4 track cassettes to Reels?

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vrada501

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Kind of a noob question, but wasn't sure if it was noobish enough for the that section but anyway.

I just had thoughts of doing a one man project in the future, and mastering it old fashion analog style to Vinyl possibly.

I'm not the most informed about everything, but based on the little knowledge that I have I plan to: To get and use 2 four track cassette recorders, to be able to use a total of eight tracks each instrument. So basically the 4 tracks on both tapes would have different instruments playing on their 4 tracks, and when both tapes are played at the same time, they may sound like a song recorded on a 8 track, and I wanted to transfer it that way to one of those 1/4 tape reels to be used as the master tape, even though I've learned little of those. The big tape reels are where I'm not the most informed. I've heard of them being either 2 track or being 24 track, but I'm aware there's also the 1/2 reels and I might be mixing up the info I read about them. I'd appreciate it if that info was cleared up for me.

How I imagine this working is by recording both cassettes on 2 separate tracks of the reel.
I may be asking an obvious and low IQ question but I just wanted to make sure that my concept of the process is possible, and if so what would I need to connect the cassettes into the tracks of the reel recorder for recording (Cables, adapters etc)?

Thank you for your time reading.
 
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Lot of questions here, and I'm not entirely sure I understand everything you're asking.

First off, though, there's no way to use two different 4 track cassette recorders as an 8-track machine. Even if you hit play on both machines at the exact same time, they won't play at exactly the same speed, and they will drift out of time throughout the song. By the end of the song, they'll be off by several beats most likely.

There are 8-track cassette recorders, though, such as the Tascam 688 or 488.

Regarding reel to reel recorders, they come in all kinds of formats: 2, 4, 8, 16, and 24 tracks are the most common, with 1/4", 1/2", 1", and 2" tape all used on different machines.

Regarding the rest of your post, I'm not sure I understand where you're going with it.
 
In addition to that, what would be the advantage of recording on an inferior medium like cassette tape only to bounce to a superior medium? Your sound quality will be limited by the source.
 
Well, I'm completely new to reels and I've never used equipment having anything to do Reel tapes or even the 4 track cassette recorders, so that's why I don't know everything I'm asking about but wanted to make sure I had the right idea about how to use them based on all I could find on my research.

Since I've heard more people talking about 2 track reel tape rolls (Btw, is it the tape that comes in X amount of tracks, or the recorder?) I thought that would be the kind of roll
I would end up with. Prior to replies, I thought I could transfer one of the two cassette tapes on one track of the 2 tracks (Again, if 2 track reel tape is what I ended with) and the other cassette on the second track so that they both become complete 8 track songs on the Reel.
So I was basically just asking how do you transfer content of a cassette tape onto a reel if you can? I'm guessing you just have to plug a Cassette player into a Reel recorder then play the cassette and put the Reel recorder on record? and if so what kind of cable do you need to connect them to do that?

I also wasn't sure if you could record your music straight onto a reel through tracks exactly like on those 4/8 track cassette recorder. But I also thought it would be easier mixing with cassette tapes and after the mixing, transfer the cassettes to the Reel exactly how I would want it to be on the final product. Considering the reel would of been the master tape.

Some of the Vinyl cutters that I've heard of who accept analog as a master source usually accept just reel tapes, which is why I wanted to put the music on the reel.
But if you can really record multi track straight on the reel I guess it might make more sense to do that then.
 
Why are you trying to use two cassette 4 tracks? Do you have them, or are you under the impression that this is how you record stuff?

Unfortunately, you aren't going to get much help with that setup, because it just doesn't work that way.

If you need 8 tracks, you need to have a single recorder that can hold 8 tracks. The machine determines how many tracks will go on the tape.

Then you need some sort of mixer to mix the song, the results of the mix will be played onto the two track reel tape. It is two track for stereo, track one is the left channel, track two is the right channel. You can't simply dump the results from one 4 track onto the left channel and the other 4 track on the right and end up with a song.

As was mentioned, there is no way to sync two cassette 4 tracks together, so you can't use them as an 8 track recorder.
 
