using two 4-tracks to get 16 tracks?

[outofstep]

I have a tascam porta 02 and my friend has a tascam 414 mkII... I was thinking that if we were to record 4-tracks on one recorder then mix down to one track on the other recorder.. we could do this 3 more times and get 16 good sounding tracks.. right? I just want to make sure that I'm thinking correctly... thanks.-matt

[gnarled]

Well, not unless you have some way to sync the two. The tape speeds of the two machines aren't going to be the same. You'll end up with 4 groups of 4 tracks that don't quite line up. A better way to get more tracks is just by bouncing. Record stuff on tracks 1-3 and bounce all 3 to track 4. Then you can record two new tracks on tracks 1 and 2, bounce those to track 3. With this technique, you can get 7 tracks with no more than 1 generation lost. If you mix in a live track every time you bounce, you can get up to 11 tracks. I you don't mind losing mixing flexibility and substantial generation loss, you can mix the bounced tracks to one track over and over, so you essentially get an infinite number of tracks out of your 4track. You need to be pretty meticulous in planning such a recording - think about panning, etc. ahead of time.

[Gidge]

record 4 tracks on recorder A....bounce that to 2 tracks on recorder B....you can then record 2 more tracks on recorder B....bounce these 4 tracks to 2 tracks on recorder A.....again, you have 2 tracks available....you can go back and forth as much asyou like......limitless tracks of good quality......

if you ask why im bouncing to 2 tracks, its to preserve any stereo imaging you want to do......remember, once you bounce and record over you are stuck with your mixing decision so be happy before you move on.....

[Mikeblacktop]

you can do that, or you can run the 4 track directly into your computer in the line in...and you can use your four track as a pre mixer and get up to 4 tracks for every one recorded on the computer...i use cool edit

for more info, e-mail me

blacktop_rec@hotmail.com

[gnarled]

I like Gidge's idea, but the problem I see is that by the time you get up to 12 tracks, you've lost 5 generations on those first 4 tracks. This method would make it MUCH easier for stereo imaging though (especially for drums).