Tark Audio's 144 Tape Machine Emulator is a supremely smart Preamp + EQ + Dynamics Pedal derivation of the Teac Tascam 144 4-Track Casette Portastudio
The Guitar sector has long held a fascination and indeed love for tape machine preamps / boosts - most notably in the shape of the numerous versions out there of the Echoplex EP-3 Preamp. So being something of an independent thinker - Tark Audio’s Marc has instead taken the c. 1979 Teac Tascam 144 4-Track Casette Portastudio as his source model.
Where his 144 Tape Machine Emulator is essentially a circuit replication of that device’s Channel Strip. I’ve included a picture below of the Teac 144 Portastudio source / inspiration model in all its glory!
The end result of Marc's exacting replication process is a fantastic sounding Preamp with 2-Band EQ, Compander, and Low and High Impedance options. Which takes you from Boost, to Overdrive and onto magnificently saturating Distortion - where there is a huge amount of range on every knob - particularly the Volume control which gives this pedal somewhat exceptional headroom.
Controls - Volume, IN-Z (Impedance) : Lo / Hi, Trim (Gain / Saturation), Bass, Dynamics (Compander) : On/Off, Treble.
There are several uses that suggest themselves here - including as an always-on warming tone-enhancer boost (similar to the many Echoplex boots types), while I will mostly be taking advantage of the 144's extensive range as a Tape Saturator / Overdrive - with its beautiful harmonic textures.
You can think of the 2 2-way switches here as different gears to the saturation - stepping up through Lo and Hi Impedance through to fully Companded Saturation.
The only thing you need to be aware of out of the ordinary here is the slightly idiosyncratic nature of deploying the Dynamics / Compander - where you get superior saturation at the peaks of the Trim knob, - which really kicks in at around 3 o'c. There's a sort of envelope that has a Threshold at around 3 o'c - and sort of opens up an audible gateway of increasingly more potent persistent sustaining saturation - where before that point you get those BD-2 style dynamics where you get momentary spurts of saturation when you dig in with your pick attack.
The below Tark 144 Block Diagram is useful for understanding the sequence of when and how each of the core elements is impacted and activated. You start with the Impedance Selector, then the Trim / Saturator / Gain control, next the Dynamics / Compander engage, and penultimately - the 2-band EQ, before the final Volume / Output :
At its core The Tark 144 is a beautifully textured extended range boost / overdrive / preamp really - with plenty of warmth, and some added smarts.
Many of the celebrated Tape Machines - whether recorders or delays - have had pedal derivations of their preamps - even cine-projectors like in the case of the Walrus Audio 385. So it was about time that we had a take on the Teac 144 too.
Marc has done a fantastic job with his 144 Tape Machine Emulator / Saturator - eking out every nuance from the Channel Strip of that source device - and making it into a perfect all-rounder tone-enhancer / boost / overdrive / distortion.
It would have been a cool added touch if Marc had managed to source some of the same knobs as the original Teac 144's, while it's a nigh perfect rendering as is - and the DM-1140 types are fantastic near-match stand-in knobs in any case.
The Tark Audio 144 Tape Machine Emulator has a hundred different uses - you just need to decide how you're going to use yours! Available for order right now for $189 from the Tark Audio Webstore. And the highly visual VU Meter is an especially neat inclusion - and actually a really handy gauge to what is happening.
Note that there is an internal Bias control also - which Marc mostly uses for setup purposes - the pedal was perfectly calibrated on arrival - so I saw no need to adjust the Bias. While it has been suggested that perhaps the Bias be externalised in some way when the pedal gets next iterated.
This is a really great sounding Tape Machine Emulator / Saturator which will appeal to all of you who love those Echoplex Boosts and similar - and want even more flavour! I considered swapping this in for my perennial Jackson Audio Prism Preamp - but that has a Buffer onboard too - which is kind of essential to my long pedal-chain.
The Tark 144 is so versatile and so easy to dial in - I can see it being in heavy rotation throughout the coming months and years.
Demos
