MD4 Bouncing Distortion

[gumboots]

I'm working with a Yamaha MD4. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, but whenever I bounce tracks, even just two at a time with simple backup vocals, the end result yields a LOT of distortion. Lowering the volume while bouncing seems to help, but I can still hear the fuzziness cutting through, and then my track is at half the loudness.
While recording the individual tracks, I made careful note of the gain, and took special precaution that no sound got too high in the red. But still, when I mix them together, it comes out really terribly.
It's digital! I thought that meant endless bouncing with out quality degredation...I can't even do one.
Am I missing something?

Also, as a side question, there isn't any sort of compression feature built into MD recorders, is there? Or would I have to buy some other seperate unit for that?

Many thanks for any info!

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Boots of Gum:

There is no "built-in" compression device on the MD-4 or the MD-8, [that I know of and it's not in the manual.]

As to your "bouncing" problems, I'm not quite sure but I suspect that you are not doing the in/out designation, or soemthing else, like getting out of CUE mode when bouncing.

I use the MD-8 because I don't want to bounce any tracks, like two tracks to one track. WHY? Because if you do that, you cannot tweak each track. You can only tweak two tracks, which usually don't require the same identical tweaking. So, I suggest your review your manual, or contact Nilbog for some of his expert advice.

But, you're getting distortion because some switch or mode is not turned off, I think.

Green Hornet

[gumboots]

I tried switching my CUE switches. I don't even remember what they do anymore because I lost my manual, but they didn't fix the problem. I tried bouncing again, and noticed that when two tracks of aproximately the same volume/gain level (just in or below red) are put together, the new combined track has a volume/gain thru the roof. This doesn't seem to make sense. Is there a 'constant' volume level I have to set on the main fader or monitor that will ensure that a consistant volume will be maintained when I bounce?

I don't really understand why I'm having so much trouble with this, it seems like the machine was built to work without these problems.

I wish I could afford the 8 track!!!