Tascam TSR-8 V Fostex 16 track Half inch tape

Ryan Murphy said:
But I am going to try something here. I am going to use the balanced lines to send two channels of audio to the 16 channel tape that way I fill up all 16 channels with 8 outputs and mix it with 8 mixer inputs coming back the same way onto the computer.

K.

It's analog and everything, but imagine it was digital for a second. I set the sample rate to 48k. I mult the output of the source to record 2 channels of 48k. So far so good. There might be creative reasons to do that. If I combine those 2 48k tracks, it won't be like using 96k sampling. There's other guys here with more analog experience than me, but I'm thinking any limitations imposed by track width and the basic specs of the machine won't be improved by doubling the tracks, and unlike digital where those tracks would basically just sum, there could be other complications that could degrade the sound when you combine the tracks.

Now if I wanted to mult a source to 2 recording channels and print one dry, and annihilate the other with sinister and ungodly amounts of apocalyptic compression, that's a creative choice. It might not be a useful thing to do, but recording is a creative process.

The manual for your mixer has instructions for how to make 2 kinds of Y cables, one for inserts and one for mults. What you're trying to do by what you're describing here is a mult. Splitting the + and - halves of a balanced line is not how to do it. You really should read that manual.

Another thing is, someone already pointed out that the Fostex unit might have a mult function allowing you to send to each track with a 4 buss mixer. You really should read that manual too.

Sending one output to multiple inputs is called a mult. Sending multiple outputs to one input requires a mixer, not a mult cable.
 
Yeah, I'm really confused, to be honest. I still don't quite understand what the OP is exactly wanting to do.

IF you're talking about splitting a bass signal, say, and recording the bass guitar on tracks 1 and 2 simultaneously (or tracks 1 and 9, or whatever) instead of just on one track, in the hopes of getting a better sound because of "more tape width," then, as others have pointed out, that's not the way it works.

You would basically be accomplishing the same effect by recording track 1 in a DAW and then copying that exact thing to track 2. It'll just be louder; that's all. There would be no other benefit whatsoever.
 
Yeah, I'm really confused, to be honest. I still don't quite understand what the OP is exactly wanting to do.

IF you're talking about splitting a bass signal, say, and recording the bass guitar on tracks 1 and 2 simultaneously (or tracks 1 and 9, or whatever) instead of just on one track, in the hopes of getting a better sound because of "more tape width," then, as others have pointed out, that's not the way it works.

You would basically be accomplishing the same effect by recording track 1 in a DAW and then copying that exact thing to track 2. It'll just be louder; that's all. There would be no other benefit whatsoever.

I think the OP is just trolling to see what reactions he gets from his audio/sonic nonsense.
 
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gorrilaz is one of my favorite albums at 44.1khz i'll never be able to beat it. Do we know what resolution that album got sampled at? Anyway. I love my 384khz stuff. You hear things in those files that i have never heard on any cd before. Even 192khz the amount of detail present is amazing. I've never heard anything so rich on a cd before.



Where are you getting this? I did not say stero and balanced are the same thing? I never said that and that is not true, but when it comes to running wiore from an electricians point of view, which is what i do; it is.

I don't have manual for that thing... Got it used for 300 dollars and usually figure things out by trying first and running tests.

And i know what balanced is so please stop with that, but all the insert and intricacies of the mackie mixer are unknown to me... And i only just now started using auxiliary send. When i had tascam tsr-8 i used insert to monitor playback from the tape.

Is being out of phase a big deal? Idk what dose it sound like. I have an old tube amp that you can switch phases on, to change the color of the sound. I don't think that is to important to me. I'm not that bad. If worse comes to worse i could switch the ground with the second send on the jack.... Alsdo after careful inspection; all the inserts (first 8 channels) all have a sleeve for a second input channel. Ie. Balanced audio it probably is, or did they put all 3 pin jacks to save money?

;) ;) ;) :) :) :)
 
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Sorry I am not just trolling here. Since it is analog the two different recordings and parts of the tape are two slightly different sound sources with different details and aspects being combined into one. But that is all hearsay because I can't get the machine to record right now. I've got the tracks armed and it is blinking, but usually you hold down record and it becomes solid red and then press play.... this is where I am stuck.

