Hold your horses there a minute, I think you’d better check this one out before you go making any rash decisions:
I love stuff like that especially as soon as you take it apart! I bet some weird techno/IDM-guys have abused that thing before in the 90s or so…If not, I should grab it.
You could be the first guy ever to record a complete album on it
Bogdan Raczynski may have already done that. Homeless on a subway in Japan back in the late 90s.
I’ve been looking for the Yamaha YMC 10 and the Tascam MTS 30, but they’re hard to find (found like two of them, but none of them ship to my country)…Do you guys know any SMPTE/MTC-converters that are newer and cheap? It’s something I thought Doepfer would make, but it seems like they don’t. :S And if I look for the TS1, I just find turtlehouses (charming though).
Sorry mate, not really up on those things, I only found out about the YMC10 myself due to it being mentioned in the MT8X manual.
If you can’t find a sync unit, the only other option (for tape) is to buy a tape multitrack with built-in MIDI.
Not so sure about SMPTE on tape though, cause it would mean the heads are in use during forward and rewind, and personally, I don’t like the idea of that. The MT8X has what they call a “Hard-Permeability Hard-Permalloy” head, and thankfully mine still looks like new due to it being one. But if it were being used during all forward and rewind operations as well though, as in SMPTE, I’m not so sure it would be. Thankfully there’s a facility now where you can have any head you wish manufactured, you tell them the model number and they make it for you. So, if you wore your head down quickly due to SMPTE, it’s not the end of the world, you’ll always be able to get a new head no matter what the model, but heads can be expensive to have made to order, so I’d think very carefully about using any SMPTE-equipped machines unless the machine has a very hard head!
Luckily I just found someone who would be willing to sell the Tascam MTS 30 for a very good price. x)
…sounds good, let me add sum of my awesome #spherical tech wizdom here:
Is that a Boss DR 606 predecessor? What do you love about it specifically? I wish you could store your own sounds into one of these old, cheap machines and sequence those instead of the built-in stuff…Like you can with an MPC, but perhaps older, less shiny, more limited and cheaper…There must be something like that out there.
iTs the Bo$$ Dr-5
& Me likes them #sounds
iTs the Bo$$ Dr-5
& Me likes them #sounds
I’ll check out the sounds. I still got an old, half-broken SE-70 lying around somewhere…Perhaps one can do some really weird stuff combining both.
There is, the KORG ES-1:
I am not sure how extensive its sequencer is tho. 
Anyways, sticking to Renoise for now. And soon syncing it with the 4-track, that’ll be fun.
have you tried rx-16 for mac?
seems a bit older, was written for the mpc 2000 XL.
would like to know if that works with the mpc 500 or 1000
I tried it this evening from the demo trial and it does not load MPC 500 or 1000 pgm files. 1000 and 500 pgm files are interusable and even the patched phrase loads up on 500 (u cannot create it however on 500). MPC maid is the most popular one of laptop based program creation and management is what you are after. Many kits dedicated to the MPC can be downloaded or purchased and they come with the PGM files pre-made for you. For your daily sampling sessions and audio assets it is way quicker to do it on the MPC itself, just go to Mode-> Save and scroll to ‘program’ and press ‘Do it’. Default naming works by appending a sequence number at the end so even if in a rush you don’t have to rename everything just yet. Also if you store every project in its own folder (use create folder on MPC) even same named programs can coexist on the card with the first program named to ‘Program01’.
You can however use the MPC Software Ver 2.0 to export pgm files and sequences and project archives for legacy or older hardware. If you really like working with the laptop, then I strongly suggest MPC Studio Black, which makes the workflow a lot easier from the hardware itself. I use the MPC Element mostly for portability and becos I don’t like the Machine workflow or the software. MPC software full version with Element in liaison with Renoise(on Macbook) side by side and an MPC 500/1000 on the other side make my daily production kit pretty much complete. You just need some good monitors or headphones after that. Any instruments (guitars, Rhodes) or external stuff is secondary, the core setup does everything for you, and if you want to switch off the laptop, save your eyes and work solely on hardware, bounce the project assets from MPC software to the CF card via USB and work on the 500/1000 from there. I find this way better than using Renaissance(which is really badly received by the MPC community, only benefit is soundcard, vintage mode is done on the software not on hardware as they were first marketing, pretty much an expensive midi controller, does nothing without the software) or Maschine which have to be always tied to a laptop for each and every thing.
