I'm still limpin' along with a Tascam 688 (reverb.com) from 1993.
Wow! Are cassettes still readily available?
Yeah, there are tape houses online where you can get hi-q tape relatively cheap.
The 688 only uses one side of the tape, as it puts all eight tracks across the surface of the tape. Also it records at double-speed (for better quality) so you can only get 7-1/2 minutes recording time on a 30-minute cassette.
Years ago I had a 4 track cassette recorder, that was the same deal used the whole tape on one side at double speed. I upgraded from that a long time ago, 4 tracks just isn't quite enough. But a couple years later a friend came over with a tape that we had made using it years before and wanted to transfer it to something he could listen to. That was nearly impossible without the original machine.
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