peterb@pbear.UUCP (08/19/85)
Its long (about 239 lines) As the title says, this is a review of the Porta-One by Tascam(the professional equipment division of TEAC). On Friday(08/16) and I went out ant bought the Porta-One and the PS-1 power supply for 484$+38$ (total outlay 522$). Yes I know that this is about 100$ more than the Fostek, but just read. Specs: Mechanical: Tape: Compact cassette c-30 to c-90 70 microsecond High Bias (type II) tape track format: 4-track, 4-channel head config: 2 heads (erase and record/reproduce) tape speed: 4.8 cm/s (1-7/8 ips) +/- 1% pitch control: +/- 15% wow & flutter: .05% (NAB weighted) +/- .1% peak (DIN/IEC/ANSI weighted) dimenstions: 330 x 250 x 70 mm (13" x 9-13/16" x 2-3/4") weight: 3.0kg(w/o batteries) 6.6lbs 3.5kg(w/ batteries) 7.7lbs Mixer Section: EQ type: Shelving freq: LOW 100Hz HIGH 10kHz boost/cut range: +/- 10dB Recorder Section: Record channel: 2 (2dbx II NR, switchable) Playback channel: 4 (4dbx II NR, switchable) Bias freq: 60 kHz Equalization: 3180 microseconds + 70 microseconds Record Level Calibration: 160 nWb/m tape flux level (0 VU reverence) Power Requirements: DC 11-15V, 350mA Performace Characteristics: Freq Resp: 40Hz - 12.5 kHz +/- 3dB THD: 1.0%, 0VU, 1kHz w/dbx 3.0%, 8dB above 0VU, 315Hz w/dbx S/N(ref @ 3.0% THD @ 315Hz): 85dB weighted w/ dbx 80dB unweighted w/ dbx 57dB weighted w/o dbx 54dB unweighted w/o dbx Adj channel Seperation: 55dB 1kHz 0VU w/ dbx 50dB 1kHz 0VU w/o dbx Erasure(@ 3% THD): 70dB 1kHz Impressions: I had read about the Porta One, so I put in the demo tape and started to listen to the quality of playback deom a TEAC c-60 tape, and was impressed with the seperation, and the transient qualities of the tape. I realized that this was without dbx. Turning that on for some of the demo zones really wiped out the noise floor. The dbx becomes a necessity if you start ping-ponging tracks around. Without reading the instructions and just following the instructions given on the demo, I was able to do overdubbing on my first try without wiping out the demo tape. (My stamp of approval since I can be thumbs sometimes...) After perusing through the instructions for a few minutes (about 10min at the most), I decided to trek out on my own and try some four track recording. I fired up my Mirage and using the percussion disc (whish is wild in itself!) I laid down a standard 4 beat rock line on track one. First though a description of the controls: Each mixer section (there are 4) has an input selector (off, line/mic and tape), a slide fader, a pan POT, a low & high EQ knob, and a MIX knob that can add up to 55dB of gain at the line input(for mics & guitars) There is a master fader used for playback and mixdowns. there are four cue knobs that let you get a mono return path from the tape that is mixed to the headphones. A record fuction switch that allows recording of up to two tracks at a time( when recording two tracks at a time, you can pan of up to four inputs into the two tracks) arranged into two busses (L = 1 & 3, R = 2 & 4). Standard transport controls exist for the tape deck, with a zero return available for the rewind fuction (fantastic when repositioning the tape for the start of a new track or another pass at the present track). Off to the description of building four-track sounds: I plugged my Mirage into channel one, my poly-61 into channel two, my guitar into channel 3, and a delay unit into channel 4. I set the record function to track 1, and set the input selector for mixer 1 to line/mic, and the other 3 to off. I started up a drum sequence and faded it in for track one with the transport set to record. After a few minutes of the drum, I stopped the deck, and using the zero return facility, rewound the tape to the begining of the session. reset the input selectors so that mixer two(the korg) was set to line/mic, and shut off the mirage(channel 1). I reset the record function for track 2, and set the monitor switch to cue, and set the cue for track 1 to a comfortable level. pushing record& play, I was able to listen to track 1, while adding a bass on track 2. At the end, I rewound the tape using the zero return fuction(a godsend!!!) and set up for recording a guitar on top of the bass/drum lines. I set the input selector for track three to lin/mic, and set track 3's trim pot to mic(since the guitar sound level is real small) and proceeded to add a guitar by listening to the cue for tracks 1 and 2 while playing the guitar into track 3. Again rewind, but now I wanted to add some chorus to give a fake stero image to the entire thing, I took the line outputs from tracks 1-3 and using an external mixer (yamaha's MM10 which is perfect for this) I mixed down the signals into one channel befor I sent it to the delay unit. It was set to 60mSec, and its output was plugged into track 4 of the Porta-One. So I played tracks one through three into the delay and back onto track 4. The I rewound the tape and reset the monitor switch to remix allowing me to use the EQ and pan facilities of each channel. I set all the input selectors for tracks 1-4 to tape and played the tape back a few times setting the volume/EQ/pan for an acceptable stereo image. I plugged a stereo cassette deck into the line-out lines and recorded the stero playback image onto a standard cassette. Total time for a 3 minute song was 35 minutes including 4 retries for the guitar. Observations: The unit is truely portable: 10 C alkalines will last for 8 to 10 hours. The shoulder strap makes it a cinch to carry the porta-one around. As a true test of the portability, Today I took my guitar (a pearl-white Yamaha SC-300T strat look-alike) and the porta-one along with a distortion box and echo box (MXR and Boss guitar effects) and went down to the charles river reservation and used the scenery to give me some ideas. Some people stopped me and asked me what I was doing, and I told them that I was recording some music using the porta-one, which made the test all the better since I would demonstrate some of the abilities. After 5 hours walking up and down the charles I cranked out some ideas for about 7 songs, and the porta-one proved to work flawlessly. I have only read the instruction book for about 20 minutes, and I had no troubles using it since the functionality was straight forward and well laid out. Also ther is include a technical ref for dbx, and all the units of measure that are using in the porta one. All the schematics are included also. Also a list of all the repair depots are include too. I beleive the warrenty is a year. One thing that is truely stressed in the manual is care and periodic maintenance of the transport. Functional description: (1 channel) INPUT ---> TRIM --+-> Input Selector -+-> Input fader ---> EQ --- PAN =+ +-------------->-+ | | | +-----------------<---------------+ | | | +==================<===================<==========================+ | | | | | +=== Master Fader ===> =+=> Line output (x2) | | | | +--->--- Meters & Logic | ^ ^ | | +---<--------------<-------+ | | | +====<===<====+ | | | +-->--- Phone -->+>- Monitor --> Headphones | | | | + +-------+ | | | +-----<--<------)---+ | | | + Tape Cue + +=Rec Function=+ |(1 chan) ^ | | | +=>- transport %>%%+%%%%%%%>%+%%%%>%%%%%>%%%%%>%%%% tape output jacks Legend: - mono signal ><^ signal direction = stero signal & quad signal ) hop over(no interconnect) Conclusions: I'm biased, I love it! If it could record 4 channels simaltaneously It would be perfect, but then the pan recording function would be hurt. Also a seperate Cue out circuit would be great for playback/overdubbing. Overall excellent, Performance, excellent, functionality, excellect, portability, perfect... Well I hope that somebody out there will enjoy this review, and maybe head out to buy one. Peter Barada {ihnp4!inmet|{harvard|cca}!ima}!pbear!peterb Ps - If anybody has any questions, please mail me, and I'll try to answer them.