New Members: Introduce Yourself Here!

[Jimmie T]

Welcome, Jimmie. I found this at Tascam - someone asked the same question. I'm not sure, but I think the response contains additional information other than might be directly related to your situation. Additional options as far as far as selections go. But I believe somewhere in there is the answer.

When your device is turned on and you are looking at the main screen, push the REC MODE button to make sure your record mode is set to Stereo. Press the – key once to highlight the source and push the FF key once to highlight INT STEREO. Use the + key to change to EXT IN L/R then press the HOME/STOP key. Press the REC button once and the REC light will blink indicating that your unit is now in REC standby mode. At this point you can adjust the input sensitivity from the input level buttons on the left side of the unit and press the REC button again when ready to start the recording. Press the stop button when finished. If you are using a phantom powered mic, don't forget to turn the switch on the side of the unit to mic + phantom.

Thank you very much, Spantini. I had seen that elsewhere and tried it. I think it’s on the right path but did not work. However, when I selected EXT Independent it did seem to work correctly. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[spantini]

Thank you very much, Spantini. I had seen that elsewhere and tried it. I think it’s on the right path but did not work. However, when I selected EXT Independent it did seem to work correctly. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

You're welcome. Glad it works. The descriptions of EXT IN are confusing and not very clear - the usual translation difficulties.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I’m Bill from Maryland. I’m retired and putting together a basement studio where I hope to record for fun (not fame). I play mostly acoustic stringed instruments like guitars, kora, sitar, hurdy gurdy etc. but intend to get into keyboards, electronics, and music concrete perhaps all blended together. My tastes run from progressive rock to world music to jazz to classical to avant-garde. I hope to both record my songs (before it’s too late) as well as compose & possibly collaborate in the studio using the sounds and tools available to me to produce something original and unique. I know I have a lot to learn, so I intend to learn by doing, one project at a time. I am currently contemplating DAW selection - I’ve used Cakewalk in the past but currently leaning towards Reaper. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and benefiting from the experience and expertise of this community.

Welcome Buddhabreath!
I sussed you were an acoustic man from your avatar picture.
You have a similar attitude to me. I tried Cubase, and got sucked in.

 

[ecc83]

"I am also recording masters onto tape (Revox F35) and going back into my DAW and recording that in 16 bit...thus saving all that dithering stuff." AFAICT Gelan a "Revox F35" is a speaker? And please explain the bit about dithering? Even at 16bits any digital artifacts are going to be at least 20dB below even the best tape noise.

Dave.

 

[Buddhabreath]

Welcome Buddhabreath!
I sussed you were an acoustic man from your avatar picture.
You have a similar attitude to me. I tried Cubase, and got sucked in.

Thanks Raymond, I appreciate it. It seems to me that any of major DAWs will get the job done. I tentatively selected Reaper on the basis of price, flexibility, and most importantly, a large and supportive user community. It’s also regularly updated and has a small footprint unlike many of the DAWs that have big, bloated code bases. That’s usually not a good sign in my long experience in IT ;-).

I am open to suggestions regarding alternatives to Reaper. I’m not going to do a detailed evaluation of DAWs myself, so I’m kinda going on gut and limited knowledge.

 

[TalismanRich]

I'm firmly in the Reaper camp, for many of the same reasons you mentioned, plus it works in a way that is very logical to me. I'm not into building beats and loops. For me Reaper works very well as a linear multitrack system.

I played with Cubase LE (I have 3 versions that were included with equipment that I bought). They worked ok, but Reaper just works better for me.

 

[martyroz]

Hi all - just joined the forum! I've been using Tascam stuff since my Portastudio in the 90s. I'm putting together a bigger studio in my house and so my latest acquisition is shown in my avatar - a Tascam M520. Amazingly, it works. But still needs some love. So I decided to join the forum for some advice. I've used digital gear but trying out some old school analog (for the challenge?)...

 

[spantini]

Howdy, @martyroz. Here's some back material on the M520.

https://homerecording.com/bbs/threads/tascam-m-520-thoughts.377315/

 

[Old Music Guy]

Hi all. My name is Don. I'm located in New Hampshire, USA. I'm a septuagenarian, and have been playing music since I was in elementary school. I play drums, keyboards, guitar, and bass. I have always had a passion for recording and producing.
Currently I have two different recording setups, one digital and one analog.
Digital wise, I have tried Pro Tools, Cubase, Reaper, and Ableton. I've settled on Ableton Live 12 Lite as a go to just for ease of use. My DI is a Tascam 16X08 USB.
Analog wise, I have a Peavey RSM 4062, and a REVOX C278.
I have a significant back ground in electronics (30+ years as an R&D tech/engineer).
I will have a ton of questions. Maybe I can answer some questions intelligently. I usually don't speak to what I don't know.
That said, thanks for having me. I have been looking for a forum like this for a long time.
Don

 

[Eric V]

Hi all. My name is Don. I'm located in New Hampshire, USA. I'm a septuagenarian, and have been playing music since I was in elementary school. I play drums, keyboards, guitar, and bass. I have always had a passion for recording and producing.
Currently I have two different recording setups, one digital and one analog.
Digital wise, I have tried Pro Tools, Cubase, Reaper, and Ableton. I've settled on Ableton Live 12 Lite as a go to just for ease of use. My DI is a Tascam 16X08 USB.
Analog wise, I have a Peavey RSM 4062, and a REVOX C278.
I have a significant back ground in electronics (30+ years as an R&D tech/engineer).
I will have a ton of questions. Maybe I can answer some questions intelligently. I usually don't speak to what I don't know.
That said, thanks for having me. I have been looking for a forum like this for a long time.
Don

Hello Don. I'm Eric. Welcome!

