Need Help! Tascam 424 MKIII Mixing Down to Digital

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bruceyripper

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Hi.
I have a Tascam 424 MKIII. I've tried mixing down using Audacity through the Line-In on the computer. Sounds alright, although there was some slight buzzing on the recording which I managed to get rid of using Audacity.

Is there another way of getting the mixdown to digital?

Also, Audacity only mixes down 16bit WAV Files. Is this format good for tape mixdown? I've always been told mix down 24bit WAV, but, there is no option on Audacity for it.

I want to try and achieve the best sound possible when going onto to digital, because to be honest, tape sounds SO much better coming out of the monitors, sounds better than any computer I've ever used.

Please help,
Cheers
Andy :)
 
Yeah I know of these. Still need to know about sample rate and mixdown program. And, if there is a better way. I've heard that USB isn't very good for music production. (i.e. achieving the best sound quality) Is that true?

Basically want to mix down the tape to digital for the best results. I don't mind about buying expensive gear. (Not too expensive like grands!)

Cheers
 
The people that are saying USB isn't good for music production are probably gear snobs. I guarantee you that if you get a decent 2-channel USB interface, like say, a Steinberg UR22, you could compare it with the toppest of the line Apogee interface and, listening to your transferred tracks, would not be able to reliably tell them apart in a blind listening test.

And I would gladly challenge anyone who says they could. (Have to get our hands on a top of the line Apogee, though.) :)
 
bruceyripper said:
I've heard that USB isn't very good for music production. (i.e. achieving the best sound quality) Is that true?
Click to expand...

How the digital data gets moved between the interface and the computer has essentially no effect on sound quality. It's all about the analog hardware in the interface.

Considering what you're starting with, cassette 4-track, you might be fine with something like the Behringer UCA202 interface, a simple device which is designed to interface with RCA consumer line level devices like your recorder. It's just two pairs of RCA connectors (input/output), digital converters and a USB connector. Like famous says, unless something isn't working correctly you won't hear a difference in quality between this and something much more expensive given the source quality.

You could spend more on a better interface but much of the extra cost goes to home studio features like mic preamps, headphone mix control etc.
 
Class!!
Cheers for the help there. I'm going to look into all that.
It all sounds really good coming out of the monitors, so I just want to capture that sound but on digital.

Any ideas on what program to mix down onto though? Like I say about audacity, only mixing down 16bit WAV files.
Should I be mixing down 24bit WAV?
Or would it not matter. Just after the best sound quality.

I've been recording for years and years and I know once you start messing from the soruce you loose the quality.
 
I don't know what the cheapest software for recording at 24 bit would be. I'd think there would be a free way to do it though.

If not Reaper is awesome, and it's on $60 for a non-commercial license (you do less than $20,000 per year business in your studio). It's totally overkill for what you're wanting to do, though.
 
My GOD! I'm all over this Behringer UCA202 like. Cheap as pies!
And from what your saying it shouldn't matter, well thanks very much.

Do you think if I just mixed down audacity 16bit WAV. it would be good? I'll try it anyway and see what it sounds like.
I've done it before, it sounded great. I think it was just that interface problem.
If you suggest higher WAV bit rate though, I'm all ears.
 
Right stupid question coming up here,
That Behringer UCA202, it says, two analog mono inputs and outputs.
Would this mean the mix left and right would be in mono? I need it stereo, like for panning.
Is that stupid? Why does it say mono then?
Durrr..
 
By the way.
I'm talking LIVE mixdown here. In case there is any confusion.
 
Two mono inputs = 1 stereo input.

Normally I'd push for capturing at 24 bit but that's not so critical when your source is cassette. You'll want to make your master file 16 bit, 44.1k sample rate.
 
Right, going to order that now then. Thanks for that. appreciate it :thumbs up:
 
Good luck with that man. I have one one of those and I was a little skeptical about using it because I just had a bad feeling about using a USB connection. I have a Focusrite 2i2 (2 inputs, XLR & 1/4") and I figured that I would use it to mix from my Tascam 426 portastudio because it's a "nice" A/D interface but I found that when I ran the left and right channels from the stereo out of the 426 and into the 2 inputs of the Focusrite, I couldn't set it up to be a stereo input to capture to Logic Pro. I would have the left output of the stereo out go to the left inout of the Focusrite and the same thing for the right and when I got into Logic I could get both signals but I couldn't pan one to other and vice versa.

