"Ugh. By the time I’d recorded all the parts, the first tracks were degraded horribly. The first Tascam 4 track Syncassette machine I owned was a revelation! Then I could do THREE tracks before bouncing down to mono, and had three more tracks to work with. Never had to use more than that! But the mixdown on that bounce operation had to be right."Been there! But back in the day I bought an 80-8 (still have it).
The machine was pre-Dolby, but it had noise reduction circuitry that boosted the high end onto the tape which significantly reduced the hiss of bounced tracks.
I believe the Beatles used it on some of their earlier recordings.