Tascam recording dilema

L

Ladnar

New member
Hi folks, I hope I'm posting in the right forum.
Anyway, here go's.

My current set up is a Tascam 48, I use a Tascam M-30 board, nearfield speakers, various mic's.

I have no effects, such as reverb or echo to add to the tracks.
What sort of device do I need to add to this set up to have reverb (that I can add to select tracks?, i.e. vocals?

I was also wondering if there was some sort of box, like a DI box that you could plug in to add reverb?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Randal
 
Ladnar said:
I have no effects, such as reverb or echo to add to the tracks.
What sort of device do I need to add to this set up to have reverb (that I can add to select tracks?, i.e. vocals?
Click to expand...
To have reverb you need a device called "reverb". Same goes to "echo".
Ladnar said:
I was also wondering if there was some sort of box, like a DI box that you could plug in to add reverb?
Click to expand...
Effect processors are "boxes", some look like DI boxes. And yes, to add reverb you can and would have to plug it in.
 
The Zoom RFX2000 is a reasonably good all-in-one unit. The Alesis Midiverb series is quite well-respected, and of course there's Lexicon whose range runs from low-end through to something about the cost of a car.
Then there's Behringer, but I won't go there.

In a nutshell, go to the website of your local equivalent of Turnkey or Digital Village (Musician's Friend? Is that one of them in the US?) and find the effects section. That will give you a good starting point.

Another approach is to check out the user reviews on Harmony Central, although unless you're buying on ebay, you do have to do a little work to separate things which are still in production from older units.

The next point is how to use it. Basically, you can either attach the unit in front, so that the effects are applied as it goes to tape, or you can use the AUX send/receive system and apply it to selected channels at mixdown.
Since an effects unit can only usually do one thing at once, a combination is often good.
For example, I usually apply echo to the vocals as they're recorded (although I may add sometimes record the echo onto to second track if I have one to spare). If you have a stereo reverb, it should be applied at mixdown since it will usually suck if you've just got the reverb 'baked' into the track in mono.

Hope that helps,
 
Tips:...

The M-30 has no Aux-Sends or Aux-Rcvs (in the modern sense), but instead each channel and buss has an ACCESS-SND/RCV patch point on RCA connectors.

You may patch efx directly onto any channel or any buss, during tracking or mixdown.

Another more cumbersom trick is to use the Monitor section [busse 3 & 4, f/i] as a makeshift "Aux-Send", and route the effected signal back to your main stereo buss [1/2], assuming you're doing a normal stereo mixdown on busses 1 & 2. The only pitfall to this is to make sure not to patch a feedback loop into the system from the Monitor section back to the Buss (main mix) section.

This workaround may take some forethought and careful application to be successful and may not apply to every situation, however the ACCESS-SND/RCV patch points should provide you adequate I/O for effects on either recording or mixdown. :eek: ;)
 
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