While the old Tascam Porta One could record up to four sources simultaneously, it had only one stereo headphone output.
Hello, I’m still a novice in this area, so I’m asking the experts! I love analogue recording and the old analogue sound, and I want to buy a Tascam Porta One. I see that this has two line outs, as well as four tape outs. But my Universal Audio Volt 1 interface has only one mono line input. Tell me, can I somehow record individual tracks into my DAW using the UA Volt 1, or should I mix on the Tascam?
SOS Forum post
SOS Reviews Editor Matt Houghton replies:Gosh, that is a blast from the past: the Porta One graced many a home studio even before the first issue of SOS! (Though it was reviewed by our very own Paul White in Home & Studio Recording magazine in December 1984: www.muzines.co.uk/articles/tascam-porta-one-ministudio/4197). I started recording on a Porta 05 back in the day, and I loved it, so I absolutely get why you enjoy that way of working, without a computer. But if your plan is to record multiple sources on the Tascam and then transfer them each to your DAW then you’ve chosen the wrong audio interface! The Volt is a decent interface in terms of quality but, as you say, it has only one mono input. That means you can record only a single mono source at any given time, and to record multiple individual tracks, you’d need to do that one at a time, in multiple passes. This is problematic for a few reasons.
The Tascam Porta One has, I believe, four mic/line inputs — but it has no individual track outputs. As I understand it, the only output is an unbalanced stereo headphone output, so to get a signal out of the Tascam and into the Volt interface you’d need a way of plugging just the left or right channel of that stereo headphone output into the Volt’s mono input. The easiest way to achieve that would be to use a Y‑lead (aka ‘insert cable’, or ‘TRS to dual TS cable’), plugging the TRS end into your Tascam, and one of the unbalanced TS jacks into the Volt’s input. Then, on the Tascam, you’d need to hard‑pan whichever track(s) you wanted to transfer to your DAW to that channel. You could send one track at a time that way, or all of them mixed together.
That’s not really a good plan though. If you send tracks mixed together, you can’t process them separately in your DAW. And if you transfer one track at a time this way, the inherently slightly inconsistent playback speed of the Tascam will mean they almost certainly won’t line up correctly in your DAW, and the bleed between tracks on the tape means you’re going to hear some phasey/flangey filtering during playback. Not what you want!
So, in your situation, I’d suggest taking a different tack altogether. As I see it there are a handful of realistic options. You could replace your UA Volt with a different interface that has a stereo input (or more than two inputs, to cater for future need). You could then plug the Tascam’s headphone out into both of those inputs using a Y‑lead, and record any mix of tracks you want. Note that you would still only be able to record one stereo source/mix at a time, but this would at least allow you to capture two tracks separately and in sync from the Tascam, by panning one hard left and the other hard right. In this way you could, for example, record a guitar on one Porta One track and overdub a vocal on another, and then transfer them both to separate DAW tracks for edits and processing.
Another option, if you only tend to record one track at a time, would be to leave the Tascam out of the equation altogether. Simply use your Volt as the mono recording interface that it’s intended to be. You could still use the Porta One just for demos, perhaps recording a mono demo mix to your computer to use as a reference when you’re ready to record new performances. Mix in the box, and add any ‘vintage character’ you need using plug‑ins. There are some great plug‑ins for this now, including one by IK Multimedia that emulates the Porta One if that’s important to you (www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trtascamportaone), but you could easily use/abuse any tape emulation plug‑in. The Tascam’s Baxandall EQ (±10dB shelves at 100Hz and 10kHz) should be very easy to recreate in software too.
If you genuinely prefer working without a computer, consider investing in a modern equivalent of the Portastudio. Tascam’s DP‑03SD might do the trick...
Or, if you genuinely prefer working without a computer, consider investing in a modern equivalent of the Portastudio — a more sophisticated standalone device that records to a hard drive or SD card, and allows you to transfer files to the computer. Tascam’s DP‑03SD might do the trick, or something more mixer‑like such as the Tascam Model 12 or Zoom LiveTraks (both of which double up as audio interfaces, by the way).
Finally, if it’s just the hands‑on nature of the Porta One that appeals, and you’re otherwise happy recording through your Volt 1 interface, you might consider adding a small control surface that gives you hands‑on control over your DAW software. If you set it up to control a standard channel strip (perhaps including a Baxandall EQ and a tape emulation...) then you should be very getting close to what you want to achieve.