Mixing down from MD4s

[dibliss]

I connected my Yamaha MD4s into my home stereo by using the stereo output of my MD4s to the aux of my stereo.When I recorded the tracks to the stereo's cassette deck the playback volume of the taped recording was very low,I had to turn up the stereo's volume to its highest point to hear my track.I tried everything to fix the problem but cannot.Please tell me what am I doing wrong?

[Ray J]

O.K. lets start with this. Have you ever mixed down to anything before, and does your cassette deck have meters on it? I'm just trying to eliminate the obvious things before going into all the possibilities of what could be wrong. Also does your cassette deck have adjustable recording level controls?

[dibliss]

No I have never mixed down before.No, my cassette deck has no meters or adjustable recording levels.Its a Kenwood Tuner/CD/Double Tape deck stereo.

[Ray J]

All I can offer is this. Most home recordings are not as loud as commercial recordings. My cassette deck does have meters, and if I mixdown as hot as I can without clipping (going into the red), then play this tape on my car stereo, I only have about 50-60% of the volume a commercial recording has. This is before using a compressor. If you're talking about half the volume of a commercial recording, than this is not unusual for a home recording. If you're talking about cranking it up and still barely being able to hear it, then this seems like it would be something in the way it's hooked up or the capability of your cassette deck. I'm sure someone else here can help you with that problem now that you stated what you're mixing to.

Getting back to the first case, where you have about 50-60% of the volume of a commercial recording, well there are a few things you can do to make your recording louder.

First, you need to record the individual tracks pretty hot, close to clipping but not clipping. There are also things you can do with compressors, eq, and maximizers/finalizers to bring up the volume on your recordings. Meters on your mixdown deck helps, they tell you how loud to crank the master on the multitrack...Good luck...peace...Ray J



[This message has been edited by Ray J (edited 06-18-2000).]

[Nilbog]

I read somwhere else around here that you lose about 10dB when mixing down (?).

There's a few things that will help.
1. Put you final mix through a compressor.

2. If you are still considering mixing down to your computer (the quality will be as good if not better than casette), you need to normalize your recoridng. Basically what this does is bring up the highest peeks to the highest possible points. It'll help get the most volume out of your track, especially if it's well compressed, and you don't have random high peeks.

3. Get a casette deck designed for recording. These have input meters, input volume, etc. Try your local thrift store or pawn shop.

-Nilbog

[Kelly Holdridge]

Here's an idea:

Connect your x-track to your stereo. Now listen to a CD or Radio. While playing your song through AUX, switch back from CD/Radio to AUX to CD/Radio and back, until your signal from AUX (your x-track) has the same general sound level. KEEP THE VOLUME THE SAME WHILE YOU ARE DOING THIS. Now record your song for a bit. Listen to it off the tape. Does it sound about the same level as when it came in through AUX? If not, try these three things...

1) Make sure Dolby is OFF. Some people like to use it, but I find it just chops the highs out. Even w/ Dolby, you're going to get tape hiss. Disable it for a bit.

2) Make sure you've cleaned your tapeheads. If this is your standard-issue WalMart stereo and you've used it for a while, the heads will need cleaning. Don't go out and buy a cleaner--just take a Q-tip and splash/dip it in medical alcohol (isopropyl alcohol). Open your tape "door" and rub the Q-tip on the large metallic looking thing in the middle of the "hole". (I'm not trying to be condescending--you just might not know where the tape head is, you know?) Let it dry for a while, "repeat if necessary."

3) Use High-Bias tape. You probably won't be able to use Metal tape, so avoid it. Even if you can, it tends to do *something* to tape heads that aren't designed for it. But you don't want normal bias, either. I think High-Bias is either Type II or Type III. So, don't use Type I or Type IV. This will allow for greater saturation of the audio on the tape media itself, and allow you to turn your song up louder as it is put into your stereo's AUX.

hope this helps...