Tascam ATR-80-24
A two-inch, twenty-four-track machine that Tascam built to be worked, and the used market still treats it like one.
Overview
The ATR-80/24 is the machine Tascam aimed at the working studio rather than the project room. Tascam's own trade advertising called it "the long awaited 2" 24-track" and framed it as a direct competitor to the other two-inch multitracks already on the market (Mix-Magazine, February 1987, p.153). Tascam had spent years as the brand that got small studios onto tape in the first place. The ATR-80/24 was the company's argument that it belonged in the same conversation as the established two-inch decks.
Studio advertising from the period leaned on two themes: performance and tape handling. One trade campaign described the new Tascam multitracks as "quality engineered without compromise," promising both "sparkling audio performance" and "silky smooth tape handling," and pitched the machine at the "tough and demanding life" of a working room (Studio-Sound, January 1988, p.10). That's marketing copy, not a measurement, but it shows who Tascam thought was buying. A related campaign ran under the line "24 tracks, 24 hours a day." It noted that Tascam multitracks had been the backbone of private and professional studios running up to sixteen tracks, and that the company was now proving the way to work at twenty-four (Studio-Sound, November 1987, p.40).
In the field, the machine was a two-inch twenty-four-track analog recorder with remote control and autolocator capability. Classified listings of the era describe exactly that configuration - "Tascam ATR 80 24 TK w/autolocate/remote" - which was the shorthand sellers used when they were moving one (Recording-Engineer classifieds). The remote and autolocator weren't optional extras in the way modern buyers think of accessories. On a two-inch machine they were the difference between a deck you could run sessions on and a deck that fought you every time you needed to drop in.
Installations from the period show where these machines landed. Tascam's own announcements placed an ATR 80/24 at Jim Morgan Sample in Omaha, Nebraska, and Omega Sound in Ft. Smith, Arkansas took delivery of an ATR 80/24 alongside an M-700 console. SOB Studios upgraded its facility around an ATR 80/24, and one project studio package built around an ATR80-24 and a Soundcraft 6000 was advertised as a complete 16/24-track room. This was not a home machine. It was the center of a room that had clients.
Classified pricing for a clean ATR-80 24-track ran around $26,500 in the pages of Recording-Engineer, with one seller asking $25,000 for a low-hours example with autolocate and remote. Those figures sit in the same listings as Studer A-80 MKIIs at $23,500 and MCI/Sony JH24s at $19,000.
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