Thursday, March 19, 2026

48 thoughts on “Tascam Preamps vs Emulation Pedal #guitar #musicproduction #mkgee

  • I feel like every time this happens the original is always slightly quieter like there a slight LPF on it but has the special sauce and the pedal while nailing the sound is often a bit louder, but also flatter and more sterile. (Sometimes this flips and as far as sonic characteristics go but where if the OG gear is more flatter and louder the new clone will be subdued and a fatter/blanketed but still missing that sauce).

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  • 20 years ago I was in a tough spot I didn't have an amplifier couldn't even afford a zoom 505 I only had a guitar and cables I did however have two old 80s style receivers a Pioneer and a Kenwood I'd input into one one and cranked it and then out of the headphone jack into the auxiliary of the other one to get distortion I was so proud of myself still am and it sounded great❤❤❤ Ingenuity is so rewarding????

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  • Bought mine 414 mk1 for 120€ this year. It had problem with channel 1 not going to tape. The problem was a small chunk of wood in routing switch. It worked like a charm. Then it accidentally from table and became microphonic. FML…

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  • What I'm hearing is that I should hold on to the Tascam Mk II that I got back in 2004

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  • a feature on what used to be a $50 multi-track studio mixer and tape recorder can now be found on a $250 emulator because nobody fucking listened when they said "buying the toys won't make you a better guitarist"

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  • Lucky for me I have a 424 mkII and a 488 mkII. Bought them in the late 2000s because they could do things my crappy computer and Edirol 2i2o couldn't do.
    I've definitely used the Tascam for distortion, but only while recording onto its own tape.

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  • Years ago I read about a band called Sportsguitar who would run their guitars through old stereos or tape recorders through the mic input using a 3.5mm adaptor and holding down record and play without a tape in the cassette player. You can get some interesting sounds through different gear this way too like when I had a Casio keyboard that had a "voice changer" you could use to change the guitar into weird sounds whilst also upping the volume to make it distorted.

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  • People been snobbing solid-state distortion for ever, then they use pedals that are actually solid-state distortion, and now they want this solid-state distortion that doesn't even come from a guitar pedal. And they don't know that John Fogerty and BB King played solid-state. Guitar bros are cooked. Go play some of the latest mini guitar heads, they sound fantastic! And I'm a tube guy, but now we can realize it's just two different flavours. And the real feel of the tube amp mojo is only in the room, not in the recording. Only the digital is an actually different beast in a negative way about feel and dynamics, although very practical.

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  • A few years ago, I had a friend stay at my place.

    He’s kind of a local legend in our rock scene. So, I’m always a bit star struck when he hangs out.

    I showed him my home studio, and he commented on my tascam interface.

    He told me how somebody he knew (another fairly big name, if I’m remembering right) loves their preamps.

    I was pretty confused.

    This made a lot of things click.

    Thank you

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  • Funny thing is, I have a Tascam audio interface, and it's alright, but I never would've thought their preamps are anything special. Replacing them with an SSL12 soon.

    To be fair, old Tascam mixers and tape machines probably used different pres than newer stuff.

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  • They/you got so close it honestly sounds identical. But it's got a tone like when you run a distortion pedal into a hi-Z input. It could sound cool in a parallel FX chain where it's not the dominant distortion tone. Idk what the real appeal is tbh… Do hipsters like shitty guitar sounds..?

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  • That sounds nothing like the Tascam.
    But to be fair it sounds excellent.
    Maybe it has something to do with the EQ but the Tascam had much less top end and sounded looser on the mids. I don't see how the pedal is accurate though. They both sound good. And I'm surprised at how good the Tascam sounds considering it's not meant to do that.

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  • Naah even before Corana the cassette Portastudios were already quite expensive. Definetly not $50. But I've seen several defect units roaming around for sale some years ago, so maybe some of those were priced at maximum around that price? But definetly not for a full functional one. Else I'd bought one of the "cheaper" ones years ago.
    Hopefully nobody's gonna pay $600 for one ????

    And good job making the pedal sound that close. Thank you for that ????

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  • Pepperoni farms here

    I got my 4-track (more like 3 since ch. 3 was weak) for $60 when digital had taken over and these were the budget option. Tapes were cheap at Walgreens and track 3 is still weak after all these years. I never considered this a "sound" – definitely plugged directly into the bar's soundsystem board live and eked it out, hardly a complaint.

    You don't need the expensive stuff. Use your Squier, Firefly, whatever – get motivated and do your best.

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  • Stompbox sounded better imo (with headphones); edit: on second listen, the Tascam sounded a bit warmer, fatter and darker, and the pedal had a bit more airy-ness and floof.

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  • I'm gonna need some examples of songs that use this sound cause it sounds like dog water.

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  • I grew up with this tech and we all thought it sounded terrible. You could just build a cheap fuzz circuit stomp-box, get it wrong, and get this sound.

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  • so funny i used those recorders for years i have the big dog the 644 midistudio i think it was called it was 8 track to cassette tape with 8 xlr input maye more it was like 3200 bucks when it came out they were great for making demos but let be real the distortion sounded terrible and im into noise bands like pussy galore and john spencer

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  • Lo fi is lo fi for a reason. At that point plug in direct to your interface and crank your focus rite preamp lol it’s the same goddamn thing

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