My dad used to do electronics - by that I mean he would build something one day and take it to bits the next to make his next project, leaving the remnants in his shed.

He built me a simple mixer that had 4 inputs.

Mic/Line In 1 - Output - Left Channel

Mic/Line In 2 - Output - Right Channel

Mic/Line In 3 - Output - Stereo

Line In 4 - Output - Stereo

This meant that you could record onto one cassette deck - Left/Right or both, then swap the cables round, play the tape back through input4 and record something else over the top (left/right or stereo) onto another cassette deck. Brilliant. Who needs an 8 track Brennel anyway (I did!!!!) I had to put up with 2 ITT cassette decks (those pictured in fact) instead. These were probably quite good machines for the day - my dad worked at ITT so he used to get discount.

A step up from the 2 cassette deck method was to go to Chris's house and use his Akai Reel to Reel. I remember I once carried this from his house to mine - a 2 mile walk - so that I could record a Shyboy gig in Sidley.

Me and my mate Chris decided that we could combine forces and buy a 'top of the range' piece of kit.

The first TEAC Portastudio recorded 2 tracks at a time but played back all 4 tracks in sync. It had 2 speeds, treble and bass and 1 effect send.

My dad (electronics) added 4 phono sockets to the case so that the signal being fed to the sliders could be sent to an external mixer, an M&M 12 channel job with more effects sends and better EQ. This mixer also had some mods on it. You could throw a switch and sent the fader output to an external socket - this could be fed in turn to an input or an external effects unit. This was good for dub mixes.

A handy addition to the 144

Our first microphones for recording.

A bit primitive but at £30 each we could not complain - especially as we needed 4 of them.

My effects unit was in fact a Sony reel to reel which could be set up, (by feeding the output on one track to the input of another) to become a great stereo echoe unit, by monitoring the output from the record head and the play head at the same time. If you played around with the input volume and the speed it you could get some excellent results.

The arrival of my first computer - the Atari 1040ST fitted with Steinberg Pro24 software

Time to get in sync

The TASCAM had a brillient mixer on it-better than any other Portastudio available even now.

If you gave up track 4 on this thing you could sync to Cubase. This was very cool.

Pentium III 450

64MB PC100 SDRAM

£250

This was my very first Sound card - a bit basic but Terratec was a well known company and I thought better than a Soundblaster

Drivers are available from

http://terratec.ultron.info/Audio/Base1/

I have a backup of the manual here

I have a backup of the spec here

XG Sounds on an ISA board

This is just a synth and had to be used in conjunction with a proper sound card - it was the baby brother to the SW1000 which I could not afford at the time however I did get one later

Review

http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/yamaha_sw60xg/

Spec

http://www.megatrade.ru/English/sw60xg.html

Photo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SW60xg_soundcard.jpg

This is just a synth and had to be used in conjunction with a proper sound card - however it was also a powerful mixer and could process external sources throught is DSP

Review

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec98/articles/yamsw1000.632.htm

User Guide

Advanced Guidebook

Utilities (19MB Rar file)

wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_Live!

I used this with the Russian drivers which were much better than the Creative drivers available from the site below

http://www.kxproject.com/

I have a backup copy of the drivers here as the KX site is not maintained on a regular basis

Armed with an ADAT card and an additional 8 line-ins

Mastering was always a problem - the only way to do this on the AW4416 was to burn a CD or record the analogue back to the PC - I got hold of this Fostex VR-800 off ebay to see if I could effectivley use it to master - it sort of worked but you could only transfer the resulting files back to the PC via ADAT. It was a good theory though

Note the Tascam 144 still there. I was still transferring 4 track files to the PC via the AW4416

I moved the Synths next to my Novation RemoteSL having built some angled wooden stands - this made it easy to access the many controls on the MP7 and KS Rack

There is also a Roland SH-32

Made for the job.

Control for Cubase EQ, Volume. With Jog Wheel and external foot switch.

This card was not just a soundcard but an ADAT interface - used in conjunction with my Yamaha AW4416 for transferring files to the PC for backup and editing.

Review

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec98/articles/yamsw1000.632.htm

I was playing with a new band called Shanakee and wanted to record a CD. Having spent ages looking at what was available my budget stretched to a Fostex D-80 and an Alesis 32 input (rack mountable) mixer.

Put it all in a rack and you have a huge Portastudio !

This setup could be put in the car and transported to rehearsals - easily set up and could also feed the PA.

It was a great way of collecting usable material.

For the CD though more care was taken - the drums, guide guitar and vocals were all recorded in the rehearsal environment (my sister in-law's living room) and the rest of the tracks recorded in my room at home.

This was an essential bit of gear when I had multiple midi contraptions running - This ran from the serial connector on the PC - no USB yet

I have a backup of the drivers here if you need them

This soundcard came with the Proteus sound library - it was one of the reasons for buying - in fact I still use it occassionally. Not all of the modules work without the hardware installed so when I sold the card I hung on to the modules that I could use without the hardware.

This is a good card but the mixer can get confusing at times. OK when using the DAW though

You can get an external interface module - which I never had

I used the ADAT to link to the AW4416

Drivers are available here

Or - there is a backup file here 105MB

EMU Sample rate Converter

This was my first 4in 4 out card

Wow what a difference that makes - I started using external effects

Full Spec

I used this to pre-amp my bass for recording. My Overwater has never sounded good DI'd straight to tape so this added that Trace Elliot sound before I actually had a Trace Elliot amp.

I did not have this for long - I bought it for someone else but it turned out that it was not fit for purpose.

I tried it out with my setup but It did not have enough I/O for me

http://tascam.com/product/fireone/overview/

I was running 2 of these in my windows 7 64bit machine up until early 2015. The only thing I found limiting was the fact hat they did not have any preamps in them which meant I had to use a mixer to feed microphone signals into the PC

I could run all of my outboard through the ins and outs without having to re-patch anything

I would probably still have them if I had not seriously downsized my setup.

This suited my setup much better although I could not and did not trust the USB connection so I continued to use via Firewire.

I used this with the addition of the ADA8200 ADAT unit which allowed for 8 additional inputs.

Full spec available from the Behringer website

http://www.behringer.com

Bough around 2015 - sold 2019

Including

Behringer Audio Interface FCA1616

Zoom Studio1204 multi FX

Lexicon MX400

Digitech GSP1101

Drawmer MX30

Powercenter (PDU)

Yamaha Hifi Amp AX-396

Only using Soft Synths and Cubase Elements 8

New Microphone - as used on the Thriller Album (aparently) - the Shure SM7-B

New Soundcard to replace the rackmount Behringer.

12 Channels straight into Cubase

The Zoom L12 - 12 channel USB Audio Interface

Bought in 2019

More info here