6+ simultaneous recording

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Jo3p

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Hi,

I've been recording with the TASCAM 424mkIII for a few months now, and I'm really impressed by it's quality and possibilities. I'm recording in a practice studio a three piece band playing guitar, bas, drums and singing. Recording the drums doesn't really work out too well with only one track. I have tried bouncing the drumtracks, but the overdubbing doesn't give me the right 'live' feel to it. So, I'm really looking for a way to record 6 (or more) tracks. Can someone recommend me hardware that will do the trick? What I'm looking for is:

- at least 6 input channels, preferably 5+ of them XLR
- at least 6 tracks recording simultaneously
- luggable one way or another

This could possibly be another taperecorder, but I'm interested in 'affordable' harddiskrecorders too. Another option would be some kind of audio interface to attach to my laptop, so all mixing down takes place on the computer.

Hope you can help me :)

Regards,

Jo3p
 
Your choices are:...

- Tascam 688, records 8-tracks simultaneously from built-in 20-input mixer, onto cassete tape.

- Tascam 388, records 8-tracks simultaneously from built in 8-channel mixer, onto 7" reels of 1/4" tape.

- Tascam 238, records 8-tracks simultaneously onto cassette tape, from external mixer, such as Tascam M30 or M308/M312.

Between these three units, the Tascam 388 is the most "hifi", with sound quality that well exceeds anything you could do on cassette.

Going up one more step in the food chain, there's the:

- Fostex line of 8-track 1/4" reel tape recorders, including the Fostex A8LR, Model 80, R8 and E8. All these units record 8-tracks simultaneously, (NOT the A8-std). All these units require an external mixer.

- Tascam 38, records 8-tracks simultaneously onto 10.5" reels of 1/2" tape, from an external mixer, such as the M30/M308/M312.

- Tascam TSR8, records 8-tracks simultaneously onto 10.5" reels of 1/2" tape, from an external mixer, such as the M30/M308/M312.

Of all these recorders mentioned in this post, the Tascam 38 and TSR8 would be the most hifi.

Fostex is another post altogether.
:eek:
 
Reel, thank you a lot for your comprehensive answer! They are really nice machines.

However, I'm afraid I should have put more attention to the 'luggability', I´m sorry I did not. I need to take the machine with me every other week, together with all other gear. So one of the reasons I choose the mkIII was it's size. So I mainly focus on PortaStudio-like equipment. But maybe I just ask to much :) .

I read someone saying the 488 does allow 6 simultaneous tracks to be record, but as far as I knew, it is only 4, which is correct?

I've been searching around for USB and FireWire audio interfaces a bit, but none of them seem to support more than 2 XLR inputs. I really could do with some 6 (XLR) channel mixer that can directly feed into my laptop, and mix it down on the computer. Any suggestion?

Regards,

Jo3p
 
Tascam 788 does 6 simul., but it's a digital harddrive machine. :cool:
 
I'm searching around for one now :) that's located not too far away (I live in the Netherlands).

It seems, this particular machine only has jack-inputs, true? Then, does converting XLR to jack really decrease the soundquality?
 
Yeah, the 788 Digital HD Portastudio does 6-simul,...

and I would never have thought of that. ;) Thanx, dtb. See, he's up on all the latest gadgets. ;)

The 488 and 488mkII will record 4-simul-max.

The 688 is a good sized unit,... heavy but still portable.

The 388 is a seriously heavy machine.

The 788 might be the unit that offers smallest size with most features, & 6-simul recording. It's very small, even smaller than the 424mkIII. :eek: The 788 is the most capable HD 8-tracker out there. Figures, it's a Tascam Portastudio. :eek:
 
I'm reading through the 788 manual as of now. If I'm correct, I can just plug 5 mics (XLR to jack needed...?) and one (bas) line into the 788 and record like I used to on the 424mkIII?

Can someone tell me what the (hidden) drawbacks (if any) of the 788 are? (I read something about no pre-amp?), or in what ways the 788 does not exceed the 424mkIII's possibilities?
 
the 788 has no phanton power. maybe not a real drawback, cause most folks use outboard pres, which I do. This lets you use the 1/4 inputs from the pres. You can use the aux inputs for channel 5 and 6, which will give you 6 simul. Input 4 has a switch for mic or guitar. If you use condenser mics, you'll need phanton power. I believe that channel 1 thru 4 are the only inputs with pre-amp, so 5/6 will record better from some sort of pre. I normally only use 4 inputs, having only 4 condenser mics. My suggestion would be to use 1 thru 4 for mics, and 5/6 and 7/8 for line input stuff. But I have done some real nice things with 6 mics, by using sm57s in 1 and 2, and using the condensers with pres in 3 thru 6. I would think this unit works very simular to the new Tascam units, except having the 6 simul. inputs.
 
Another option I'd consider...

Have you thought about getting a small mixer and continuing to record with tape?

If you had a nice 6 or 8 channel mixer you could throw up 5 or more mics on the drum kit plus the bass and balance things nicely so you can run a stereo out to two channels of the porta studio leaving the other two channels for guitar and vocals.

That's what I'd do.
 
The way I used the 424mkIII so far is:


track 1: vocals, panned hard left
track 2: guitar, panned hard left
track 3: bass, panned hard left
track 4: kick, panned hard right
track 5: snare/hihat , panned hard right
track 6: toms and other, panned hard right

next, I take track 1 through 3 from direct-mode and track 4 from the right buss (so this is really already a mix from three mics on the drums). This works out very well technically, except that every time I listen to the final drum mix on track 4 at home, I'm not at all too happy with the result.

True, I'm not too experienced at mixing, that's sure to be one important side to it. On the other hand, the drums just seem to sound so very different when played through 'ordinary' speakers than they do through the headphones or PA-system.

Maybe I should continue to learn it this way, but, mmm, it just takes a lot of time getting together and recording things just to find out they are of no use because of a bad drum-mix.

Thanks for the responses again!
 
Jo3p said:
The way I used the 424mkIII so far is:


track 1: vocals, panned hard left
track 2: guitar, panned hard left
track 3: bass, panned hard left
track 4: kick, panned hard right
track 5: snare/hihat , panned hard right
track 6: toms and other, panned hard right

next, I take track 1 through 3 from direct-mode and track 4 from the right buss (so this is really already a mix from three mics on the drums). This works out very well technically, except that every time I listen to the final drum mix on track 4 at home, I'm not at all too happy with the result.

True, I'm not too experienced at mixing, that's sure to be one important side to it. On the other hand, the drums just seem to sound so very different when played through 'ordinary' speakers than they do through the headphones or PA-system.

Maybe I should continue to learn it this way, but, mmm, it just takes a lot of time getting together and recording things just to find out they are of no use because of a bad drum-mix.

Thanks for the responses again!
Click to expand...

Channels 1 to 6, surely!?

You go through channels to make tracks :D
 
I used the MKIII for 3-4 years before going to the 788. My mixes still suck, but hey, no one's paying. :D :D :D :D
 
Hi Jo3p,

I own the Tascam 788, and it is an excellent machine; however, I do recommend using external pre-amps on it as the built-in ones, at mic level, are pretty hissy.
Another possibility for more money is the Tascam 2488 which I just got:
24-track HD recorder, with 8 tracks at a time possibility, built-in effects and CD burner plus digital out for transferring to PC.
And it's pretty compact and not heavy.
Just a thought,

Best,
CC
 
doesn't the 2488 have phanton power also? Man, I've been looking at that one myself. nice unit.
 
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