As a teenager in 1985 I slaved away all summer as a prep cook to buy a $500 Tascam Porta One 4- track cassette recorder. I proceeded to do what a lot of musicians of my generation did: record like crazy. All I needed to know was that the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's... had supposedly been done on a 4-track (though I had no idea which kind). That's all it took before I was off creating manic bedroom opuses, ones thankfully no one ever heard. But there was an unexpected by-product of this medium; inevitably sounds were created on the Porta One that could never be reproduced in a "real" studio. Were we all crazy, or was there really an intimacy and immediacy being bottled which could never be recaptured? I love my Tascam Portastudio 424, and have kept using it to record certain tracks on albums and singles to this day. Seeing as cassettes have pretty much died out, and no one uses analog 4-track recorders much anymore, I wanted to list some reasons why we shouldn't rule them out just yet.
Ten Reasons to Keep Using 4-Track Cassette Recorders:
1. Cassette tape compression. These tapes are 1/8-inch wide. If you stop and think about the old classic records you love, think about the fact that they were all mixed to 1/4-inch tape. We're talking about Led Zeppelin and The Who — you get the picture. It's only a hop, skip and a jump to 1/8-inch! I've heard a persistent rumor for years that Sticky Fingers was mixed to cassette because it was a novel medium in 1971. The Stones wanted to squeeze it even harder. Whether it's true or not, it makes perfect sense when you think of how it sounds. Another great story I heard was that Oh Mercy was mixed to cassette because Bob Dylan was taking home rough mix tapes and didn't understand why the final mixes being pumped out couldn't sound like what he heard at home.
2. Bouncing is fun. Come on, if you've never bounced your drums, bass and shaker down to one track to make room, you haven't lived. Whenever you're about to do it, you always get that pang of stage-fright thinking that you'll lose crucial balancing and fidelity; but you're always happy as hell with the sound of those three crudely recorded elements squashed together sounding all washy and fat.
3. Limitations. I've recorded a lot of other artists on 4-track, whether for demo-ing purposes or just for fun. I asked Sarabeth Tucek, whose cassette recordings have made it onto albums, why she likes it so much. She says, "I think having less choices helps me get to the essence of the song." Many artists agree with her and there is a reason; in this day and age of computer-aided recording it gets tougher and tougher to make decisions. Therefore many find themselves working against artistic impulses. Cassettes keep options in check.
4. Some really classic albums have been made on 4- track cassette. Among them are Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, Ween's The Pod, Elliott Smith's Roman Candle, Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand and Iron & Wine's The Creek Drank The Cradle.