Tascam PORTA02 An introduction to the Porta02, Multitrack recording a brief introduction

1 An introduction to the Porta02

1 – An introduction to the Porta02

The TASCAM Porta02 MiniStudio allows you to produce recordings which are not possible with an ordinary stereo cassette recorder.

We suggest that you read at least this sec- tion 1 and also 3, “Making your first

recording” before you start using the Porta02. Spending a little time reading now will save you a lot of time in the future. You can read the rest of the man- ual at any time.

1.1Multitrack recording – a brief introduction

This section gives you a brief introduc- tion to some of the terms and techniques used in recording. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, you may find it useful

to read through this section so that you understand the rest of the manual, which uses the terms explained here.

1.1.1 Multitrack recorders

When you listen to a commercial record- ing (CD, cassette, etc.), it is quite proba- ble that the different parts of the piece will have been recorded at different times.

This is done by “multitracking”–taking the different sounds, feeding them through a mixer’s inputs (“channels”) and recording them on a special tape recorder which splits the tape into “stripes”, each stripe being used for a different part of the music.

These stripes are called “tracks”, and the parts recorded on them may also be called “tracks”. Since there are many tracks on a tape, the term “multitrack” is used to describe these tapes and record- ers.

The Porta02 allows you to record up to 4 tracks on inexpensive Type II (chrome) cassettes using the same principle as larger studios–taking inputs into a mixer’s channels, feeding them into a recorder which can record tracks inde- pendently of each other, and building up the song by recording new tracks while listening to what has been recorded before (“monitoring”).

The advantage of working with multi- track recording is that the whole group of musicians does not have to repeat the whole piece if one person makes a mis- take.

The illustration below shows you how tracks are arranged on an ordinary stereo cassette tape, as well as on the Porta02

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