I finally tried the USB that yr talking about here that I originally bought to digitize some rare 7" records I have and it worked fine. I'll just warn you though. If you monitor from the Behringer, the sound will seem shitty and will have a "digital" crispiness to it that won't actually be in the captured source (I hope. Like I said, I used Logic to record into so I figure it will be the same for any program you use.)

16 bit will be fine too. I do mix after mix, saving them all, and then go back and pick my two favorites.
 
Level Anything said:
Good luck with that man. I have one one of those and I was a little skeptical about using it because I just had a bad feeling about using a USB connection. I have a Focusrite 2i2 (2 inputs, XLR & 1/4") and I figured that I would use it to mix from my Tascam 426 portastudio because it's a "nice" A/D interface but I found that when I ran the left and right channels from the stereo out of the 426 and into the 2 inputs of the Focusrite, I couldn't set it up to be a stereo input to capture to Logic Pro. I would have the left output of the stereo out go to the left inout of the Focusrite and the same thing for the right and when I got into Logic I could get both signals but I couldn't pan one to other and vice versa.

I finally tried the USB that yr talking about here that I originally bought to digitize some rare 7" records I have and it worked fine. I'll just warn you though. If you monitor from the Behringer, the sound will seem shitty and will have a "digital" crispiness to it that won't actually be in the captured source (I hope. Like I said, I used Logic to record into so I figure it will be the same for any program you use.)

16 bit will be fine too. I do mix after mix, saving them all, and then go back and pick my two favorites.
Click to expand...

Regarding your Focusrite, this has to be user error. There's no way you wouldn't be able to record a stereo source on that unit.
 
Stereo is, in essence, two mono channels. The "stereo" happens when one is panned hard left and the other is panned hard right. That gets taken care of in your recording software, or the pair of mono inputs may be configured as a stereo pair and the panning is done for you. The short of it is you should be fine with whatever software you use.

Hope that helps.
 
I'm still not being able to do it and I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. This is what I'm doing.

Running the white and red RCA outs from the Tascam into inputs 1 and 2 of the Focusrite (RCA>1/4" cables)
When I assign both of them to 2 tracks in Logic, I choose Input 1 for the left output of the Tascam and Input 2 for the right.
The problem I encounter is when I go to pan a track it just fades out instead of going to the channel I want it to. I can only keep them all in the center or they just disappear.

Should I pan Inputs 1 and 2 to the left and right in Logic?
 
Level Anything said:
I'm still not being able to do it and I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. This is what I'm doing.

Running the white and red RCA outs from the Tascam into inputs 1 and 2 of the Focusrite (RCA>1/4" cables)
When I assign both of them to 2 tracks in Logic, I choose Input 1 for the left output of the Tascam and Input 2 for the right.
The problem I encounter is when I go to pan a track it just fades out instead of going to the channel I want it to. I can only keep them all in the center or they just disappear.

Should I pan Inputs 1 and 2 to the left and right in Logic?
Click to expand...

Hm, sounds almost like you're using surround panning.

You should be able to capture your stereo input to a single stereo track in Logic. Then it should play back in stereo without having to pan anything.
 
I would need to run the two RCA outs into one 1/4" and run it into one of the inputs on my Focusrite then right?

I need a 4 input interface so I can just run all the tracks out at once and then mix ITB but until I can get one of those I'd really love to figure out how to do this.
 
No that's not right. You'd need to run your L RCA cable from the Tascam to input 1 of the Focusrite and the R RCA cable to input 2 of the Focusrite.

Boulder was just saying that you should be able to set up a stereo track in Logic. Then you can choose on that track which two inputs you want to feed that stereo track. In your case, you'd want to choose inputs 1 and 2 of your Focusrite.
 
Level Anything said:
I would need to run the two RCA outs into one 1/4" and run it into one of the inputs on my Focusrite then right?
Click to expand...

Nope, it's a matter of how you set up the track in your software. A track can have either mono or stereo audio.

In some DAWs you have to specify if a track is going to be mono or stereo when you create it. If you create a stereo track and only feed it a mono input it will record to one side of the stereo track and leave the other blank. This doubles the amount of space the track takes up on your drive and it can complicate panning.

In other DAWs the track will record a mono track or a stereo pair depending on how you select the record inputs. I like this style better but Logic may not work this way.
 
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