TASCAM PORTA ONE

TASCAM PORTA ONE

Recording on the go

TASCAM literally invented affordable and portable recording in 1979 with the super innovative TEAC 144, followed by the TASCAM 244. But actually, it was the TASCAM PORTA ONE that became the bestselling Portastudio ever and led to a revolution in home and mobile recording.

Able to run on batteries and with affordable cassette tapes, the PORTA ONE was literally the multi-track you could throw in a backpack, take anywhere and use to record. Now with the officially certified TASCAM PORTA ONE, you can tap into that free-spirited frame of mind and enjoy the sound that inspired some of history's greatest songs.

The TASCAM 388 remains the most sought-after tape recorder ever made by TEAC or TASCAM. You can easily spend $5,000 or more for a working unit today. You'll find in this officially certified plug-in version, for a fraction of the cost, the original's tone-tweaking controls and exactly the right sonic flavor to enhance your next musical production.

Intuitive, easy-to-use controls

The T-RackS TASCAM PORTA ONE honors the original's spirit with simplified controls to help you create just the sound you're looking for. You can adjust the bias and EQ of the record head, tweak the stereo channel's 2-band EQ and choose from 2 tape formulas for a selection of tape effects. In addition, we've included a number of presets and you can easily save your own.

To each its own sound

Today, the TASCAM PORTA ONE is used for “lo-fi” sounds, creative experiments and even for live performance. However, when using its "standard" settings, the PORTA ONE's sound is warm and clear, offering the sonic signature that made it so popular then and still today.

Re-creating the magic

Analog tape audio recorders are complex systems. They impart magic to the audio material, lifting the art within the music to a higher level. They add musicality to music.

What a tape machine adds to the audio is the result of a number of interactions amongst several interdependent factors. More than just saturation, compression, or EQ alone, these factors work together, one affecting each other with the dynamics of music, adding a “movement” that goes into the soul of what we perceive.

Decades of music produced on these pieces of artful human engineering have tailored the way we think music should sound. It’s imprinted in IK's DNA. Trying to recreate this magic in the digital domain has been attempted since the early days of real-time audio plug-ins, with various degrees of success.

From TASCAM DNA to IK DSP

For the T-RackS TASCAM Tape collection, each machine was chosen specifically by TASCAM and TEAC themselves, recommending particularly sought-after models from their history and helping IK source the best-sounding units. Each machine then went through a complete restoration to bring them perfectly back “to spec” before the scientific modelling process started.

IK’s DSP engineering team then took each stage apart, analyzed them in-depth, and produced a model of the entire magnetic tape-recording process. This model works in symbiosis with a powerful dynamic convolution engine to capture the essence of the real machines, faithfully bringing the complete picture of these complex analog engineering marvels to the digital realm.

The program coming out of these units is very similar to the one coming in, just better. It's subtle, but the impact is anything but.

And the T-RackS TASCAM Tape collection faithfully brings all this magic right to your DAW.

Cassette emulation

The TASCAM PORTA ONE offers a choice of 2 cassette tape formulations: Type I and Type II. The PORTA ONE is meant to be used with Type II cassettes and the sonic results of which are warm and pleasing. When using Type I however, you’ll instantly get some Lo-Fi vibes and you can experiment further using the different controls.

Comprehensive Controls

All Tape Machine Collection plug-ins share the same set of controls to enhance the ease of use and allow for quick A-B comparisons among them. Key features include:

• Signal path selection: With “Input,” the signal only passes through the input and output electronic stages of the recorders, bypassing the tape. Depending on how the recorder is designed, the “Input” path can sound extremely transparent or just slightly more colored. “Repro” passes your signal through the entire analog recording system: input-> recording amplifier -> recording head -> tape -> playback head -> playback preamplifier -> output stage.
• True Stereo: Even a perfectly aligned tape machine will have slight level, EQ and distortion differences between the left and right channels. This is good and part of the analog recording mojo! The T-RackS Tape Machine Collection perfectly recreates these subtle differences to deliver the real experience. If perfectly identical left and right channel processing is a must, simply disable this feature.
• Tape Speed: Select the speed of the tape transport between 15 and 30 inches per second (“ips”). The higher speed gives you more fidelity, and the lower speed delivers a warmer, rounder tone.
• Transport Modeling: Precisely models the behavior of the mechanical transport. Small irregularities in the movement of the tape creates various degrees of sonic alteration to the audio program, especially between the two channels. Keep it on for the magic to happen! In case a perfectly steady performance is needed, just disable the control.
• Record Bias: Ideal bias voltage settings provide maximum sensitivity and low distortion. Intentionally overbiasing is a common technique to produce a warmer, gently saturated sound. Underbiasing can be used to nicely boost the high frequencies in a truly unique way and add distortion and other nonlinear effects.

System Requirements

Mac® (64-bits)

• Minimal: Apple M1 or Intel® Core i5 Processor, 8 GB of RAM, macOS® 10.15 or newer (macOS 11 or newer required for Apple Silicon Processors). 9 GB of hard drive space.
• Requires an OpenGL 2 compatible graphics adapter.
• Supported Plug-in formats (64-bit): Audio Units, VST 2, VST 3, AAX.

Windows® (64-bits)

• Minimal: Intel® Core i5 Processor or equivalent, 8 GB of RAM, Windows 10 (64 bit) or newer. 9 GB of hard drive space.
• Requires an ASIO compatible sound card.
• Requires an OpenGL 2 compatible graphics adapter.
• Supported Plug-in formats (64-bit): VST 2, VST 3, AAX.

Important note: Internet connection is required as all of the Custom Shop operations are web based.