Anolog Recording Help!!! (Specifically, Tascam 464)

[RyanEmerson]

This is a four-track analog recorder, but I can't seem to get the tracks to record one track at a time. It has 5/6 and 7/8 and a Master for bouncing too, which works great, but without the manual (I bought it on eBay) whenever, say, I record guitar on track 1, and I go back to do vocals on 2, it also records that playback of the guitar on 2. Whenever I record using all of the tracks simotaneously, all four inputs get recorded to all four channels!

Does anyone have a link to a manual, or can tell me how this works?

Thanks.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Ryan:

I think you need to put your "recorded" track [s] into the CUE mode to overdub a new track.

Like do your track 1; look on your recorder for the CUE mode and put the "recorded" track in that mode before you attempt to record another track or tracks.

Green Hornet

[A Reel Person]

It's in the CUE system, that you'll need to route your signals for reference playback,... otherwise known as "cue" tracks.

The CUE system is a 4-by-1 mix that's totally independent of the "main" mix section,... which is the main channel & part of the board that you're brining your primary inputs into. In general, you need to keep your MAIN mix channels separate from your CUE tracks, while overdubbing, and the CUE monitor enables you to do that. It's part of the design and intent of the unit, and it's all "in the box".

IT's a bit too complicated to explain fully & properly on a bbs. Hope those hints get you straightened out. Otherwise, you need the manual. TASCAM PARTS sells the manuals, and they take phone orders, at (323) 727-4840.

[DigitalSmigital]

The system on the 424 mkIII is much harder for the novice to grasp; all this main mix and cue mix mumbo jumbo gets a fella hot under the collar when you don't know the difference.

The cue mix is what the musicians hear in the headphones, a signal already recorded on tape, which will cue them when to start playing an overdub part.

The main mix is all the input chanells and pre-recorded tracks mixed together, the signal you would hear out of the line out jacks in back of the 464.

Like I said, the 464 is an easy board to understand. Record your guitar on track one. When you record something on track two, make sure the buttons marked Left and Right are not depressed. These buttons are located to the left of the LCD display.

"But", you say, " now I can't hear the the guitar on track one"! That's because you have just turned off the main mix in your headphones. To hear the cue mix, depress the cue button lower in the same line of buttons. Then, above this line of buttons is the cue mix section, where you can adjust the levels of track one, two, three and four with independant pan pots.

Reel Person is right, to explain this simple idea is difficult, but almost impossible for the 424 mkIII!

[RyanEmerson]

Wait, so how do I go about laying down four separate tracks? Let's say, drums, guitar, bass, then vocals? What about bouncing?

My other question was, simplified, how do I make it so that each of the four tracks controls it's OWN instrument and not an overdub of many of them.

Thanks.

[DigitalSmigital]

That's what I meant when I said to turn off the main mix. It not only keeps you from hearing the main mix's signal, it keeps you from recording it (called bussing it) onto the next track.

Read the posts carefully, all three are correct.

What is confusing at first is this. Your headphone mix could be a mixture of the main mix and the cue mix.

Lets say you have a guitar part on track one. When you playback track one, you see the guitar's signal on the LCD dancing on track one. When you are about to record on track two, and you have a bass guitar pugged in to ch. two, you should be able to hear the bass and guitar in your cans, but only see the bass dancing on the LCD's track two. If you stop playing bass and the track two still shows a signal, you are bouncing track one over to the bass' track. Bad.

When laying down tracks, you should only be hearing the cue mix. When bouncing tracks, you should only monitor the main mix.

[RyanEmerson]

Okay, got it dude. Thanks!

My own ignorance in these matters kept me from understanding the previous posts. But now it's clear.