Tascam 414 mkii - Six simultaneous tracks?

G

guntherbuffalo

New member
Hi,

This is my first post, so forgive me if this is in the wrong place!

Just bought a Tascam 414 mkii for £5 off gumtree, just waiting for a power adapter as it didn't come with one.

I just want to make sure I understand this correctly -

In the user manual it says that you can record "up to 6 sources simultaneously" using the 4 standard mixer channels and the 2 stereo channels. This is great, as for my band we can record the Vocals, bass, guitar and sax using the standard 4, and put the keyboards stereo out into 5-6, and a simple drum overhead setup in 7-8. I know the stereo channels only have a "level" pot, but I'm not too worried about this.

My question is - once these 6 sources are recorded through the 6 channels, when it comes to mix down, can all 6 of these channels still be faded up and down independently? E.g. If I wanted to turn down guitar on channel 1, I would just lower fader one and all other tracks would be in the mix? Does the same go for the two stereo tracks? Could I just turn down the 5-6 "Level" pot to turn down the drum overheads?

Thanks,

Paul
 
Just the mixer has 6 inputs.
The recorder is still 4 tracks... you will have to submix when recording when you're recording more than 4 sources
 
The 414 is a 4 track recorder which means you can only re-adjust the levels and EQ, etc of those 4 independent tape tracks.

Though there are more then 4 channels of mixer which feeds those 4 taped tracks, they can not be preserved in isolation once recorded in the same way that they were while being recorded to tape.

Think of this like you might a 6 or 8 lane highway which condenses down to 4 traffic lanes. Some lane merging has to take place. So that might mean things like the drums, bass and guitar might have to merge onto two lanes of traffic and the vocal and lead solo instrument might have to take up those two remaining lanes. And once recorded and committed to tape, you'll now only be able to adjust those previous commitments/sub mixes/lanes mergers. This makes it important to get the best possible sub mix going in so that there will be less need to further manipulate those tracks once they're on the taped tracks.

Hope that made some sense for you.

Cheers! :)
 
Also, we have a small 4 track mixer that the keyboardist uses sometimes. Would it be possible to put all the mics from the drum kit (only kick, snare top and overheads) and put the stereo outs from that into one of the stereo inputs of the tascam?

That way we could use the EQ/faders of the small mixer, and also use a kick and snare mic instead of just overheads. Would using such a method degenerate the sound at all instead of just inputting the drums straight into the 414?

Cheers,

Paul
 
guntherbuffalo said:
Also, we have a small 4 track mixer that the keyboardist uses sometimes. Would it be possible to put all the mics from the drum kit (only kick, snare top and overheads) and put the stereo outs from that into one of the stereo inputs of the tascam?

That way we could use the EQ/faders of the small mixer, and also use a kick and snare mic instead of just overheads. Would using such a method degenerate the sound at all instead of just inputting the drums straight into the 414?

Cheers,

Paul
Click to expand...
That would work. The added noise should be negligible in terms of the overall recording.

Electronic hiss and noise only tends to be audible during quiet parts of a song.

Cheers! :)
 
guntherbuffalo said:
Also, we have a small 4 track mixer that the keyboardist uses sometimes. Would it be possible to put all the mics from the drum kit (only kick, snare top and overheads) and put the stereo outs from that into one of the stereo inputs of the tascam?

That way we could use the EQ/faders of the small mixer, and also use a kick and snare mic instead of just overheads. Would using such a method degenerate the sound at all instead of just inputting the drums straight into the 414?

Cheers,

Paul
Click to expand...

This is referred to as "submixing," and it's done all the time (or at least it used to be before the days of the DAW and unlimited tracks).

One word on this though. If you wanted to add any reverb or other effects (or compression) to, say, the snare and/or the overheads, you'd need to do that through that external 4-channel mixer (if it has an effects send or inserts in the channels). Otherwise, once you submix those tracks and record them to the Tascam, any reverb you apply will also be applied to the kick, which isn't usually as desirable (tends to muddy up things a bit).
 
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