mixing down from a 4track to a cd recorder

D

Don

New member
Just wondering if anyone has had any experience mixing down from a 4 track cassette recorder to a stand alone cd recorder. I'm thinking of buying a Phillips Magnavox cd recorder, but I've heard that there may be some down sides to it. I know I could get a cd burner, but I really don't want to take up space on my computer. Which brings me to another stupid question (I'm a song writer for cryin' out loud, not a computer technician.) How do you hood up a 4 track cassette recorder to a cd burner?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
Very simple:
Just connect the stereo line outs on your 4 trk. cassette to the analog stereo line ins on the CD recorder.

With stand alone CD recorders there are "consumer" and "pro" decks.The Philips?Magnavox is most likely a consumer deck.

With the consumer decks you won't be able to make digital copies of your CD's. Also you will need to record on "music only" CDR's. These blank "music only" CDR's are a dollar or two more per CD.

With a "pro" deck you can use any CDR or
CD-RW blank, therefore saving a dollar or two per CDR. There is no SCMS, so you can make unlimited digital copies of CD's.

The "pro" deck will cost you a couple of hundred more.

The stand alone units are as easy record on as a regular cassette player/recorder.

[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 03-07-2000).]

[This message has been edited by hixmix (edited 03-07-2000).]
 
You said you don't want to use space on your PC for a burner...
How about this - record into your computer a group of songs you'd like on a CD. You can then tweak them (using programs like Cool Edit) and make sure they sound good before burning... Then burn! Once you have your "master" CD (or two) delete all the original wav files from your HD. You'll only need about 650 MB per disc...
Other advantages of a burner - can make copies of other CDs as well as mixes (will be exact digital copies); can use cheap CD-Rs (I can get them about 60 cents a piece w/o Jewel Cases) Ability to tweak your tracks before burning... - Generally burners are cheaper than stand-alone. I have a Sony Xpressa USB, $299 back in August (they're down to about $250 now)

Good luck!

-Evan
 
It won't take up that much room, if you have a cd-rom drive now, just take it out and replace it with a cd-rw . It will take like fifteen seconds, it will come with instructions, and they only run like $150.00. You could always have the computer store do it for you. You'll save money and you'll have a cheap media for storage and backup as well as making your own music cd's. Just remember when recording to a burner(computer) you record it in real time to the hard drive first using a wav recorder (most computers come with one). Then you drop the wav file into your cd burner software. And rock'n'roll, you can play the cd in any player. Don't waste your money on a machine that's gonna be half the price a year down the road and obsolete farther down. Not to mention that you can't make digital copies.
 
Don't get a Phillips Magnavox. The whole idea behind those shitty machines is a joke. I've used them to transfer aging studio tapes (dumb idea if you ask me) onto disk, and the whole process is slow and difficult to pull of right the first few times. If you can make a great master first, like using a hi-fi vcr, it would be easier--but when the time comes to dupe that CD you made, chances are it will get seriouly- screwed up, as the machine is not very good at reading it's own burn! It adds audio data randomly. Ridiculous. Get a new, brand name CD-RW. More versitile, and trust me, not hard to use.
 
Yo to all of the above:

Thanks for the CD CDRW information. I am awaiting some broshures from Full Compass as I would like to add the CD burning to my studio. From what I read, I don't want the Phillps/Magnovox.

So, I'll look at the others and when I buy a new computer, I'll add that feature before it leaves the store.

Thanks mucho,

Green Hornet
 
The Tascam CD-RW5000 is a great stand alone unit. It's currently $699.00 down from $999.00. I've been using it for over a year now.
 
Hmmmm...let's see.

A Lynx One audio card for the computer -$445 (www.bayviewproaudio.com ) (free ground shipping in the US)

A CD burner in the computer- let's say $200 for a nice one. Comes with authoring software.

A new hard drive, UDMA66 13.6 GB 7200 rpm, 2MB buffer- $130 (Maxtor)

A UltraATA 66 controller if your motherboard don't support the hard drive- $50 (www.promise.com)

Suitable software-$200

We are at about $800 here.

What do you get over a stand alone unit?

24 bit audio to the hard drive and the ability to dither to 16 bit for CD burning. Also, 48KHz sampling rate with the ability to sample down for CD burning.

Editing features and mastering features not even available for the stand alone unit.

Dude, don't even waste your money on a stand alone unit. I have a Marantz unit that is just sitting around now. The worst $1200 I ever spent for my studio.

Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
 
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