Soundmakers | Fostex & 4-Tracks

Soundmakers of history...

In the Soundmakers section of Cosmic Eagle, I’ll be talking about instruments and gear that I enjoy using here in the studio or on the stage - special pieces that help me play, write, and record music. For the inaugural post here, I thought I would show and tell my Fostex 250 4-track cassette from 1984 and chat a bit about the overall revolution of home “portastudios” from that period which really started the home recording revolution we know well today. 

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, for a cool $800 (2k today), you could buy one of these bad boys, pop in a standard cassette tape, and have 4 simultaneous tracks of recording available to ya. Multitracking at home for the first time, artists could record demos and ideas, or entire albums in a compact and easy way.  The Boss even made Nebraska on his Tascam 144. These machines and ease of use also paved the way for independent artistry and self distribution. You could track your record on a cassette tape and make a bunch of copies on two deck cassette player, and boom, you’re selling your tapes at shows, out of trunks, and on the road.  You’ve got an album man!

I had a Tascam Portastudio in the mid 90s as a 13 year old kid, a few years before getting my first computer with an interface/sound card. It was awesome. I would route my old Zoom guitar pedal and use it as outboard effects to get verb or delay on vocals or acoustic guitars! It’s just a great chapter of artistry when you’re able to get some ideas and sounds out of your head in better detail and with more shape. Guitar solos, harmonies, layers, and it’s all you! That’s such a big deal for a songwriter, to get the ideas out of your head. It’s hard and annoying to try to explain music with a bunch of words - the best way is to use your ears!   

But since those days, I now have a pretty badass studio here at Plum Creek Sound.  Endless tracks, Neve Pres, cool microphones, pianos, synths, drums, guitars…it’s fucking awesome!!! But sometimes, having all those options can be overkill in the writing and demoing process. It’s hard to limit yourself, but easy to get a bit lost in the early stages of a song when you have too many toys to play with. Sometimes, you just need a 4-track tape machine. It keeps it simple and focused on writing, while being able to dabble with a limited tool kit to bring the sounds to life. I’ll generally limit my tool kit here to an electric guitar, acoustic, my Casio sk-1, my maestro rhythm machine (there’s a great funk box app too that’s damn close to the real thing), and some vocals/harmonies. You can also build out super cool loops and soundscapes with a portastudio, a play the faders like this:

I’ve seen the digital age of music change not only the industry itself, but the way we actually create music. However, sometimes it’s nice to break it back down to the basics, write a song full of lyrical depth and truth and lay down a vocal and guitar on a rolling cassette. Thank you for reading. Leave a comment below what your favorite records from the late 70s/ early 80s were…

-Izz