^^^ Thats it in a nut shell.

Ditch the two cassette machine approach, period. I wouldnt look at an 8 track cassette machine either, novel, but ehhh.

Find a table top 8 track reel to reel, there are several makes and model to choose from. If you really want to master to tape, you will need a 1/4" 2 track machine (No, a consumer stereo type wont do the job).

You will need a mixer, this brings the microphone levels up line level, which is what the 8 track will want to receive. The mixer is also required when you want to mix the 8 tracks down to the stereo signal to be sent to the 1/4" machine (the stereo mix). This is the bare minimum, and really you would like to have some outboard equipment at your disposal during mix down. Once this is all done the stereo master tape will still need to go to a specialist to master it for use of printing vinyl.
 
Or, you could get an audio interface and record to the computer. If you want to mix down to tape, you could get a decent 1/4 2-track and mix down to that.
 
I have a couple of 4 tracks that are the same brand & model but different beast - wow, flutter, noise , speed all vary slightly.
I've used an 8 track cassette and that was OK. The VERY narrow width of cassette tape used for a track means that quality is compromised.
 
Thank you for the new helpful answers, guys. They cleared things up a lot. To quote you, Farview no, I have none of that stuff at all. I just thought about getting into recording into the future,
so basically I asked here to see whether or not I had the right idea on how to set up a home recording system, which I probably didn't after all.

So, after learning these mentioned facts I still have a couple questions but I think these could be the last ones before I can start figuring it out. About the mixers (Never got to use them either) I assume the way it works with using a Mixer and a multi track recorder is that you set the recorder to record, and as you play the instruments through the mixer, their outcome which is dependent on the mixer settings will transfer on to the tape, or do mixers somehow hold and/or allow you to preview your song/track that your mixing before you record it onto the tape?

And also just wanted to make sure when going the route with Instruments to mixer to Reel to Reel recorder, that even with Reel to Reel recorders you can record one track at a time?
In this route, is it possible to listen to your other tracks maybe through headphones while recording the other tracks?
And also how does that bouncing the multi track to the 2 stereo track work? Do you have to some how split your self, or would this process split the the tracks into the 2 tracks for you?

Some of the answers may be obvious, but I just wanted to make 100% sure so I wouldn't run into trouble. Just a heads up, sometime in the future I *Might* when I'm picking out parts for the set up according to what I think should be compatible, I share the picked parts to make sure with the set up will work, so if I did that I would appreciate a lot if anyone here looked at it to see if there would be anything wrong with it.

Thanks again, guys!!
 
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First, answer this question: is it completely necessary to have an analog recording setup?

With an analog setup, like you seem to be trying to do, you need to buy tons of expensive equipment and all the cables to hook everything together. Each of these pieces has a somewhat steep learning curve, once you even figure out how to hook them up properly.

Then, if you want effects, compression, etc... you have to go out and buy a separate unit for every effect you want in a mix, and a separate compressor for every instrument you want to compress. Even using the cheapest junk imaginable, this can get into the tens of thousands of dollars. Plus you have to buy tape, which can run hundreds of dollars per reel, depending on the width.

If you got an interface, a daw called reaper, and a couple microphones, you could be up and running for well under $1000. You also wouldn't have a track count limit.

Without a basic understanding of what any of the pieces of analog equipment do, or how they work, you will just spend a ton of money and not have anything useful.
 
To answer your question about the reel to.reel being able to record one track at a time: it depends on the machine. The 2 track machines are meant to be stereo units, so they record both tracks at once...like a home stereo cassette deck.

Multi-track machines do record the separately.

The mixer is used to take all the separate tracks from the multi-track machine and mix them together into a stereo mix, that stereo mix is then recorded to the 2 track tape machine.

The mixer does not save anything. You play the multitrack into the mixer, it mixes it in real time, and the output is feed to the 2 track recorder, which records it in real time.

You have a lot of youtubing to do before you spend any money at all.

Search:
How does a mixer work
How does a multitrack recorder work
 
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