cjacek
Analogue Enthusiast
by the third bounce, the sound would be pretty degraded.
Yes, there would be some quality loss but how much or how bad is totally subjective. I personally would do a test bounce or two, even if it's just with one instrument and then decide for yourself how far you want to go..
Your other option would be to do an external bounce, to a half or quarter track recorder running at 15ips or even to a CD recorder or sound-card line in of your computer. This will afford you better quality than internally bouncing on the 388.
Basically you fill up all the 8 tracks on your 388, bounce that to an 'external' recorder, whatever that might be and then take that mix, take it back to your 388, using 7/8, for example, then fill the other 6 tracks, bounce that to your 'external' recorder again or just mix those 6 with the 7/8 .... etc... etc....
The trick to getting better quality out of those bounces is to go externally to a better quality 'recorder', which means wider track / higher speed tape deck, good CD recorder or good sound card, which will retain more of your original sound while keeping noise down.
Another trick is to slightly boost the highs when bouncing [from the tape machine] to retain the high end better.
Another option, one which doesn't use bouncing, is to use less mics for your setup....
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