convenience, jamms, and fun.

[CaptGoldenEars]

Heres the deal. I have a Zoom Q3 that i just bought and would like to take it to record some songs/jamms at my buddy's house. I would then take that recording and transfer it to my Tascam 8 track and add more tracks to it. I don't want to take all my stuff over there. I'm not trying to record the greatest thing you ever heard. I only get anal about tuning up and tuning the room. I love live recording and sounds. What we do is set up my guitar to the left of the drums and the bass player to the right. Then take the good stuff and add vocals and guitar solos on the eight track. What are some pitfalls i need to look out for? I just don't want to drag all my stuff there anymore, set it all up, sound check, play for two hours and then break it all down again. Sounds stange i know, but with a limited amount of time to jamm and having to take the time to set up all of my usual stuff....i'm just looking to make my life easier and still get some good stuff recorded. We do it for our own enjoyment and aren't looking to shop it around or anything. Thanks in advance.

edit- the Zoom Q3 has an audio only setting. It's not just video, which is just ok. The sound of it is pretty good for what it is.

 

[grimtraveller]

I didn't realize that the Zoom is a video recorder.
I'm fairly ignorant of the technological aspects but I do have a Tascam 8 track (the 488). It seems that when you record your three piece, all the elements of the jam will be on one track, which you'll then feed into the Tascam. So I would ensure that guitar, bass and drums are so well balanced so that when you add vocals and solos later, the whole will be a little easier to blend. As long as the guitar isn't drowning everything else out when you jam, it's more than possible to get a fairly good sound, with the drums coming through well.
Before you start, play for a couple of minutes and record it, just so you get a balance you're happy with.
Have fun !

 

[CaptGoldenEars]

I didn't realize that the Zoom is a video recorder.
I'm fairly ignorant of the technological aspects but I do have a Tascam 8 track (the 488). It seems that when you record your three piece, all the elements of the jam will be on one track, which you'll then feed into the Tascam. So I would ensure that guitar, bass and drums are so well balanced so that when you add vocals and solos later, the whole will be a little easier to blend. As long as the guitar isn't drowning everything else out when you jam, it's more than possible to get a fairly good sound, with the drums coming through well.
Before you start, play for a couple of minutes and record it, just so you get a balance you're happy with.
Have fun !

I should have clarified - we record this way anyway. We get a basic good balance and record live. Then i dub solos and vocals etc. Think Van Halen II. I guess my question is how should i transfer the Zoom takes to the 8 track? I can record on the Zoom in 24 bit, but the Tascam is 16 bit. I'm not worried and i'll being trying a few things. I'm thinking out loud basically. Just tired of lugging a mixer and recorder and the rest over to our jamm space. I'm spending alot of time hauling gear and running sound when i'd rather be playing. It will turn out fine, i'm just shooting some questions out.

 

[grimtraveller]

Yeah, I'm with you on the lugging of gear, I hate it. That's why I record at home ! About four weeks back, I was recording with a drummer friend and we had captured two tunes and were on a roll when my next door neighbour called and said her husband, who was ill and trying to rest, was uncomfortable with the drums. I stopped the session, coz I knew he must be uncomfortable; as a musician himself, he'd always been great about the noise (I'm actually fortunate that way, all my neighbours are great). As it was a saturday, I suggested to my friend that we set up in the warehouse of my workplace and continue so off we went, this time with his drums and my gear which consisted of the multitrack, a mixer, 4 mic stands, 8 mics, loads of cables, my bass, footswitch, headphone splitter, extension socket etc, good grief ! It takes ages to set up, not so bad in the comfort of one's own home ! We put down three more pieces in a zero degree temperature warehouse, looking out for rats that were on holiday for the weekend. It was good but I discovered last week I'd inadvertently wiped one of the songs we'd done ! Cry me a river !
Yeah, I'm with you on the lugging of gear, I hate it. That's why I record at home !

 

[CaptGoldenEars]

Yeah, I'm with you on the lugging of gear, I hate it. That's why I record at home ! About four weeks back, I was recording with a drummer friend and we had captured two tunes and were on a roll when my next door neighbour called and said her husband, who was ill and trying to rest, was uncomfortable with the drums. I stopped the session, coz I knew he must be uncomfortable; as a musician himself, he'd always been great about the noise (I'm actually fortunate that way, all my neighbours are great). As it was a saturday, I suggested to my friend that we set up in the warehouse of my workplace and continue so off we went, this time with his drums and my gear which consisted of the multitrack, a mixer, 4 mic stands, 8 mics, loads of cables, my bass, footswitch, headphone splitter, extension socket etc, good grief ! It takes ages to set up, not so bad in the comfort of one's own home ! We put down three more pieces in a zero degree temperature warehouse, looking out for rats that were on holiday for the weekend. It was good but I discovered last week I'd inadvertently wiped one of the songs we'd done ! Cry me a river !
Yeah, I'm with you on the lugging of gear, I hate it. That's why I record at home !

Awesome, you understand my gripe. Because of where our drummer is, we can only jamm late saturday and sunday nights. For a few hours at a time. We have a PA and i mic the bass and snare drums just a little. No mics on the guitar or bass amps. I put 2 mics out in the room and we go for it. Later, i might add a vocal or second guitar but that's about it. It's a nice size room with good reflections and we usually get good sound. We love to improvise and not fuss with anything. I'm usually happy when i go to mix and master it. Lugging 2 amps and 3 guitars is enough for me! Nobody else wants to take the time to set it all up either. So i got the best stereo recorder i could think of at the time and for the money. I'll be trying it out for the first time this saturday. I know there are some real gear heads here, but i'm getting too old to care. I just want to show up and play and still get some good sounds without worrying about all the stuff. I bought some lithium batteries for it and i can't wait to just turn it on, check the level and forget about it. We play a classic rock style with lots of improvising. So a live sound really works for us anyway. A little eq and some comp and that's about it.


edit, i should note, that when we first got together a few years ago, i hauled ALL my equipment to the drummer's house. And then, little by little, i would bring less and less recording equipment and more and more guitar stuff. And through a process of elimination, we figured out our sound and what we liked the best. Now, as rediculous as it sounds, i'm down to a little recorder that fits in my coat pocket. Strange.