Recording w/Live Sound (424MkIII)

[dobbs]

Hello. I want to record my band while we are playing live. I have a Samson S83 8 channel powered mixer, a Tascam 424MkIII 4 track, and a Zoom RFX300 effects box. My plan was to go thru the Samson as usual and use the effects sends. One for the Zoom and one for the Tascam. Would I be better of putting the Zoom box on the Tascam effects sends or the Samson mixer sends? I want to be able to use the effects even when we're not recording. Thanks.

[weAponX]

cupla problems with Tascam stuff (I don't know if they have fixed it with the mark III)

If you are taking a stereo mix in 2 channels, they will become phase-inverted and when you go to mix it, you will get a nice sounding WAV with both sides being 180° out of phase. If you listen to it in headphones on the tascam, take the stereo mix and roll the pans up to dead center. If the volume drops drastically, you got a problem (unfixable) with the print.

If your mixer does not have a reverse-phase switch for the output then you need to take an RCA cord, cut it in half and switch the polarity. Use that for the right send to the tascam from the board effects send (I don't know how many sends you are talking about here, 2?) That will fix this problem.

(ah I see you weere talking about a mono send from one effects send)

Depending on what you are doing, if you are putting stereo music on 1,2 and individual vocals on 3,4 then use the zoom box for mixdown. Otherwise use it on the samson during recording.

For what you are describing though, send effect 1 without effect to the tascam, and just use effect 2 for the effect. I imagine you are going to put out live mikes? You might be able to get a good mix with 1 line out from the board and 3 external mikes.

[Hard2Hear]

Hey, I did this, too...for lack of better recording media.

I ran my Mackie 1604VLZ to my Tascam 424. What I did was kind of sloppy and I'm sure I'll get slammed on it, but we ran 3 sub mixes 1 with the 2 vocals we have, another with guitars, and another with bass and drums. It didn't turn out spectacular, but it was actually better than I thought it would be! Leaving the one track open, I could bounce the tracks together and add a little later.

Run the zoom box off of your mixer if you want it for your PA. I wouldn't run the main sound off of the Tascam, and that's what you would have to do to get effects if they were on the 424.

Hope this helps