[Harp-L] Tascam Portastudio

[Chris Hofstader <cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

As I think Iâve mentioned here before, Iâm totally blind. A lot of great harp players were (sonny terry and others) as well. Iâm working on a podcast project entirely unrelated to harmonica and had to find a technology that was both compatible with my blindness and with the goals of the project. A million  years ago, when I was the vocalist in a punk band, we used a vintage Tascam Portastudio to record two of our singles (the third was recorded off the board at CBGB) and our LP as well. I was feeling nostalgic and looked up the Portastudio and was pleasantly surprised to see that itâs still out there. For my needs, I got the 8 track âpocket studioâ version but all are available at amazing discounts (including the giant 64 track table top one) on Amazon and elsewhere.

Why Iâm mentioning this device here is that I chose it because, on the Tascam web site, it claims that there are âno menusâ and that everything on the device has a hardware control. If there are any other blind people on this list and youâre interested in making some recordings, the entire digital Portastudio line of products can be operated in an âeyes freeâ manner.

So, if youâre not blind but like the old school production equipment that you could control all with knobs, switches, buttons and the like, you may also enjoy one of these devices as well. The 8 track version I got can be run on batteries, has two powered XLR jacks and a bunch of instrument inputs. It weighs about 22 ounces with batteries in it and actually fits into a large coat pocket. The recording quality is fine for my purposes but is definitely short of higher end and more expensive devices but, at $150 on Amazon for the 8 track model, the price performance ratio is amazing.

Anyway, I thought Iâd share a bit about a cool new toy that Iâm also using to record my harmonica practicing so I can review with or without backing tracks.

Happy Hacking,
cdh