New To Recording!

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enuff1

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I purchased The Tascam 414 MK II 4 Track recorder. I like it very much! My Question is I can't understand how tracks 5,6,7, & 8 work. What I mean by this, I had used all four tracks for music. I wanted to add vocals, so I pluged a Mic into input 5,6, but when I went though the basic recording process, like tracks 1-4 nothing happened. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong? Any help would be appreciated!!!
 
"The Tascam 414 MK II 4 Track recorder" - I'll try to be as gentle as possible here, since you may have thought you were getting more than what you bought - In the quote from your question above, did you notice it is called a 4 track recorder? This is because that's all the tracks you can record. The other inputs are only extra inputs to the mixer section of the recorder, and can be used to feed extra signals into the mix while you're mixing down the 4 tape tracks to a stereo recorder, such as a minidisk, CD-R, or stereo cassette recorder. This way, you could record 4 tracks, then mix those to 2 track stereo while playing along on, say, a guitar lead or a vocal, etc - The extra tracks could also be used as inputs from a MIDI keyboard, which with some extra gear could be synchronized with your tape tracks to allow more tracks at a time. These MIDI tracks, played back from a sequencer, are also know as "virtual" tracks, because you can change which instrument plays them AFTER they are recorded.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but without extra gear 4 tracks is all you get. It is conceivable to "bounce" tracks and get a few more, but there are noise penalties. When you learn more about your 414 and its basic usage, ask about track bouncing and/or MIDI instruments. Hope this helps... Steve
 
Thanks! It helped alot! Are you saying? I can add sounds, or vocals while I'm doing the mixing process?
 
Yes.

All those extra inputs can also be use to hook up your input devices and buss the signal to the tracks. This way you don't have to keep repatching.

You just route the signal from whichever mixer input you want and send it to whichever track you want.

You can also record more than one input at a time to one or more tracks by bussing.

Say you are recording a four piece band. You are using seven mics and a direct in for the keyboard. You can route all of these signals to the four tracks that you have by bussing.

One of the hardest things for people new to any kind of recording device that is a recorder and mixer in one is to be able to separate the two devices in your head.

They are two separate and different devices. They just happen to be in the same box. You have to treat them separately too or you can get confused in a hurry. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks it did help! So all I have to do is while i'm Mixing traks is, flip one of the switches I want the track to go to, like 1,2, etc? Thanks for the help!
 
Not while you are mixing, but mixing DOWN to two track stereo no matter what the medium you are mixing down to.

If you mean can you randomly start recording on tracks while you are mixing but not actually tracking or mixing down, then no.

I'm not even sure that made any sense.

Let me start over. if you need to add something on your mixdown to CD, computer, cassette (horrors!) you should be able to add another part or several parts while doing this. If you screw up though you have to start the whole mixdown again. You will be recording your final mix to stereo and layering the other parts on top of what you have already recorded.

I'm not sure all machines are capable of this. Mine is, but I don't use it. If I can't get it all in eight tracks it's too much anyway.

Did that make any sense?
 
You don't necessarily need to be mixing down - those added inserts are a good way to input more than 4 audio signals while recording without buying a separate mixer.
 
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