Connecting two (2) 424 MKII porta's together to make an 8 track.

H

Hiccup Master

New member
My band and I are really determinded to record a full length cd this summer, I can work the porta pretty well, the only problem is it takes a while to record 1 song on a 4 track, and even though the quality sounds great (received many a complements on that to my suprise) it would just be a whole hell of a lot easier to record a song using 8 tracks instead of 4. I have a friend who has another 424 MKII or similar that I'm sure he would let me borrow. Now my question is, how would i hook these 2 together so I could use 8 tracks? would I just use an RCA cable and go from the line out put on one, to the line input on the other? If that is the case then does anyone have any tips that would make it easy, or really easy? I will be doing the mix down on my computer with Cool Edit Pro, if that helps any. Thanks in Advance!
 
As far as I know, there is no way to tie two 424's together to make them into an 8 track recorder.

Even if you could, you would need to time code stripe one channel on each deck and purchase additional synchronization equipment that can't be hooked up to these units in the first place. Add to that mess, you would only then have 6 tracks to record on.

Here's a better idea for you;

Borrow your buddy's unit and along with yours, you can do bounces between the two machines but in stereo!

Record 4 tracks on the first one, mix to taste and bounce in stereo to two tracks on the second one. Now you have two more tracks you can add to the second portastudio and bounce back, one last time to the first one in stereo again and have two tracks left over for a total of 8 parts, all in stereo.

If your careful with your bounce mixes and keep the levels healthy, you should end up with a very decent end result.

Good luck with the project!

Cheers! :)
 
Why don't you...

... just record into Cool Edit Pro directly? It's a multitracker! I take it you must already have a soundcard that you'd be using to transfer the tracks out of your 4-track and into your computer, so why not just record directly into CEP? You'd have up to 128 tracks to work with, plus you wouldn't have to do any transfer from your 4-track. You could do your editing straight away, and the end result would probably be cleaner than what you're proposing, especially since you apparently know what you're doing having gotten such great results with the 428 and all. Though CEP is a different multitracking realm, it's really not all that different, in the grand scheme of things. Give it a shot.
 
The problem with recording straight into CEP is my computer is at my house, and we record at my friends house and it's a good 20 min drive one way. I've thought about recording each instrument on to a tape then uploading them to my computer and dumping them into CEP but then there is getting all the timing rights.
 
HM,

Give my method a shot!

You have little to loose by trying it and if you get it right with careful bounces, you'll have a better recorded result then just working with the 4 tracks from only one machine.

Good luck with the session.

Cheers! :)
 
Listen to the Ghost...

Not just in this case, because he is usually (OK, always) right in these recording matters.

I have two TASCAM 4 trackers; a 424 mkIII and a 464. Treat each bounce as a stereo mix-down including adding effects to your individual tracks. Leave the vocals and/or lead instruments for the last open tracks of the project to ensure the highest quality.
 
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