 

[DM60]

Hi all. My name is Don. I'm located in New Hampshire, USA. I'm a septuagenarian, and have been playing music since I was in elementary school. I play drums, keyboards, guitar, and bass. I have always had a passion for recording and producing.
Currently I have two different recording setups, one digital and one analog.
Digital wise, I have tried Pro Tools, Cubase, Reaper, and Ableton. I've settled on Ableton Live 12 Lite as a go to just for ease of use. My DI is a Tascam 16X08 USB.
Analog wise, I have a Peavey RSM 4062, and a REVOX C278.
I have a significant back ground in electronics (30+ years as an R&D tech/engineer).
I will have a ton of questions. Maybe I can answer some questions intelligently. I usually don't speak to what I don't know.
That said, thanks for having me. I have been looking for a forum like this for a long time.
Don

Hi, I have close to the same setup. I have the Ableton 11 and the older version of the Tascam. I use Ableton more as a traditional recorder in arrangement view, but using the session view can be really a great way to experiment and try differnt things while composing.

Welcome aboard.

 

[JAPOV]

Hi all. My name is Don. I'm located in New Hampshire, USA. I'm a septuagenarian, and have been playing music since I was in elementary school. I play drums, keyboards, guitar, and bass. I have always had a passion for recording and producing.
Currently I have two different recording setups, one digital and one analog.
Digital wise, I have tried Pro Tools, Cubase, Reaper, and Ableton. I've settled on Ableton Live 12 Lite as a go to just for ease of use. My DI is a Tascam 16X08 USB.
Analog wise, I have a Peavey RSM 4062, and a REVOX C278.
I have a significant back ground in electronics (30+ years as an R&D tech/engineer).
I will have a ton of questions. Maybe I can answer some questions intelligently. I usually don't speak to what I don't know.
That said, thanks for having me. I have been looking for a forum like this for a long time.
Don

Looking forward to hearing what you can do!

 

[Old Music Guy]

Looking forward to hearing what you can do!

I set my expectations bar very low. I learned early in life to 1. never volunteer for anything, and 2. never show them how smart you are. they will expect excellence from you thereafter.
I appreciate the welcome, JAPOV.

 

[Old Music Guy]

Hi, I have close to the same setup. I have the Ableton 11 and the older version of the Tascam. I use Ableton more as a traditional recorder in arrangement view, but using the session view can be really a great way to experiment and try differnt things while composing.

Welcome aboard.

Thanks, DM60, appreciate the welcome.

My situation is a little different, To make a short story long, I went analog for the (seemingly simple) reason that if I want to record an idea, either by myself, of with friends, firing up the computer, launching apps, etc. was too cumbersome, I was able to do that with the DAW, but the latency drove us crazy. (I think it may have been as bad as 5ms in to out). I've tried several ASIOs, but they all gave me issues because apparently, TASCAM's ASIO sucks. I tried ASIO4ALL, but there it still too much latency for live, notwithstanding over dubs, because the latency increases by a factor of 2.

So, I bought the R2R so I can power up, hit record, and go. When the guys came over, we would record 3 or 4 tracks on the R2R, and it was all fine. BUT, if we wanted to overdub and add additional tracks the Revox, I have not been able to figure out how to do that.

Simply, the Revox has a record setting and a playback setting. It's either/or. In effect, I (we) can't listen to the previously recorded tracks while recording new tracks (on unused channels).

What I am looking for is for someway, somehow, someone to tell me how to overdub tracks on the C278. I can record OVER as previously recorded track (due to the way the head(s) are designed), But I can't use the play and record functions simultaneously so I really can't overdub. I can punch in/out one a single track, but that isn't what I need.

If anyone can either tell me 1. it's not possible, 2. do it this way, I will be forever grateful.

So, that's where I'm at right now. I have a A LOT of $$$ invested in the R2R and tape and reels. I want what I want. Call me a Dreamer! I'm not the only one.

Thanks for the reply, and thank you in advance if you can point me in the right direction.

 

[DM60]

Thanks, DM60, appreciate the welcome.

My situation is a little different, To make a short story long, I went analog for the (seemingly simple) reason that if I want to record an idea, either by myself, of with friends, firing up the computer, launching apps, etc. was too cumbersome, I was able to do that with the DAW, but the latency drove us crazy. (I think it may have been as bad as 5ms in to out). I've tried several ASIOs, but they all gave me issues because apparently, TASCAM's ASIO sucks. I tried ASIO4ALL, but there it still too much latency for live, notwithstanding over dubs, because the latency increases by a factor of 2.

