside the 388, and that a Mark II model might well see it more fully realised. Finally, here's some spec based on that supplied with the machine:

Wow and flutter: 0.05% WRMS
Freq response: 35 — 15kHz + 3dB, at -10VU
S/N Ratio: 90dB with dbx
Dimensions: 837mm x 219mm x 641mm
Weight: 38kg
Remote and sophisticated autolocate also available.

For: Excellent tape transport; easy portability; no interconnecting cables; good channel equalisation
Against: Unnecessarily limited mixer; fussy audio performance

TASCAM MODEL 388 - RRP: £2,750