8track

A Tascam Portastudio 488, an 8‑track cassette recorder, rebuilt for the browser. Open the studio and press play.

The tape is “Back to the Start” by Sunrain, my brother. Mix it, record over it with a mic, and download what you made.

The Tascam Portastudio 488 rebuilt in the browser: eight channel strips, a cassette deck, level meters and transport keys.

what it does

It works the way the manual says: transport, two locate memos and repeat, pitch control, four group buses, and a mixer with EQ, pan and effect sends. Record on any track, and punch in and out to redo part of a take. Plug a mic, a browser tab or an audio file into any input.

Tapes are saved in your browser and can be exported. The mix downloads as a WAV.

history

I started a mockup of the 488 in 2015 and reworked it in 2017. That one was about 6,000 lines of jQuery code and only ran in Chrome.

In 2026 I rebuilt it in React, with a small TypeScript audio engine on Web Audio. The knobs and faders work from the keyboard, and each take is shifted by the mic's measured delay, so it lines up with the tape.

This is a tribute. It is not affiliated with TEAC, Tascam or Maxell.