Bouncing tracks with a reel to reel and a mixer

[Rickson Gracie]

I always bounced tracks on portastudio type recorders (most recently on the tascam 388)

Its pretty easy because you can use the mixing section to assign tracks to the thacks you want to record to.

Ive never used a standalone mixer before to do this. how does that work? Im pretty sure regular mixers do not have assign buttons. or do they? would i have to pull out chords?

for example...how would bounce the mixed version of the first 6 tracks to track 7, 8? thanks.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

A stand alone recording mixer works exactly the same as a mixer on the 388.

Just make sure you get one which has enough recording busses to meet your needs. 4 buss mixers usually accommodate 8 track recorders by doubling up the buss out connections and 8 buss mixers will behave identically to the 388's board.

Perhaps you've only ever seen more basic stereo mixers so far in your travels?

Cheers!

 

[avieth]

I'll use a 4-bus mixer and 8-track record as an example.

Hook up the sub outs with Y-cables to track inputs 1and 5, 2 and 6, etc. So that the sub outs feed the same signal to tracks one through 4 as 5 through 8. This is called double bussing.

Now, let's say you have 4 tracks on tracks 2 through 5 and you want to bounce them all to track 8. You would assign tracks 2 through 5 on their corresponding mixer channels to busses 3-4. Then you would arm track 8 on the recorder and play.

 

[Hi_Flyer]

If you are bouncing a stereo mix (drums and bass on tracks 1-6) to two tracks (track 7 &8) why not simply use the main outs and plug them into tracks 7 & 8?



"would i have to pull out chords?"

yes, anytime you are using an external mixer you need some cabling.