Pete Thorn heads back to the future with the retro-looking but fully modern Tascam Model 12 all-in-one integrated mixer

Pete Thorn has played with everyone from Chris Cornell to Don Henley to Melissa Etheridge, as well as enjoyed a successful solo career. Very recently, we watched Thorn join Cornell’s daughter, Toni Cornell, on acoustic guitar for a performance of Pearl Jam’s Black as part of the Lolla2020 virtual Festival.

All of which is to say, Thorn knows his way around guitars and gear, and he was only too happy to team up with Guitar World to check out the new Model 12 from Tascam and put it through its myriad paces.

A compact all-in-one integrated mixer, the Model 12 is designed for music and multimedia creators, songwriters and performers. Features include a multi-track recorder, USB audio/MIDI interface, DAW control functions and unique podcasting capability including mix-minus and smartphone inputs.

As Thorn points out, “The most interesting thing to me is they’re kind of embracing their Portastudio lineage here, with the built-in recorder and a very simple mixer with aux ins, three-band EQ with sweep-able mid on every channel, built-in compressor on every channel and really, really good sounding mic pre’s on every channel. There’s also some built-in effects and you can even use Bluetooth.”

Best of all, the modern tech is housed in a very retro-looking Portastudio enclosure.

"It took me back to the ‘80s and reminded me the earliest days I can remember of recording using the little Tascam Portastudios,” Thorn says.

He continues, “I love that they’re embracing this old aesthetic and just kind of honoring it with this new device. And truth be told, this does more than just about any one of those Portastudios from the '80s ever did, that’s for sure.”

To demonstrate just how much more, Thorn then breaks down the mix – one channel and instrument at a time – of the original tune that he performs at the beginning of the video.

“It was a total throwback working this way, a blast from the past and I had a lot of fun doing it,” he says.

For more information on the Model 12, head to Tascam.