Hi, i just bought myself a tascam porta02 MkII 4 track recorder. Although kinda simple to use it isn't half as simple as i thought it would be. Its the first bit of recording equipment i have really owned so i have no experience with this kinda of thing.

It has a guitar input socket which baffles me as i am not totally sure of its usefulness. does the same thing as the other 2 input sockets as far as i can hear. Also my guitar sounds horribly fuzzy when i record anything with distortion using the direct recording method. Anybody got any more info on the 2 things i have just mentioned?

Also i intended to use the tascam for a lot of bedroom recording at fairly low volumes but it seems it will only record at medium to high volumes.

obviously i am new to this thing so i won;t be getting the best results out of just yet but does anyone have any tips for me please? either regarding this sepcific tascam product or just low budget bedroom level guitar recording in general. thanks

Casette recording is going to sound a bit "fuzzy" compared to a digital recorder, because it is analog and therefore has that vintage fuzz that people either love or hate. As for tips, adjust you EQ and Gain while recording direct, normally I have found that I need to lower the bass and high frequencies whilst recording direct to a recorder. Just play with it some more.

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i have that same 4 track and i jsut use it as a volume adjuster before sending the output to the computer. it goes mic- tascam- computer- software
it works out real nice.

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what do you use to connect the tascam to your computer and what software do you currently use? also this is probably a dumb question but would i noitce a great difference if i bought a decent mic?

plug one of these into the back
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B...SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
its a Y cable. you plug the red and white into the back left of the tascam
and you plug the other end into the microphone in part of your computer.


I plug my mic into the guitar in jack because otherwise, if I use line 1 or 2, it will only be in the left or right speaker, guitar 1 does both, then you can adjust the volume of both speakers.
the program i use is the apple program, garageband. It works really well. If you dont have a good computer then i'm sure there are many different recording programs that will work for you on windows.


get a shure sm57, they are very good recording mics.

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Well, I have the same recorder. I have no problem making it sound clear. I have a Shure 57 Mic. I plug the mic into the tascam. I mic up my speaker cab around the cone of one of my speakers and play guitar. Set the levels on the tascam so that the red bar is almost fully red when you go to the extreme level of your playing.

I then plug in a red/white cable from the tascam and plug the other end into my stereo in the line out jack.

I get an incredible sound when i'm done recording. Sounds very clear. You don't need too loud a volume but for tube amps, the louder, the better they sound.

Try using a cassette head cleaner for the tascam. It may be dirty!

I have never plugged my guitar into it. That's why i bought the mic.

Take a look for the manual online. it should help you out.

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I use this
http://media.zzounds.com/media/bran...855b8dd8847.jpg

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