Syncing Tracks in Audacity (or anywhere) from analog source

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DMustaine

New member
Hello, Thank you in advance.

I have been slowly taking all my 4 track recordings and trying to bring them digital so I can mess with the mix, and save them for archival purposes. I don't know the best way to do this, so I started in Audacity as a quick, and easy option.

Background: I have about 20 or 30 cassettes from the mid-to late 90's recorded on a Yamaha MT120 4-Track. There are a ton of good songs, and riffs I want to save, and re-visit (I'm currently at 97 riffs, and 22 "songs"documented I want to work on). Most of the tracks are full multi-track recordings. I've had the 4-track, and the mixer board for quite a while, and kept them in good condition.


So my setup is a pic, MT120 each track to a channel on the board, then mono into my only interface... M-Audio Fasttrack. (This sucks, my WHOLE post is on images for help, but I don't have "10" posts... )

PLEASE see links for what I'm talking about!
i.imgur.com / Zbrfs.jpg


So I have multiple recordings, and I obviously can't start play, and click record at the same time, also because it is an analog tape deck I'm not starting at the exact millisecond each time. I've played with the latency and can do a perfect live recording, but from the tape it isn't working. Everything is off-time by a bit, and I can't sync them to the specific point I need. .001 milliseconds over 2 minutes is off by quite a bit by then end.

Here we have 2 tracks off a bit, and I can do my best to get "close" zoomed out like this
i.imgur.com / hJ7kT.png

If I zoom in enough to remove details and make the identical click tracks synced I get this
i.imgur.com / Ks4fV.png

Notice the gap in cursor position to the actual selection point. Is there ANY way to bring these old songs I've done into the digital age and actually sync them up? It's terribly depressing to have written so much and have it totally useless now.

If there is a true 4 track interface that a DAW can isolate all 4 tracks I'd look into investing, but I haven't found one (looking for under $1000). That would solve my problem, but I'd hope there is an answer someone has.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope to hear a possible solution. I'm buying SONAR for a Christmas present to myself, but I don't know if it is capable of what I'm asking until I get down and dirty with it.
 
Not fully understanding your problem.

If these are 4-track recordings you already did...and you just want to transfer them to the DAW...where's the sync problem?
Just dump all 4 tracks into the DAW at the same time.
It will be a lot easier to just get a 4-channel A/D box then trying to do one/two tracks at a time and synchronizing them.
 
miroslav said:
Not fully understanding your problem.

If these are 4-track recordings you already did...and you just want to transfer them to the DAW...where's the sync problem?
Just dump all 4 tracks into the DAW at the same time.
It will be a lot easier to just get a 4-channel A/D box then trying to do one/two tracks at a time and synchronizing them.
Click to expand...

That's the issue... I only have a 1 track A/D the "Fasttrack"

Is there a true A/D that is 4 track, and the DAW takes 4 at a time?
 
There are all kinds of A/D interfaces out there...though I'm not sure how many are specifically 4 A/D channels.
You see a lot of 2-channel boxes...and then many 8 channel boxes or even 16+....but there may be some that are only 4.

You can get an 8-channel from $300 to $3000....depends on the brand/quality, but these days even the most inexpensive converters are quite good.
I would just go for an 8-channel box, that way you'll have more flexibility later on if more channels are needed.

It would be so much easier than messing with single tracks and trying to sync them all back up.
 
DMustaine: Look at firewire interfaces. There are tons of them out there, some pretty cheap. As far as getting an 8 input interface, yes you'll gain the flexibiity if you ever want to record a live band, but if you know that you're only going to be recording yourself for a long time (and you won't be doing any live drums), then a four in should be fine. Depends on your finances and what it looks like going forward.

Just make sure that you get at least 4 out that doesn't count the spdif as two of them. It'll take a little research and reading the specs, but it's your music.

Good luck.
 
notCardio said:
Doesn't that only do two separate tracks out? I know it says '4 out', but I think they're counting the SPDIF as two of them. I'll admit, I haven't read the manual, so I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

The '4 out' is the two audio outputs (for left and right monitor) and the two SPDIF outputs. All the inputs are sent separately via USB to your DAW.
 
OLD old school method: At the front or the end of the song, arm all four tracks and put a clap or hit or some sharp noise on it.
Push the tracks over to the computer and line up all the track from the hits.

(if you have a drumstick countin already on the start of the song that'll work too.)
 
TimOBrien said:
OLD old school method: At the front or the end of the song, arm all four tracks and put a clap or hit or some sharp noise on it.
Push the tracks over to the computer and line up all the track from the hits.

(if you have a drumstick countin already on the start of the song that'll work too.)
Click to expand...


Don't won't really sync them up from head to tail....it will just get you in the ballpark, and then you have to do some adjustments, and not just sliding the tracks, but adjusting them at various points along the timeline, as there's no way the tape will play the same way twice from head to tail to make it a perfect sync.

I've done it a few times, and if you have the patience to slice up the tracks and edit them into sync....it's a last resort.
 
TimOBrien said:
OLD old school method: At the front or the end of the song, arm all four tracks and put a clap or hit or some sharp noise on it.
Push the tracks over to the computer and line up all the track from the hits.

(if you have a drumstick countin already on the start of the song that'll work too.)
Click to expand...

That's what you are looking at in the screenshot. drum track click to start the tune waveform. If you didn't look at them I am a millesecond off, and Audacity doesn't let me get as ganular as needed to truly sync them.
 
Late reply to all, thanks for the input (pun intended lol)

I've upgraded to Sonar x2, but am lost. This is going to take a TON of learning time. I'm upgrading to this interface:
Alesis iO4 4-Channel 24-Bit Recording Interface | Musician's Friend

sadly I spent all my money on the recording software, but this device seems to do all I need. 4 tracks at a time each mono, or 2 stereo tracks. Once all the old 4-track tape stuff is imported for archive everything I will be doing will be live single recordings. the DAW will provide me an ability to record synth directly (MAudio 64 keyboard), and drums. Everything else will be live guitar recordings.
 
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