Mini Disk Recording

[HefD]

We have a mackie 16 channel board, and all the mics and everything to record. I was just wondering if you record to a mini disk if it will record it as 16 tracks or if its going to be like recording to just a regular tape where all the drums will be one track instead of 8 different ones, if thats how many channels you use for your drums...thanks

 

[gordone]

I'll assume you're talking about stereo minidiscs. It will just be like a tape. You "mix" down the 16 mackie channels to the stereo buss on the Mackie. This then feeds the 2 tracks (left and right) on the minidisc. So, all the instruments will be mushed together, just like on a cassette tape.
There are multitrack minidiscs, the two most popular ones are the Yamaha MD4S (4-tracks) and MD8 (8 tracks) both of these have built in mixers and can record all tracks at the same time. I have a MD4S for my solo acoustic guitar songs. WARNING-to record multitrack on these machines you need the Data minidiscs, cost about $15.00 and you only get ~ 34 minutes of 4 track recording and half of that for 8 tracks. With the MD4S (and possibly the MD8) you can still use the cheap stereo discs for 2-track recording.

Wish I had more info on your setup, but since you already have the mixer, look into an inexpensive stereo minidisc recorder and record live to 2-tracks. This will give you alot of practice recording and mixing. Good luck!

-Evan http://home.earthlink.net/~egordon99/

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Hef+D and gordone:

Yea, verily, the MD-8 by Yam can use the cheaper two track discs; I use the MD-8 in my studio.

Here is a little trick you might like to try. I have a client who likes to use her CD music back-up discs, so I just transfer the CD back-up music to one track of the two track cheap disc and record her vocals on the other track.

Or, I can use the 8 track disc, more expensive but can be used over and over and over, and record her voice on two tracks or more, etc. Plenty of creative room there.

Enjoy and Happy Summer

Green Hornet