The
brand name of a
four-track multitrack
cassette recorder/mixer by TEAC's TASCAM division, first introduced in the late
70s. It was the cheap, flaky
Walkman of recording devices, compared to the more-expensive (and better sounding, for a number of reasons related to
audio bandwidth) reel-to-reels of the day, plus many models only allowed you to record on two tracks maximum at any one time.
They became popular, and companies like Yamaha and Fostex joined the fray. The multitrack cassette deck would slowly beget thousands of bedroom musicians over the years, and some clusters of them would also form bands.