TASCAM 34B as mixdown deck

[hansgauffin]

Hi everyone, I have the oppurtunity to buy a used TASCAM 34B for a nice price, assume it´s in good condition, would it be useful as a Mixdown deck for my TASCAM 388 recordings? Any tips on the best way to record two tracks on it, is it best to record on all FOUR tracks 1+2=L 3+4=R, or just 1&4 or 2&3?? Thanks for any advice
/Hans

 

[A Reel Person]

34b

The 34B is a well equipped 4-track recorder that's optimized for 4-track production, live-to-4 or "Quad". The 1/4" mic-preamp jacks and mono headphone monitor makes it a nice tight package for studio or the occasional quick remote. It would serve to record your mixes in a functional sense. The gain in fidelity you'd get by running pairs of heads in stereo would be minimal but tangible, & wouldn't be as much gain you'd get with a true halftrack recorder, (22-2, 32, 42, etc.). The head and rec/repro electronics fidelity are at a "fixed" level per each track/channel, so what gains you might get from running more real estate on tape for a given signal, there would be the opposite effect of some added hiss to the noise floor running thru multiple electronics stages.

Tho' I've contemplated this additive track scenario for a few ideas, I've not tried it, but that's the conventional wisdom on it as my understanding goes. I hope I'm not too far off base or in error. I'm not an engineer. Nonetheless, if you're motivated it would be a worthy experiment, and it's still in the realm of mixing to tape.

By far, a 2-track 15 ips recorder would be preferrable for mixdown. I'd just buy the 34B for it's inherent value as a versatile 4-tracker.

 

[Blue Jinn]

Stupid question in followup: I'm assuming that tracks 1/3 flip over 1/3 correspond to L/R flip over L/R on a conventional quarter track machine? For a while I was using a Teac 1/4 track, it wasn't bad.

 

[mastercontrolme]

Stupid question in followup: I'm assuming that tracks 1/3 flip over 1/3 correspond to L/R flip over L/R on a conventional quarter track machine? For a while I was using a Teac 1/4 track, it wasn't bad.

Yes. If you record on tracks 1 and 3 this will make the tape compatible with other 1/4" quarter track consumer tape decks. When I was using my 34b I found I really needed DBX to clean up the tracks. My hiss tolerance is quite low and may not bother you however.