noob with tascam 4 track

[12steve426]

I have a 414 and i love it but i want to put my stuff on cd and possibly mix it a little better I was plannig on buying a maudio transit and a pro tools program the 250.00 version is that all i will need? also will the pro tools have some harmonies i could lay on the vocals or will I have to bite the bullet and go buy the tc voicelive and run it through my cheap little 414 portastudio any answers would be greatly apreciated

 

[mandpasbury]

Man, your 4-track is INVALUABLE in learnign how to record and mix. HAve you started bouncing tracks yet? IF so---do the vocal harmonies yourself!!!

The ProTools and M-Audio will do just fine, but remember--if you have a bad signal going in, it will sound bad on the CD no matter what you mix on!!! Learn to mix/bounce on the 4-track and you willbe so far ahead of the game when you move up to digital!!!

I have recorded 4 full-length CD's on my TASCAM 424 MKIII, just upgraded to the TASCAM 2488---play with that 4-track...it will serve you well!!

 

[Nico2112]

Man, your 4-track is INVALUABLE in learnign how to record and mix. HAve you started bouncing tracks yet? IF so---do the vocal harmonies yourself!!!

The ProTools and M-Audio will do just fine, but remember--if you have a bad signal going in, it will sound bad on the CD no matter what you mix on!!! Learn to mix/bounce on the 4-track and you willbe so far ahead of the game when you move up to digital!!!

I have recorded 4 full-length CD's on my TASCAM 424 MKIII, just upgraded to the TASCAM 2488---play with that 4-track...it will serve you well!!

Very well said.
I also had a lot of experience with a tape 4 track (414 portastudio) before moving up to digital. I spent 10 years playing around with it, and learned all the basics, as well as the tricky parts to obtain more than acceptable results.
Oh, and another thing, after transfering your tracks to your pc, you'll have a bit of a hard time putting all of them "in sync" with each other. I use cool edit pro for some of my mixing. When transfering from a tape portastudio I had this problem. With digital, it's extremely easy and you can transfer freely and they already are in sync.
Cheers!

 

[up-fiddler]

I bought a 424 about 15 years or more ago when they first came out. Keep your levels up. They're a great little rig. I recorded two albums with mine before moving up to a 488. Both albums sounded great and all I had then was a reverb unit, a noisegate, and the 424. The less you need to do with Pro-Tools and Cubase the better. As Mandpasbury stated, learn to get good signal/sound first. It's a great little machine.

 

[12steve426]

i have a long way to go as far as learning any kind of tricks other than hitting the record button and tweaking the EQ a bit. Ive been reading alot online but need to find a place where it dummies it up for me i know what bouncing is but have no idea how to do it the only way i can do harmonie on my tracks is to use another track. witch four is just enough as it is without wasting one on harmonie. any books (i.e recording for retards) you could suggest?

 

[Mark7]

There are two ways of bouncing tracks together: internal and external.

First, the internal bounce. In this example we have Bass, drums and guitars on tracks 1 to 3 and wish to make room for another guitar and two vocals. Therefore we're going to bounce 1 - 3 to track 4.

1: Set the input selector switch in channels 1 to 3 to tape

2: Set the record function switch - L/R, Direct, Off - of track 4 to L/R and the input selector in channel 4 to off.

3: Pan all source tracks fully right.

4: Set monitor controls to listen to track 4

5: Bring up volume controls on channels 1 to 3 and Master Volume Control

6: Whilst listening to play back make any EQ adjustments you feel are necessary. Remember, this could be your last chance to do so (especially one you start dubbing over the source tracks).

7: Adjust the relative balance of the tracks 1 to 3 using the channel faders until you get a satisfactory mix then.

8: Press play and record.

Now the external method. In this case we have stereo drums as well as bass and guitar

1: Plug the stereo line outs of your 414 into the soundcard line in of your computer.

2: As above from 1 to 8, except this time all the channels are set to tape and I've no idea how recording works on your computer.

3: Once you have a file ready put a fresh tape in your 414 and plug the appropriate output of your soundcard into two channels of the 414. Then it's just like recording any other line level source.

Note, with this method you can bounce again if you need more than two spare tracks and the quality won't suffer unduly.

 

[up-fiddler]

Now the external method. In this case we have stereo drums as well as bass and guitar

1: Plug the stereo line outs of your 414 into the soundcard line in of your computer.

2: As above from 1 to 8, except this time all the channels are set to tape and I've no idea how recording works on your computer.

3: Once you have a file ready put a fresh tape in your 414 and plug the appropriate output of your soundcard into two channels of the 414. Then it's just like recording any other line level source.

Note, with this method you can bounce again if you need more than two spare tracks and the quality won't suffer unduly.

As a rule, try to keep your levels on the 'hot' side on the way to tape and lower on the way to the computer. A higher signal saturates tape and a natural compression is the result if you don't get too carried away. You don't want ANY digital clipping of signal so send it to the computer at a much lower level. Once it's in the box you can always beef the signal back up to where it belongs. Hope this helps.