Mixdown Confusion

[kp174]

I am a little confused about mixing down to cd's or cassettes or whatever. I am going to buy a tascam multitrack recorder, and now I need to buy another piece of equiptment just to listen to my music on regular cassette players? I have also heard a lot obout mixing down to minidisc, is this worthwhile? how would I make cd's?? thanks for the help

[drstawl]

The TASCAM 4-tracks you have in mind have a circuit that allows you to do the mixdown and listen to that on a monitor system or headphones.
When you want to <save> that mix somewhere you'll need another piece of equipment.
The 424 can almost write to regular cassette format at regular speed but it sounds like shit. The Porta-07 can't even read/write at normal cassette speed.
Mixdown to CDR.
The equipment isn't any more expensive than a cassette deck that can capture sound at CD resolution. Not to mention blank space is cheaper for CDR than cassette.

[hongteck]

From your track recorder,you can either mixdown to 1) cassette, which you need a tape deck and its going to be a lot cheaper (and noiser) 2) minidisc, with a MD player and it'll be cleaner and probably sound nicer (depending on your preference actually)
3) CD, this way you either get a standalone CD player which will cost you a bomb or you have use mounted to your computer. If you have a computer and a good soundcard, this is the way of the future.

[kp174]

Thanks for your help! I am starting to get the idea, so I guess my next question is , how exactly would I mix down to CDR from a 4 track to my computer? Thanks!

[Rev E]

kp174,

To mixdown to the computer you'll need a couple items. If you already have a computer, you probably already have these things. You need: a soundcard (computers usually come with them), an audio recording program (n-tracks, powertracks pro, cakewalk, logic audio, cubase, etc)

Just connect the output of your 4-track to the input of the soundcard. If you're using the computer soundcard, you'll need an adaptor that makes an two 1/4 inch phono plugs into a stereo 1/8 inch mini plug (radio shack)

Balance your tracks on the 4-track and send the signal to the soundcard. Make sure that you don't send too much signal or the track will distort. Once you successfully get the music recorded and saved into the computer (as a wav file with a PC or AIFF on a MAC) you then can burn a CD with software that will come with your CD player.

With a standalone CD recorder you just press record and you're recording a CD. However, this route is more expensive than the internal computer CD recorder and you will have more limited options (computer backup) with the standalone recorder route.

Rev E

[This message has been edited by Rev E (edited 04-18-2000).]

[kp174]

is it possible to mix down to a computer with the TASCAM porta-02? I know its features are limited but it is really all i can afford right now!!

[Lambo]

kp174
Yes you can by connecting the Main R & L outputs to the Line input on the soundcard. You'll need a TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve) cable to do this. Refer back to REV E's post which clearly answers your question. Refer back to drstawl's post when you finally record the audio tracks onto your PC and are sitting there in bewilderment wondering,"now what?"