I've been experimenting with doing an external bounce from my TASCAM 424 to a HI-FI VCR. I don't have a minidisk or DAT so this is the best that I can do for now. At first I was trying to just capture the perfect mix, then I had the thought to just capture as much raw information that I can, so that I can have more control later. So I am using extreme panning when I can (electric guitar hard right, acoustic guitar hard left, drums and bass pretty much center except for the drums being hard righ or left during the washy cymbal and percussion/bell and chimes parts during the first two verses)
Things are working out okay but there is another factor in here- In order to leave two tracks for vocals (this is necessary) I will be playing a Rhodes piano part while the music is bumped back down to the four track! Also on certain parts where there aren't any vocals I leave the bass out to be done later.
I've really been driving myself crazy with this thing! So I'm looking for a little different perspective here and any suggestions and tips that you can give me. Has any one had any experience doing an external bounce like this!
On one section I am mixing to mono. (This mothers a 11 and 1/2 minute opus in four parts) The really heavy section is where I'm having the most problems- where I need the acoustic and the electric panned away from each other and the bass and drums relatively center and the Rhodes goes on there too. I've done about 20 mixes of this section (luckily there are nice breaks in the structure) and just haven't nailed it. I'm not really looking for technical advise, but more for genaral thoeries and practices.
I did get a mix that was so close to the perfection I'm hoping for, but guess what! I forgot to slow down the playback speed on the 4-track in order to get it in tune with the rhodes. Between being completly obsessed with this mix and the foot of snow we got here two days ago- I've almost lost it! I think I just need a break!!! I've got a six pack of Tuppers Hop Pocket in the fridge - anybody ever had this beer? It's quite wonderful if you like it a little bitter like I do!
I just blew it! So I decided to scrap the acoustic guitar part in the heavy section, so I pluged in the footswitch, repatched everything and was going to record that section of the rhodes in it's place. The Rhodes is the most intense in that section so it made a lot of sense and I could mix it to my satisfaction and not worry about playing it "right" during the dumpdown. So I'm practing the part and I move away from the keyboard to adjustsome levels when I accidently hit the foot switch! That would have been fine except that I had forgoton to switch the first two channels to the Safe position after I was recording a scratch dumpdown take to get a feel for how the Rhodes fit in the mix. So right in the worst possible place there's two and a half seconds of no guitar and drums and me yelling SHIT!!!!!!! This is my Master! NO!!!!!!!!! WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have like 20 mixes on VHS so The song still lives... somewhat.
Also on certain parts where there aren't any vocals I leave the bass out to be done later.
So I'm looking for a little different perspective here and any suggestions and tips that you can give me. Has any one had any experience doing an external bounce like this!