Did the MPC X demo a couple of days back in a local store, really powerful and great to look at and pads are awesome as expected. Akai went full-on attack mode of the this one. Maschine holds no water on this. Possibly the only other standalone unit with this much fire power are the units from Elektron. Roland MC 8000 is an old classic that is the only such workstation that came before this, but it’s been misunderstood by the Beatmaking community and it’s workflow is not as smooth as on Akai gear. Bulky as hell though btw. but still within weight range, pretty light for its build:) Maybe will buy it in a couple of months , still eyeing it…but I will make it an addition to my setup, not a replacement. The older gear have a solid charm and sound to them that all the digital smoothness can’t give me…
I sure wish someone would make pad controllers with normal MIDI sockets on them instead of all that USB shit!
Would love to add something like that to my setup, never had a pad controller, and the only dedicated pad controllers I see have USB, not MIDI DIN. Then, to make matters even worse, you get those retard manufacturers now who give you MIDI DIN, but not without using an adapter that plugs into a standard headphone-type jack. I mean what’s the fucking point? It must surely cost them more to manufacture something that requires a jack and an adaptor than it does to put the proper MIDI sockets on the fucking unit in the first place!
When manufacturers pull shit like that, refering to them as “Retards” is actually pretty damn tame!
Retards.
You mean something like this one? :rolleyes:
Might be a few days older than the #trash produced in these days…yet you really gotta admit her unique #beastliness <_<
Maschine has midi DIN sockets built to its chassis. It can also work as a controller. It comes with its own software like the MPC Studio and Renaissance. I however can some what appreciate the slimming down of midi jacks to 1/8 inch jacks, iRig also had this on its HD Pro sound card that is as slim as a pack of gum. It gives phantom power, has a trs and XLR combo jack for both mic and line in in one place. Has midi input from DIN to 1/8 inch on its body and it comes with compatible adaptor as well. It works with PC, Mac and iPhone and iPad and had peripherals to support it on each device. Possibly works with Android as well though I am eternally to try it. MPC Element has similar adaptors and so does the MPC Studio. It works well to reduce bulk and increase slimness in those products. Also midi was invented around 1983 when FM was also invented and it’s already 30+ years now,so some changes are actually welcome. Magsafe would not have been invented if people still used ancient IBM style power SMPS sockets…Apple is really stupid though taking out their best feature and trying to bring USB C by enforcing slimness to its extremes like a fashion obsessed freak.
Hey guys,
so I’ve been playing around with the Tascam MTS 30 and have gotten the hang of it (not very difficult to begin with), but if I start in the middle of the recording I run into a bit of a problem. After about 3-4 bars, the MTS successfully syncs with Renoise and Renoise starts playing in the middle of song pretty close to where I started the tape. The problem: It isn’t really perfect. It’s slightly out of time, a bit laid back. I know it takes a bit to find the right BPM and ting, but even then it’s still a bit out of sync. If I start the tape right from the beginning, things are perfectly in sync (I now start my Renoise track with an empty pattern where the MTS has some time to get in sync), but if I do so in the middle of the recording, I run into that problem again…
Is this just how it is with the old technology and an imperfection we just have to find our way around or are there some settings within Renoise or whatever that can smooth things out a bit? And I don’t mean the smoothing function in the MIDI controls. I already have that set to max :3 I’m using the Miditech Midiface 4x4 Midi Interface.
@Renoised: I’m actually glad that it’s probably my fault.
I use the Tascam 424 which has a specific sync mode for DBX in which it’s turned off on the 4th channel. I also use the sync outs/ins and am recording in a specialized sync-mode where the levels are set automatically.
I just realized that I don’t even need an empty pattern in the beginning. It starts synced perfectly, but the problem when trying to play a section within the song remains. But this is what the manual says:“Run the tape in Play. After an interval during which the MTS-30 recognizes the tape position in terms of the number of bars (during this time, two or three bars will pass), the rhythm programmer or sequencer will start in sync.”
