Poor Man's Analogue Studio

robble

New member
New to the forum, thought I'd share my setup.
Based around a Tascam 488mkii, With a Sony deck for mixdowns, 8 channel preamp, and an old hi-fi tuner to power the Realistic Minimus 7's. I know it's nothing like a full analogue studio with a reel to reel, but it makes pretty good tapes. I'm pretty new to recording and mixing, and am enjoying working with analogue gear. Cheers.
 

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Sweet brother! I loved my 488mkII so much...used it pretty much as my main songwriting/demo studio recorder from 1998 to 2009.

I've been using iOS Music Production apps as my main recording set up, the excellent DAW Auria Pro, etc. but I still have my 488mkII in the closet if needed.

Be cool & thanks for sharing the setup...
 
New to the forum, thought I'd share my setup.
Based around a Tascam 488mkii, With a Sony deck for mixdowns, 8 channel preamp, and an old hi-fi tuner to power the Realistic Minimus 7's. I know it's nothing like a full analogue studio with a reel to reel, but it makes pretty good tapes. I'm pretty new to recording and mixing, and am enjoying working with analogue gear. Cheers.

Nuttin wrong with that. :) you can do a lot with the gear you have.
:D
 
The 488 mkii is a great machine! Have fun with it and feel free to post some tunes either in this forum or the mp3 mixing clinic if you'd like.
 
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Sweet brother! I loved my 488mkII so much...used it pretty much as my main songwriting/demo studio recorder from 1998 to 2009.

I've been using iOS Music Production apps as my main recording set up, the excellent DAW Auria Pro, etc. but I still have my 488mkII in the closet if needed.

Be cool & thanks for sharing the setup...


Awesome looking studio. I checked out your Soundcloud. I'm really impressed by the sounds and songwriting. I wouldn't guess it was a portastudio.
 
Awesome looking studio. I checked out your Soundcloud. I'm really impressed by the sounds and songwriting. I wouldn't guess it was a portastudio.

Thank you Robbie, that's nice of you to say.

Enjoy your 488 MkII, be cool...
 
A lot like my setup...I’ve got a 488 (mk1) as well, a Samson C01 condenser and a SM57, a M-Audio DMP-3 two-channell preamp, a FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor, a TC Electronics M101 Reverb/Delay unit, and that’s about it other than my guitars and other instruments. I mixdown to computer and do a little mastering in a DAW. I love the sound and the workflow; I worked exclusively in a DAW for a long time and option overload KILLED me. There are people who can resist trying every possible plugin on a track, but I’m not one of them.

Anyway, nice setup, and post some of your music!
 
Very cool! I’ve been looking at the tc unit actually, and the rnc. Sorta debating between the rnla and rnc. I’ll post a recording at some point but I have yet to even apply compression so I don’t know if it’s worth it in my case. If you have any music to share, I’d like to hear.
 
Here's a rundown on this track.

The guitars are mic'd with a good old trusty SM57, through a M-Audio DMP-3 preamp, and hard-panned left and right. Guitar itself is a Martin 000-15m, which has probably become my favorite guitar that I've ever owned. The vocals went through a Samson C01 condenser, which sounds great to me for the $50 or so I paid new, and the DMP-3. I doubled them, and during mixing I added a little compression with a FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor and then a liberal dose of reverb through a TC Electronic M101 Multieffects box (which is a nice deal for $99). The bass is my trusty Hofner Ignition Violin Bass through a cheapo Behringer DI box that is a knockoff of one of the Tech 21 boxes, I believe.

Now for the twist, if you will - the drums are...EZDrummer 2. I sent them out of my Scarlett 2i2 interface through the headphone out onto track 1 of the 488, and that's about it, other than cranking the highs on the 488 during mixing so as to grab at least some of the high end/hi-hat/cymbals. Somehow, putting EZDrummer on tape (even narrow tape like a cassette) made it sit much better in the mix than in ANY of my digital recordings. I admit I may be imagining that, but I do believe it to be true.

My 488 was completely refurbished recently, and I used a nice NOS TDK SA-60 Type II, High Bias tape. I did all of the mixing on the 488, using the onboard EQ, as well as my compressor and reverb unit, and then bounced that mix back into my computer, where I used Ozone 7 Elements, a mastering VST, to add a little sparkle.
 
So are you applying all the effects during mix down through the effects sends? or recording to another track the processed signal? I find the stereo returns 9/10 11/12 weird as you don't get the same stereo panning option that you get from the channel you're processing.
 
Here's a rundown on this track.

The guitars are mic'd with a good old trusty SM57, through a M-Audio DMP-3 preamp, and hard-panned left and right. Guitar itself is a Martin 000-15m, which has probably become my favorite guitar that I've ever owned. The vocals went through a Samson C01 condenser, which sounds great to me for the $50 or so I paid new, and the DMP-3. I doubled them, and during mixing I added a little compression with a FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor and then a liberal dose of reverb through a TC Electronic M101 Multieffects box (which is a nice deal for $99). The bass is my trusty Hofner Ignition Violin Bass through a cheapo Behringer DI box that is a knockoff of one of the Tech 21 boxes, I believe.

Now for the twist, if you will - the drums are...EZDrummer 2. I sent them out of my Scarlett 2i2 interface through the headphone out onto track 1 of the 488, and that's about it, other than cranking the highs on the 488 during mixing so as to grab at least some of the high end/hi-hat/cymbals. Somehow, putting EZDrummer on tape (even narrow tape like a cassette) made it sit much better in the mix than in ANY of my digital recordings. I admit I may be imagining that, but I do believe it to be true.

My 488 was completely refurbished recently, and I used a nice NOS TDK SA-60 Type II, High Bias tape. I did all of the mixing on the 488, using the onboard EQ, as well as my compressor and reverb unit, and then bounced that mix back into my computer, where I used Ozone 7 Elements, a mastering VST, to add a little sparkle.

Sounds really nice! Everything sounds very pleasant. The style of the vocals and the song reminds me a lot of Soul Asylum. The only critique I could find is that the bass seemed to be a little indistinct.

Do you by chance mean the TC Electronics M100 instead of the M101? I searched for M101 and couldn't find anything.

If it is the M100, it seems very much like the "little brother" of the M350 (full rack size), which I have and really enjoy!
 
Sounds really nice! Everything sounds very pleasant. The style of the vocals and the song reminds me a lot of Soul Asylum. The only critique I could find is that the bass seemed to be a little indistinct.

Do you by chance mean the TC Electronics M100 instead of the M101? I searched for M101 and couldn't find anything.

If it is the M100, it seems very much like the "little brother" of the M350 (full rack size), which I have and really enjoy!

Thanks for the kind words. Soul Asylum is not a comparison I had thought of - but I'm a child of the 90's and Let Your Dim Light Shine was a record I listened to a ton as a teenager, so that's high praise in my book.

And yes, it's the M100 - sorry about the confusion!
 
So are you applying all the effects during mix down through the effects sends? or recording to another track the processed signal? I find the stereo returns 9/10 11/12 weird as you don't get the same stereo panning option that you get from the channel you're processing.

Yes, I'm using the effects sends during mixdown - took me a little while to get the hang of how they work!
 
Thanks for the kind words. Soul Asylum is not a comparison I had thought of - but I'm a child of the 90's and Let Your Dim Light Shine was a record I listened to a ton as a teenager, so that's high praise in my book.

And yes, it's the M100 - sorry about the confusion!

The song "Runaway Train" in particular is the similarity I was hearing. :)
 
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