** you press record and play at the same time.

Straight up.. I will tell you from monitoring the input levels can be a bit lowere with my current set up because two channels being combined into one increases signal amplitude. That is how you get a more detailed signal because you can send smaller amplitudes.

or you send a really strong signal that gets broken up so it doesn't clip the filters. Many reasons. I am still in the experimental phases here. I can monitor all 16 channels, but I can't record all 16 channels at once.... I am probably going to have to wire something.

Right now I can see that sending balanced TRS to stereo to get two channel;s of audio dose not work. Maybe not enough grnd??? Who knows why. I don't, but I would like to know. I'll have to split it then.


M<y question is: If I can monitor all 16 tracks in this fashion; than why can't I record all 16 tracks?
 
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Other than realizing that you can't get 2 discreet outputs from a single trs source, EVERYTHING you have said above is incorrect.
 
Other than realizing that you can't get 2 discreet outputs from a single trs source, EVERYTHING you have said above is incorrect.

Than why can I get two inputs?

What made you say that above statement. Do you even know why you said that? I would like to know, or did you just automatically have to say that.
 
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He said what he said because that's how it works.

You know...when you get your gear working...try it and find out for yourself rather than endlessly rejecting what people are telling you as if you know something everyone else doesn't...when it's actually the other way around.

Not trying to give you a hard time, but man...sometimes you have to accept things are what they are because that's how they are...rather then endlessly questioning them because YOU don't believe that they are what they are.
 
He said what he said because that's how it works.

You know...when you get your gear working...try it and find out for yourself rather than endlessly rejecting what people are telling you as if you know something everyone else doesn't...when it's actually the other way around.

Not trying to give you a hard time, but man...sometimes you have to accept things are what they are because that's how they are...rather then endlessly questioning them because YOU don't believe that they are what they are.

Well that isn't true. He said everything is wrong. And I just sent two entirely separate signals into one balanced input and mixed them both into one.

So no that is wrong. You are wrong and that is what happened. I am not the one who is trolling here. I'm not rejecting anything. Saying everything I said is wrong has no substance and there is nothing to reject. Say something that actually means something and I will listen.
 
You are not accomplishing anything by separating the +/- conductors of a single balanced cable to create two inputs. It's actually a half-assed way to achieve the result of combining two signals to one track.
What you did is no different than using a Y cable from two sources and recording them to one track...except that how you do it, you unbalance the balanced signal.
You gain nothing by what you are doing.
Also...you can't mix those two signals separately once you have them recorded to one track.
Heck, you can take a 24 channel mixer and send all 24 individual signals to a single output, and recorded that to a single track...and what's so special about that.

All this nonsense with splitting out a single balanced cable is just a lot of jerking around to achieve nothing special....but hey, if you think you're doing something really "cool" with that...knock yourself out.

Boy...the pointless things some people get stuck on.
:facepalm:
 
I just want to utilize as much surface area as possible. I'll probably auction off boith my mixer for a 24 channel mixer becasue I blew some fuses doing what I was doing and I couldn't even get two channels of audio per each balanced out put anyway. I mean Surface are is worth something otherwise there wouldn't be 2 track 1 inch tape machines.
 
You are not accomplishing anything by separating the +/- conductors of a single balanced cable to create two inputs. It's actually a half-assed way to achieve the result of combining two signals to one track.

I'm surpised that would even work and not cause phase cancellation...

What you did is no different than using a Y cable from two sources and recording them to one track...except that how you do it, you unbalance the balanced signal.
You gain nothing by what you are doing.
All this nonsense with splitting out a single balanced cable is just a lot of jerking around to achieve nothing special....but hey, if you think you're doing something really "cool" with that...knock yourself out.

Boy...the pointless things some people get stuck on.
:facepalm:

Isn't that an even bigger problem of trying to "mix" multiple signals by simply wiring them together without the benefit of at least a passive set of resistors to do the mixing?

Maybe he gets something from the phasing/swishing of doubling up tracks....
 
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