I don't have that issue. Not sure what is going on, but something isn't right. I use Tscam's drivers, however, one thing I learned early on, plug the the interface directly into the motherboard USB port, no hubs, nothing, straight shot.

But really, whatever gets it done for you. Good luck and hopefully we hear some music from you.

 

[Old Music Guy]

I use Tscam's drivers, however, one thing I learned early on, plug the the interface directly into the motherboard USB port, no hubs, nothing, straight shot.

Yes sir. I do that. I don't really have issues when I'm by myself, but in a live situation, it ca be annoying,

 

[DM60]

Yes sir. I do that. I don't really have issues when I'm by myself, but in a live situation, it ca be annoying,

That might be your HD. If you have a magnetic HD, unless it is a 10K RPM, I could see multiple tracks having issues. If it SSD, then maybe not getting the buffer down low enough. I know I had to finally upgrade my computer when I went to Ableton 11, 10 was struggling, but 11 pretty much done me in. So I upgraded. Lucky for me, I just had to put in a new MB, RAM and I was good to go. But it was still about $700.

 

[Old Music Guy]

I'm using a Dell Latitude laptop. I bought it for a hundred bux or so. I installed a 500MB SSD drive, plugged in 16MB of RAM. The core is an Intel i5. I'm currently running Widows 10. I'm pretty sure it's not the box or the configuration.
What I DID find with Cubase, especially 12, is that Cubase does not play well with the NVIDIA graphics drivers. Indeed, that's why I gave up on CB. I've tried to uninstall, install, reinstall the NVIDIA drives multiple times, as recommended, yet all to no avail.

All that said, my REAL problem is with the R2R. It blows my mind that I can't do multiple tracks. If we record on CH1 and CH2, we can' record CH 3 and CH4 while playing along to CH 1 & 2 simultaneously.

 

[TalismanRich]

Don, I'm running a I5-4750 Lenovo with 12GB ram and 1TB SSD and a Tascam 16x08 running Reaper. Reaper tends to be a low resource program, so that helps. I've recorded 8 tracks at once and didn't have any issue, but I do direct monitoring. You need to use Tascam's current V4 driver, and you can set it up in the routing page. The driver has been rock solid for me for several years. I run 64 buffer and 88K. The higher rate gives a better latency. V3 drivers sucked, and the first V4 driver was broken, but they fixed it in short order. ASIO4ALL sucked big time when I tried it. Are you trying to use effects through the DAW or just monitoring the inputs without adjustment?

You also need to make sure that you've got your computer set up for max performance. MS likes to set up Windows to be "green" so it turns things down and slows things up, which totally screws up recording.

My other option is a Zoom R-24. I can set up 8 mics, and since there's no USB or computer program running, there's no latency at all. It's also about the size of a laptop, so it's infinitely portable. I use it for recording live jam session. Vocals go into an old Yamaha mixer and feeds 1 channel. 3 channels for drums, one for bass and 3 for guitars is my normal setup. I never know how many guitars will be playing so I go that route. A nice 12 channel snake lets me set up away from the band.

If you want to overdub, you've still got 16 tracks left, and you can pull the SD card, stick it in the computer, dump the tracks into Reaper and work there for mixing, editing, overdubbing.

This was the setup at a jam a few years back. Mixer on the right R24 on the left.

 

[Old Music Guy]

Don, I'm running a I5-4750 Lenovo with 12GB ram and 1TB SSD and a Tascam 16x08 running Reaper. Reaper tends to be a low resource program, so that helps. I've recorded 8 tracks at once and didn't have any issue, but I do direct monitoring. You need to use Tascam's current V4 driver, and you can set it up in the routing page. The driver has been rock solid for me for several years. I run 64 buffer and 88K. The higher rate gives a better latency. V3 drivers sucked, and the first V4 driver was broken, but they fixed it in short order. ASIO4ALL sucked big time when I tried it. Are you trying to use effects through the DAW or just monitoring the inputs without adjustment?

You also need to make sure that you've got your computer set up for max performance. MS likes to set up Windows to be "green" so it turns things down and slows things up, which totally screws up recording.

My other option is a Zoom R-24. I can set up 8 mics, and since there's no USB or computer program running, there's no latency at all. It's also about the size of a laptop, so it's infinitely portable. I use it for recording live jam session. Vocals go into an old Yamaha mixer and feeds 1 channel. 3 channels for drums, one for bass and 3 for guitars is my normal setup. I never know how many guitars will be playing so I go that route. A nice 12 channel snake lets me set up away from the band.

If you want to overdub, you've still got 16 tracks left, and you can pull the SD card, stick it in the computer, dump the tracks into Reaper and work there for mixing, editing, overdubbing.

This was the setup at a jam a few years back. Mixer on the right R24 on the left.


View attachment 138248

That's a lot of information to unpack. But your setup does seem to solve some problems, What I REALLY want, is to be able to use my Revox R2R in place of your Zoom R-24. I had a TASCAM mixer/recorder that I used for drum recording, but that went south many moons ago (I think I still have it, but, like me, it don't work no mo)
Nice space you got there