Getting the most out of four tracks

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sweetbeats said:
YES!

That's the one...

On a 414.

SO cool!!!

Love that song.
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Thanks! Yeah we didn't have to bounce on that one; it was all 4 tracks. We just recorded more than one thing at the same time on each track. The first track, for instance, was the acoustic, her lead vocal, and my harmony vocal all together into one mic.
 
A Reel Person said:
To cap it off, I'd virtually never recommend track-bouncing on an 8-track cassette format, which almost speaks for itself.
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I spent 17 years bouncing on an 8 track portastudio. The results were lame to excellent, depending on patience, planning and experience.
 
My current strategy with my 644 is to record on 3 different tracks at once using a sequencer. Then I record vocals on track 4. The 644 has 4 "group outs". So I plug them into my 18i20 interface and do a 4 track mixdown to logic. Sometimes I use an fx send as I mixdown with compression, pedals or Ensoniq fx box. That way I don't have to bounce. Then I final mix and master with fx with logic. One day I would like to experiment with striping the tape with mtc and using midi transport controls to control all the external instruments.
 
famous beagle said:
Thanks! Yeah we didn't have to bounce on that one; it was all 4 tracks. We just recorded more than one thing at the same time on each track. The first track, for instance, was the acoustic, her lead vocal, and my harmony vocal all together into one mic.
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What was the mic setup to do that? Did you get a lot of bleed and room noise?
 
4tracker said:
What was the mic setup to do that? Did you get a lot of bleed and room noise?
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We only ever used one mic at a time: my Oktava MC 012.

TRK 1: acoustic, her lead vocal, and my harmony vocal (panned middle).
TRK 2: Her lower octave vocal double (on the "Ah" parts) and shaker (panned left).
TRK 3: Her higher vocal double (on the "Ah" parts) and toy xylophone on solo (panned right).
TRK 4: Her higher vocal harmony and tremolo organ (recorded direct) solo (panned middle). These two parts occurred at different points in the song, so we didn't have to record them simultaneously.

There was some room in there, but I didn't mind it.
 
lonewhitefly said:
ha, yeh I goofed there! reverse tracks 3 & 4 on that 2nd set and it makes sense!:

"1 - glockenspiel
3 - maestro/acoustic/drums
4 - additional drums
bounce all to 2 (in PLAY mode)"

I corrected the original post! (thanks for reading through it so thoroughly!)
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LWF,
your Hero Vs albums are fantatstic - I love the "feel" from all the analogue gear and appropriate use of it.
Well done.
 
famous beagle said:
Thanks! Yeah we didn't have to bounce on that one; it was all 4 tracks. We just recorded more than one thing at the same time on each track. The first track, for instance, was the acoustic, her lead vocal, and my harmony vocal all together into one mic.
Click to expand...

How did you record acoustic and lead vocal on the same mic?
Someone had to be in an uncomfortable position to do that. haha
 
This was my idea for a rock song on 4 track:

1. Use a drum loop. Make that in Cubase. Export it onto track 1.
2. Record guitar on track 2.
3. Vocal on track 3, do backing vocals if needed
4. Bass on track 4

Export all 4 tracks into Cubase.

1. Add less acoustic instruments like vst organs directly in cubase.
2. Mix

If needed, export that mix back to the 4-track, track 1. Free up the other 3 tracks for any other acoustic instruments.

Keep repeating this process.

I haven't tried it yet. Is it possible? I know 'wow and flutter' can mess up timing, but I don't think it would in this case if I brought all 4 tracks into the DAW at once. Is that right?
If so, what piece of equipment would I need? Is there a usb soundcard with 4 inputs on it?
 
You could just send the mix out from the stereo outs of the 4 track.Record that to your computer going into 2 inputs of a interface if thats what you have.But if you are going to go back into the 4 track,you might want to record it to 2 tracks depending on the stereo image you want.Unless you want all for tracks in mono.
 
4tracker said:
How did you record acoustic and lead vocal on the same mic?
Someone had to be in an uncomfortable position to do that. haha
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We just didn't have either close miked. We were both sitting, and the mic was probably at about chest level and roughly equidistant (1 1/2 feet or so) from the guitar and our heads. It certainly wasn't an intimate vocal sound, but it worked for the recording I thought.
 
Yeah I was going to say the same thing as J.Harv. When going back to the 4-track from the computer, record it as a stereo mix onto two tracks. You'll only have 2 tracks to add stuff on instead of 3, but otherwise all that previous stuff (drums, guitar, vocals, bass, organ, etc.) would end up mono.

If that's what you want, then cool, otherwise, you don't need to do that.
 
that's a good point, guys; thanks for the head's up.
i was thinking how to maximize tracks rather than stereo/mono. maybe I will try both and compare.
 
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