388

I, like many other enthusiastic recording students, have heard the low flutter of tape echoing through things like vari-speed, the razor blade tool and other vestigial references in our modern digital (Pro-)tools that have since obsolesced the format. Tape has been relegated to a plugin that many of my peers have "found on the internet" /*wink wink*/ and thrown on everything in search of a more Lo-Fi sound.

Something like a cassette-based PortaStudio has been on my list of studio grails for a while in the pursuit to find the "aNaLoG wArMtH" that every vintage synth enthusiast and YouTube producer talks about. It really is more a pursuit of something tangible and refreshingly physical. Something that is interactable outside of the keyboard, mouse, screen, trackpad, touchscreen etc. and bends you to conform to its workflow where theres no quick sample by sample scrubbing, flex & follow or pitch correction. (or even a baked in click for that matter)

Flash to a conversation I had with my dad (who is a producer in his own right having done home recording since long before I was born) about my interest in tape. It came up that there was a tape-based mixing desk sitting in our basement that had never made it to the out building he built specifically for home recording (and escaping the noise complaints of my mother).

He told me it was a Tascam (or Teac?) 388 and I recall frantically googling the name and coming up with some great results touting it as a great piece of gear that people were still (in 2024) looking to pick up and add to their studios. I realized how awesome of an oppourtunity it would be to restore the machine and use it again roughly 24 years since it was stored in the former ham-shack basement next to the absolute trove of vinyl records and vintage computing history.

Then came a couple months of researching and thinking in the back of my mind how cool it would be to do a recording session with Monarch that featured the 388 restored and recording a live show with local bands. Or even how cool it would be to see the tape spinning in the studio again as a piece of outboard gear. I learned about Ampex 456 and 457 (more on this later) which unfortunately suffer from SSS (sticky shed syndrome) and about this beast's cult following. I would also like to take a brief moment to shout out Travis Raab. His videos on the 388 are really the only great ones I could find on YouTube that I enjoyed that weren't just demonstration videos with a 1khz sine wave blasting over someone trying to speak about it. Despite the YouTuberiness of his content, I am a thorough enjoyer of his channel and can say with confidence that he was a big part of the catalyst of wanting to fix this behemoth up.

Probably the first video I watched on his channel:

This past sunday, after a family gathering, I followed my father into the spider and rat infested basement to evac the 388 and marvel at the extensive record collection that we are yet to catalog and digitize. We took off the dust cover, sewn by my mother, and revealed the dust caked deck. In my excitement I failed to grab a picture of the unit with original vintage dust(tm) in place and nearly threw my back out bear-hugging this nearly 80lb monster out of the basement. This served as a stark reminder that the gym is a place I might want to reacquaint myself with. I brought it up the steep staircase and out onto the lawn where it saw sunlight for the first time since Y2K.

After moving it to the out-building, we got to work seeing if the unit would power on and removed some of the dust.

388's First power on since storage, with some caps removed for cleaning.

From my research, I was not expecting the unit to function right out of the gate as many places I had seen had cited the first repair as a belt that would almost certainly be crumbled to dust which allows the machine to function correctly. This first power-on is really more of a smoke test to make sure the 388 is not DOA and would allow me to start making a list of things that need repair. The tape counter and motors are working, which is a big win! As I suspected though, it looked as though we would need some new belts in order to get everything working right. We did also find a tape inside, with no label. The tape was Ampex 457 which has the potential to be a victim of SSS. I intend to make another post about restoring these tapes as there is a collection of them in the basement that this unit was taken from and I would love to try and digitize and preserve them. Something about baking?

The last thing I ended up doing that night was scrubbing the caps that I was able to remove. Little bit of dish soap and warm water worked like a charm.

So I guess it begins! I've ordered a new belt from Bezos' hell-site as it was one of the only places that could get it shipped in a reasonable amount of time. (though now looking again it is being fulfilled by Vintage-Electronics.net which makes me feel better and I'll be looking to them for parts and ordering directly from them in the future.)

I canceled my order at Amazon (on account of not having prime) so I can get it directly from the source. It looks like they’ll  have a bunch of other parts as well so they will likely be my go-to! I also need to look into replacing channel 4's VU lamp. Most sources say its not worth it unless you're going to dive into that area any way as there are some weak solder joints that might crack if you're not careful. Time will tell I guess if that is something I will have to live with or not.