Dumping 4-track masters into computer

[jdm]

thanks for the reply Jon X
damn sound blaster cards

 

[jdm]

Hey,
I have a new PIII 500 with a Soundblaster Live Value soundcard in it. I also have some old 4-track masters done on a Tascam 4-track.

I was wondering if there is a way for me to dump the tracks seperately into a tracking program so that I can mix them, add effects, etc (and still have control over each seperate track).

Eventually I would like to remix them and burn them onto a CD.
Thanks for any suggestions,
jdm

 

[Jon X]

This is possible, if you can still solo each track that you want to be separate once in the PC. I'm asumming from the way you said 4-track master, you mean you have the original 4-track tape used for recording, and not that it has been mixed down to a pair of stereo tracks and mastered. You would have to record each track into the PC one at a time with the soundcard you have, and might have to work to get everything timed correctly once in the PC. N-Track is easy to use, and costs just about nothing if you don't already have multitrack software. Once you took the time to record each track into the computer separately you could add effects or whatever to each individual track, mix them however you want, combine into a single wav file and burn to CD.

A SB Live Value isn't the best quality soundcard for audio recording though, and you might introduce even more noise onto the tracks this way. Try it and see, but the analog I/O on my SB Live is really noisy and useless for recording purposes. The only way I use the SB Live for recording is the digital I/O, which unfortunately the Value version doesn't have. For more info on SoundBlaster cards and other soundcards search the BBS. There's lots of posts on that.

Good luck.

 

[nyaben]

I've got a digital workstation and I'd like to collaborate with a buddy (actually obtain a 44.1kHz tune and input his WAV or MP2/MP3 file into my workstation to be completed on the workstation). He would be recording a live track and then send me the track to finish up like the Beatles did with the John Lennon tracks they finished for the Beatles Anthology (here's hoping it sounds like the Beatles).

What can he get for very cheap $$ to do the recording? Also, what is a good, but cheap mic that could be used?

Thanks much!