So, they seem to expect this sort of thing to happen. Anyways, I’ll go and clean the tape heads a bit and see what happens.
@Renoised: Yes, they are set automatically if you use the sync-inputs on the back. Whatever comes through them is being sent to channel 4 automatically and the levels are adjusted on their own (around +0), you can’t really adjust them in that case. At least on the Tascam 424. But yeah, you can also use the 4th channel direct inputs for this and I’ve tried that, but things get even more fu**ed up in that case (perhaps my cable for that is sh*t).
This is how I do it:
Turn the Sync-switch on the back to the right position
Either turn on DBX Sync mode or turn DBX off entirely.
Go into Save mode on the Tascam MTS 30
Turn on Sync-mode on channel 4 (in order to record the sync signal instead of the direct inputs)
Start recording and wait 'till you’re past the leader, then press play in Renoise until you’re done
Go into Load mode on the MTS 30 and rewind
Now, it’ll start exactly when you set it up to start. But if you fast-forward a bit and start in the middle of the track, it’ll take 2-3 seconds to sync up (and the BPM fluctuates slightly before it finds the right value, for example if it’s gotta be 180 it starts out with 183-182-181…etc)
Perhaps the unit just sucks, who knows. I cleaned the tapes, but it didn’t solve anything. Perhaps I’m using shitty cables? At this point, it could be anything…Perhaps some radio is interfering with it? Or aliens? 
@Renoised: Yeah, that’s what I suspected. They say it in the manual, too, as I mentioned earlier. In the end, it’s not the worst thing in the world. One can find ways to deal with that. :3
The reality is that I’m still gonna use Reaper a lot, I think (even though I didn’t want to). I just need to do so in order to plan things out, loop ideas, figure out harmonies etc…Doing so on the 4-track isn’t really that convenient. But I’ll probably do the typical tape tricks in Reaper, so when I then get onto the Tascam, I can transfer all the ideas onto it.
My brain needs to get rewired big-time, I suppose. Almost all of the music I’ve ever made was programmed. Mostly done in Renoise or other MIDI sequencers. I work in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way. I never have outlines in my head. If I find a seed, I know where it should go, but I can only see the next step, everything beyond that is a mystery (and I like that). So now it’s a bit of a workflow change.
With the 4-track, due to its limitations and linearity, you really have to think differently. Outline and plan things…Really filter ideas and use the best ones. It’s quite interesting, how hard it is for my brain to cope with that right now. Yesterday I just sat there, and for the first time, I had this thing that some people probably refer to as “writers block”, lol. I felt totally defeated. 
But it’s nice, in a way. Like I’m entering a new world. It’s all the guitars fault, anyway.
Good point. Last night I actually did just that, I put the sync-stuff away and just wrote a guitar track. Worked out pretty well! I guess it’s that I’m not that used to thinking about the creative process in such a way, and my brain is already completely occupied with it, so when I try to throw Renoise in the mix, it’s just a system overload. So I’ll work on both things separately for now. Over time, I can slowly try and combine them using Reaper and perhaps later, with the 4-track. But for now the 4-track to me is this self-sufficient thing which can do bascially most of what you need to do recording-wise, while Renoise is a self-sufficient thing able to do most of the programming you need to do. That’s the beauty of them. One can completely feed the “instrumentalist” in me, the other one the “programmer”.
That’s why John Frusciante could release an album on his own in the early nineties, just using the 4-track and some guitars. It’s self-sufficient.
That’s why Bogdan Raczynski could write entire tracks in the mid-late nineties, probably owning nothing but a laptop with a tracker on it, some samples and perhaps some plugins, being homeless much of that time.
And still, their music resonates, because it’s raw, human and only consists of the bare essentials.
I generally wanna get away from this professionalism within music, especially these days where it has gotten worse. We need less to make music, but still something outside tells us we need more…more than we ever did. Isn’t that fu**ed up? I guess the reason for this is that these voices from the outside telling us these things just want to sell us a product…So why listen?
On another note, have you ever played around a with a real reel-to-reel tape machine? That’s the real deal when it comes to analogue recording.
