mixing down with no satisfaction

[ramsel]

i posted earlier but wanted to have all my bases covered. i am trying to mix a soundtrack for a student film i am doing. i am going from a recorder to the four track. all the music is prerecorded on tape. whenever i record on to one of the four tracks, that seems to go fine. everything appears right. when i try to mixdown, i get no noise, no music. what is the problem? could it be the connections or perhaps the actual tape the music is on? the vu meter on the recorder is not reading all that much--at the far left of the negative yellow is that too quiet to record adequately? i have big time problems so any advice would be great. thanks

[Rusty K]

I'm not clear on what it is you are trying to do. Are you using music from tapes into 2tracs/stereo and then adding something,like narative, with the other two tracs?

Are you sure the 4trac machine is functioning properly? The VU meter should show hotter than you describe that is if the signal is reaching the machine. Its usually ok for the VU meter to bounce into the red occasionally while recording,at least with analog. Are your faders up to around 7? That is sort of a normal record level? Switch out your connecting cables to make sure they are working.Have you tried all the channels of the 4trac? If you have did they all respond in a similiar way?

The tape should have nothing to do with your problem that I can think of.

Rusty K