I'm a newbie and have had a couple of posts. I have a Fostex VF16 and am currently in a gospel trio. I have a question that is not specific to recording/mixing something new. For the entire decade of the 80's and up till '91, I was in a Southern Rock/Country bar room band. I lost quite a few brain cells (bar tabs more than what the gig paid) and a lot of my upper range hearing. (loud monitors, small stages). Our group was composed of a Killer lead guitarist, Drummer/vocalist, Bass/Vocalist, Steel Guitar/Vocalist, Rhythm Guitar (me, was not allowed to sing) and two female vocalist (not only good looking but whose harmonies would knock your socks off). A total of seven people which explains why once the $$$ for the gig was split, some of us could not pay our individual bar tabs. Anyway, we never attempted to record in a studio. I recently found a couple of cassettes from a 4 set gig we did in June of '91. I remember using a mid-price-range jam box using its built in mic, sitting up on the stage. It recorded us in mono, picked up mainly the mains but did get some heavy sounds from some of the closer instrument floor monitors. I know there is nothing to mix since there is only one track (two of the same track). My question is, can the vf16 clean this tape up some, maybe give it some type of pseudo-stereo sound. Are there any tricks I might can do to each song and then transfer to CD for posterities sake? I would appreciate any tips. Thanks.
Archiving a piece of my past
- Thread starter PapaJack
- Start date
Chibi Nappa
New member
Well, I don't own that Fostex so I can't tell you anything about it's effects or filters, but I would recomend digitizing a totally unaltered copy of those tapes, for posterities sake as you put it. After you have the original sound saved, you can relax that at least it is off of that tape and won't degrade further. Besides, if your only digital copy has funky reverb or something on it and in 10 years you decide that effect is just plain annoying, then what do you do? After it is digital, then make a few copies and play arround with restoring those.PapaJack said:
Good Advice
Thanks for the good advice.
sjoko2:
Definitely good advice for all in the bar room enviornment. I am glad I survived that stage of my life. It was fun while it lasted.
I believe I read on another forum where you have recently had surgery. Hope all is well and wish you a speedy recovery. From a lot of the posts I've read, you seem to be a well respected individual. except for some who seem to put thier mouth in motion before thier brain is in gear.
Chibi Nappa:
Thanks for your advice. I did run the tape straight to the CD to get an original copy. Since then I have played with one song. It was a 7 minute cover of the Molley Hatchet (sp) version of the song Dreams. From the mono track I ended up with about 4 tracks of various mild effects, EQ and panning. On the Fostex vf16 you can set compression on your Master Fader, which I did and it was amazing what the final mix sounded like when compared to the original tape. I was able to get some crisp high's and it un-muddied the drums (toms and bass). It aso gave me some left-right separation. I don't know if it is because of the EQ or the panning, but when I play the CD on a Pro-Logic home stereo I actually get some signal to the the rear speakers. It all sounds neat, especially since it evolved from a mono recording.
I don't know if this forum is read by many bar room bands, but I would recommend any group that drinks heavy as we did while playing, to record your entire gig (a jam box recording is fine for this). At your next practice, listen to the first few songs of the first set and the last few of the last set. There is a definite degradation in sound. But then the patrons may have had enough to drink not to notice. Bottom line, keep it fun, but don't let yourself down.
Thanks for the good advice.
sjoko2:
Definitely good advice for all in the bar room enviornment. I am glad I survived that stage of my life. It was fun while it lasted.
I believe I read on another forum where you have recently had surgery. Hope all is well and wish you a speedy recovery. From a lot of the posts I've read, you seem to be a well respected individual. except for some who seem to put thier mouth in motion before thier brain is in gear.
Chibi Nappa:
Thanks for your advice. I did run the tape straight to the CD to get an original copy. Since then I have played with one song. It was a 7 minute cover of the Molley Hatchet (sp) version of the song Dreams. From the mono track I ended up with about 4 tracks of various mild effects, EQ and panning. On the Fostex vf16 you can set compression on your Master Fader, which I did and it was amazing what the final mix sounded like when compared to the original tape. I was able to get some crisp high's and it un-muddied the drums (toms and bass). It aso gave me some left-right separation. I don't know if it is because of the EQ or the panning, but when I play the CD on a Pro-Logic home stereo I actually get some signal to the the rear speakers. It all sounds neat, especially since it evolved from a mono recording.
I don't know if this forum is read by many bar room bands, but I would recommend any group that drinks heavy as we did while playing, to record your entire gig (a jam box recording is fine for this). At your next practice, listen to the first few songs of the first set and the last few of the last set. There is a definite degradation in sound. But then the patrons may have had enough to drink not to notice. Bottom line, keep it fun, but don't let yourself down.
much appreciated.