How a 4-Track Cassette Recorder Works

Series Summary

Have you decided that you want to give home recording a shot, but you don’t know where to start? You’ve heard of the digital music revolution, but you know also know that analog is great for warmth and tone. So you choose to go with analog but are not sure what recorder you should go with? Why not try a 4-track cassette recorder? This device is compact and easy to use, utilizing both sides of any cassette tape to produce four channels of surprisingly good sound.

In this free home recording video, our experienced musician demonstrates how to set up and use a 4-track cassette recorder. He shows you how to connect all of the cables, then how to manipulate the controls to get exactly the sound that you want. Perfect for recording demo tapes of your band or even solo performances you can edit before sending off to your friends and family.

Video Transcript

"What we have here is a TasCam four track porta-studio, and basically what this machine does is, you have four tracks so you can record four different things. And everything is recorded to a standard two track cassette tape. What it actually does when it records, it's recording, a two track tape has two tracks on each side. If side A has two tracks, then side B has two tracks. So you're actually recording on both sides of the tape. So if you were to actually flip the tape over after recording and play it, everything goes backwards. So, right here, tape in the machine, and you have one, two, three and four. This is for each track as far as recording guitar, bass, vocals. Everything is done right here in this one little section of the machine."