Portastudio refers to a series of
multitrack recorders produced by
TASCAM beginning in 1979 with the introduction of the
TEAC
() is a Japanese electronics manufacturer. TEAC was created by the merger of the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company, founded in 1953, and the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company, founded in 1956.
Overview
TEAC has four divisions:
*TASCAM - con ...
144, the first four-track
compact cassette
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...
-based recorder. A TASCAM trademark, "portastudio" is commonly used to refer to any self-contained multitrack recorder dedicated to music production.
The Portastudio is credited with launching the
home recording revolution by making it possible for musicians to easily and affordably record and produce multitrack music at home
and is cited as one of the most significant innovations in music production technology.
History
Cassette Portastudios

The first Portastudio, the TEAC 144, was introduced on September 22, 1979, at the
AES Convention in New York City.
[ The 144 combined a 4-channel mixer with pan, treble, and ]bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Wood
* Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
on each input with a cassette recorder capable of recording four tracks in one direction at 3¾ inches per second (double the normal cassette playback speed) in a self-contained unit weighing less than 20 pounds at a list price
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
of . The 144 was the first product that made it possible for musicians to affordably record several instrumental and vocal parts on different tracks of the built-in 4-track cassette recorder individually and later blend all the parts together, while transferring them to another standard, two-channel stereo tape deck (remix
A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
and mixdown) to form a stereo recording. In 1981, Fostex introduced the first of their "Multitracker" line of multitrack cassette recorders with the 250.
In 1982, TASCAM replaced the 144 with the 244 Portastudio, which improved upon the previous design with overall better sound quality and more features, including: parametric EQ, dbx Type II noise reduction, and the ability to record up to four tracks simultaneously.[
TASCAM continued to develop and release cassette-based portastudio models with different features until 2001, including the "Ministudio" line of portastudios that offered a limited feature set and the ability to run on batteries at even more affordable price points, and the "MIDIStudio" line which added MIDI functionality.] Other manufacturers, including Fostex, Yamaha, Akai
Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...
, and others introduced their own lines of multitrack cassette recorders. Most were four-track recorders, but there were also six-track and even eight-track units.[
]
Digital Portastudios
In 1997, TASCAM introduced the first digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Businesses
*Digital bank, a form of financial institution
*Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company
*Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
Portastudio: the TASCAM 564 which recorded to MiniDisc
MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, or 80 minutes of digitized audio.
Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year for sale i ...
. Later Digital Portastudio models, some with the ability to record 24 or even 32 tracks, utilize CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
, internal hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
s, or SD card
Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...
s, and commonly include built-in DSP effects
Effect may refer to:
* A result or change of something
** List of effects
** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality
Pharmacy and pharmacology
* Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug
** Therapeutic effect, ...
.
Impact and legacy
The Portastudio, and particularly its first iteration, the TEAC 144, is credited with launching the home recording revolution by making it possible for musicians to easily and affordably record and produce multitrack music themselves wherever they wanted[ and is cited as one of the most significant innovations in music production technology.][ In general, these machines were typically used by amateur and professional musicians to record ]demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
, although some Portastudio projects, most notably Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
's 1982 album ''Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
'', have become notable major-label releases. Beginning in the 1990s, cassette-based Portastudios experienced new popularity for lo-fi recording.
In 2006, the TEAC Portastudio was inducted into the TECnology Hall of Fame, an honor given to "products and innovations that have had an enduring impact on the development of audio technology." In 2021, in conjunction with TASCAM's 50th anniversary, a software plug-in emulation of the Porta One ministudio was released by IK Multimedia.
Notable usages
*Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
recorded acoustic demos for an upcoming album on a TEAC 144 between December 1981 and May 1982, and chose to release those demos over the full-band arrangements later recorded at the Power Station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
recording studio for his 1982 album ''Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
''.
* Seal recorded the original demo for his multiple Grammy award-winning single Kiss from a Rose
"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from British singer-songwriter Seal's second eponymous album (1994). The song was first released as a single in July 1994 by ZTT, Sire and Warner Bros., and included in the film '' The NeverEnding Story III'' t ...
on a Tascam 244.
*William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
and Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain used a TASCAM Portastudio to record their first demos sent to Bobby Gillespie and Alan McGee.
*"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
recorded half of the songs on his 1983 debut album with a TASCAM Portastudio.[
*]Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...
member Alan Wilder used a Portastudio to record the tracks that would become the debut album of his solo side project, Recoil
Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...
, in 1986.[
* Ween recorded their albums ]The Pod
''The Pod'' is the second studio album by American rock band Ween. It was released on September 20, 1991, by Shimmy-Disc.
Production
The album was recorded from January to October 1990, at the Pod on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylva ...
(1991) and Pure Guava (1992) on various TASCAM Portastudio cassette recorders.[
* Elliott Smith recorded his solo debut album '' Roman Candle'' on a Portastudio.]
* John Frusciante recorded his first two solo albums, '' Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt'' and '' Smile from the Streets You Hold'', on a 424 Portastudio.[
*]Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...
's debut studio album was mixed down to a Portastudio 244 after the recording and mixing was completed.[
* ]Madlib
Otis Lee Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American record producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. Critically acclaimed for his eclectic, music sample, sample-heavy production style, he is rega ...
recorded his debut studio album, released under the name of Quasimoto, on a TASCAM Portastudio.[''"Madlib , Redbull Music Academy''" Redbullmusicacademy.com](_blank)
.
* Portastatic was named after the Portastudio Mac McCaughan used to record the songs that became its first album.
* Clive Gregson and Christine Collister recorded their 1987 album ''Home And Away'' on a 244 Portastudio.
* Mac Demarco recorded his 2012 debut mini-LP
A mini-LP or mini-album is a short record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A mini- ...
Rock and Roll Night Club with a TASCAM 244 Portastudio. It made extensive use of the 244's pitch control and used the method of bouncing 3 separate tracks down to a single track.
* Black Tape for a Blue Girl recorded their 1986 debut '' The Rope'' on a Portastudio.
See also
* Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive who ...
References
{{reflist
External links
The current line of Portastudios
from th
Tascam website
Audiovisual introductions in 1979
Multitrack recording
Audio engineering
Tape recording