My recordings are noisy....

[timandjes]

I have a Tascam 4 track 414 MKII recorder and a Shure SM58 mic. I direct wired my electric piano into the recorder and recorded on track 1. Then I sespended my SM58 mic above my drum set and overdubbed it onto track two. After I mixed down, the result wasn't too impressive. Too much low humm and just overall, a low quality sounding tape. It didn't sound much better than if I'd just recorded the whole thing with my sony walkman. Any suggestions on getting a better quality, low noise recording?

 

[postalblue]

is the noise reduction on? check your cables. you could also sell your tascam, and get a digital recorder. those are really cheap right now. you can get a used one. tape sucks. i mean cassette, not reel to reel.

 

[Kelly Dueck]

I have a Tascam 4 track 414 MKII recorder and a Shure SM58 mic. I direct wired my electric piano into the recorder and recorded on track 1. Then I sespended my SM58 mic above my drum set and overdubbed it onto track two. After I mixed down, the result wasn't too impressive. Too much low humm and just overall, a low quality sounding tape. It didn't sound much better than if I'd just recorded the whole thing with my sony walkman. Any suggestions on getting a better quality, low noise recording?

When you recorded the electric piano, did you use a DI box? You might have an impedence mismatch which could be leading to a less than adequate signal/tone/ etc.

Overall you want to make sure your recording levels are set high-enough. If you record at low levels, by the time you bring the finished recording up to listening level you'll be boosting all the underlying tape/system noise.

Record as hot as possible and you'll have a much better signal to noise ratio at listening level -- and therefore, quieter, better quality recordings.

 

[postalblue]

but you'll still have some hiss and not a lot of headroom, that's how tape is.
also, the sm58 isn't much better at recording drums than your sony walkman. you need a condenser mic to get decent drum sounds. don't get me wrong, the sm58 is a great vocal mic, and it's great on many other sources, but not on cymbals/hihat.

 

[timandjes]

The noise reduction is on. After the first recording, I went back and re-recorded several times taking some of the bass out of the EQ's but still no big improvement. Is analog really not going to be capable of quality recordings? I figured it was "user error" on my part.....

 

[postalblue]

you can do good demo recordings, but nothing professional. i know there are/were many artists (sebadoh, guided by voices etc.) releasing stuff made on 4-tracks, but they only do that as a statement or because they can't afford anything better. if you can afford it, go digital. or get a 4-track or 8-track reel to reel if you want to stay in the analog domain.

 

[knownuttin]

timandjes, please don't be insulted if what I suggest is old news to you. I don't know how much you've used the 414 or read its manual. Have you practiced appropriate gain staging? What Kelly was saying about impedance mismatches and level setting is especially crucial. How are the input trims set for each signal? Solo each track to isolate the source of the noise. My best guess would be that you had to boost the input gain for the 58 so high that it brought in a bunch of crud. This is one reason condensors are favored as overheads for drums.
-kent

 

[timandjes]

Thanks Kent.... No insult taken... I'm very new to this and I know I've got a lot to learn. I really appreciate any and all advice I can get from experienced folks in recording. I had the inputs set to mic/line. What is the gain staging? I'll also look it up in the manual. Thanks......

 

[PinkStrat]

Seaking of analog & just out of my own curiousity, how much are 4 track/8 track reel to reel machines going for these days? I was thinking about getting one since I've never owned one before--I've only used casette four tracks & 8 track digital machines so far.

 

[jimistone]

I would like to have a nice reel to reel...to experiment with going to tape with a digital mix and then from tape back to the digital recorder.

i read an artical on a bass player that did that on an album and knocked everyone out with his sound.

 

[postalblue]

Seaking of analog & just out of my own curiousity, how much are 4 track/8 track reel to reel machines going for these days?

you can get an 8 track for less than a grand, i think. about as much as a used adat lx.

 

[knownuttin]

tedandjess, I haven’t looked at my 414 in a while, but I’m remembering a slider for Trim which controls the input level. Effectively it is kind of a fader for the “mic preamp” that Tascam builds into the thing. Do you have this and how are you setting it? It sounds like you don’t have it, but instead a simple switch for either mic or line.

Also, I recall that the 414 does not have XLR inputs, but rather ¼” jacks. If this is the case with yours, how are you getting your mic plugged in? If you have access to any other mic pre, even those on a cheapo mixer, run your mic into it and take a direct out from that channel into the input of the 414. Leave the 414 fader about ¾ of the way up, and set a strong signal from the mic pre.

What is gain staging? There are people on this board who could fill a book on the subject. Although I’m not one of them, I’ll offer this thumbnail sketch. Gain staging is setting optimal level at each link in the signal chain such that a comparable optimal level is passed on to the subsequent link in the chain, and ultimately the recording medium. Optimal level is that which is sufficiently above the noise floor to be heard clearly over it, yet where the peaks are not clipped (or in the case of analog, beyond desirable tape saturation). Noise floor is….oh, screw it!
-kent