mixing down form tascam 688

[doctorempire]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to the wonderful world of home recording, and I am currently working on my first real full length demo/album by myself. I'm recording the music onto a Tascam midistudio 688. My question is, if I were to get a program like Acid or Sound Forge or something along those lines, would I be able to transfer the tracks into that program and mix it down from there? If so would the sound quality suffer at all? Which program would be best suited for this? Any input or other options for quality mixing down would be greatly appreciated.

Peace, Mike

[drstawl]

Acid and Vegas are multitrack software environments. Sound Forge is a .wav editor and no mixing can be accomplished.

The sound quality (of the final product) will be dependent on the converters used to import the output of the tape into the computer.

You also might run into some synchronization problems between individual tracks imported during separate replays of the same cassette. Mechanical speed control is just not as reproducible as a clock-controlled playback.

[MadAudio]

Actually, ACID is not a true multitracker since you can only record one track (mono or stereo) at a time. I've been archiving my old 4-track cassettes with Vegas, and it does a great job. You can mix, add effects, do all kinds of stuff in Vegas. You might get some added noise depending on the quality of your sound card. Does the 688 have dbx NR, and are you using it? Does the 688 have direct tape outs like the old Porta-One? That would eliminate any sync issues when digitizing the audio, but you'd need a sound card with 4 inputs.

[glimmer_doll]

Originally Posted by MadAudio

Actually, ACID is not a true multitracker since you can only record one track (mono or stereo) at a time. I've been archiving my old 4-track cassettes with Vegas, and it does a great job. You can mix, add effects, do all kinds of stuff in Vegas. You might get some added noise depending on the quality of your sound card. Does the 688 have dbx NR, and are you using it? Does the 688 have direct tape outs like the old Porta-One? That would eliminate any sync issues when digitizing the audio, but you'd need a sound card with 4 inputs.

688 has dbx and direct tape outs, but it's 8 tracks, so you'd need a sound card with 8 inputs...i still say it's easier to just mix it on the 688 itself...

[drstawl]

Vegas would indeed eliminate the sync issue if you had a soundcard like the M-Audio Delta1010.

I was unsure of the availability of direct outs on the 688.

But even so:

I'd have to say that given the limitations of the cassette medium you'd get the most bang for your buck mixing down on the 688. Maybe for some specific effect to be applied to one or more tracks there could be scraped up some advantage to exporting tracks recorded on a sliver of tape less than 400 microns wide.

But for cleanliness: Cut out the middleman.

[MadAudio]

True, and true. Plus mixing in analog is invaluable experience. Riding those faders, it's like you're playing another instrument...

[glimmer_doll]

Originally Posted by MadAudio

True, and true. Plus mixing in analog is invaluable experience. Riding those faders, it's like you're playing another instrument...

exactly...damn boy..that's my favourite part....actual physical contact with your mix...

it's like, oh yeah baby, i know you like it when i turn that knob like that...oh yeeeaah....just watch how i slide this over here like that...oh yeah, that feels good.... i really get into mixing

[MadAudio]

Whew, why do I feel like I need a cigarette now?

[JimPunkrockford]

i don't know, faders and knobs??? i just did a little demo for some kids and i recorded on my roland vs840, then, track by track, loaded the tacks into my puter. then used acid to mix the whole thing down. i did have to resink the tracks and loading each track one by one took a long time. but having acid to mix it all down was killer and the finished product turned out great (if i do say so myself)