Not New to Recording, but new to the "box"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nate74
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Nate74

Nate74

HR4FREBR
I've been recording on my Tascam 38 for years with great results. Mix to DAT, then burn CDs as needed. Mostly demos for my band and other local bands, but did a couple LPs that sold pretty well.

I recently decided to add an HD24XR to the equation for additional tracks. The guitarist in my band pointed out that now I could easily dump tracks to my PC and mix there. He let me borrow a cheapy copy of Cakewalk Music Creator.

I have to admit I've been hesitant, but I just was able to fix a song I recorded years ago that had one bad note in a bass intro by finding the wave form elsewhere in the intro and copy/pasting it into place... I still think that's cheating but man was it cool :)

I'm guessing there are much better applications out there for mixing multiple tracks, etc. besides the Music Creator though. I'm basically looking to dump as many as 24 tracks to the computer and have the ability to do those same cool edits, then mix. To mix now I have a few Lexicon outboard effects and several compressors.

So my question (at long last): What's a reasonably affordable program that will let me do what I want and has comparable effects and compression to what I'm using now? Also, since I don't know what I don't know, is there anything else to look for or look out for?

Thanks
 
i do all my recording and mixing in the pc. i highly recommend you try the demo of what i use. powertracks(pgmusic.com). simple to set up, easy to use, but with very deep editing features. 48 tracks for 49 bucks. loads of effects built in to save you buying plug ins. plus you can mix all the tracks to stereo and then burn a cd. please note - i dont know what pc you have. but this wont run on mac. go over the introductory videos and tutorials at pg. ive tried every software from expensive to cheap, and you wont beat it.
very high value for money.
peace.
 
There are a bunch of programs that will do this with various features and platforms. search this site and you will find lots of discussions.

After you have jumped into working "in the box" for a few months, I recomend that you take one of your new mixes and A-B it against your old work using the 8 track and a real mixer. You might be surprised by which direction the quality of your mixes have gone. You will have to make that decision on your own.
 
Manning,
I'll check out the demo of powertracks. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ronan,
I think I know what you're hinting at :) I've been so hard-headed about making the transition for so long, I feel feel like I'm getting a really late start to it...

We'll see. Any other thoughts?
 
nate. as well as owning a daw studio....i was a computer engineer for years.
my only comment is people often try recording using underpowered
pc's. i see it all the time on here.
best bet. a 2ghz plus pc with 512 ram and fast hard drives 7200 rpm.
drives with 8 mb cache are best. this type of pc will last you a long long time with loads of tracks and facilities if you set it up right.
i can easily do 40 tracks on my daw. peace.
 
To a certain extent you can get the best of both worlds with a card like the M-Audio delta 1010LT. This has 8 analog ins, & 8 outs. So you can record 8 sumultaneous tracks into you s/w, build up you projectand perform all the editing you need to do, then use the 8 outputs to go back to your mixer/external effects etc for mixdown.

If 8 tracks each way is not enough, you can sync up to 4 of these cards together to give you up to 32 simultaneous ins/outs. The cards are pretty cheap too - only $220 at zzounds
 
bh. as you know...i respect your opinions.
why ,,when so many people like delta are some people of the opinion they
dont like the sound. they sound great to so many folks for the money. any idea why some folks dont agree ?
i just dont understand.
peace.
 
Well, I imagine part of it it that they paid $499 for DP4.5 and are anxious to find a reason for it.
 
Nate74 said:
Ronan,
I think I know what you're hinting at :) I've been so hard-headed about making the transition for so long, I feel feel like I'm getting a really late start to it...
Click to expand...

In cased you did not get what I was hinting at, you may find that the quality of your recordings may take a step backwards instead of forward. (maybe)

I have worked on tons of formats, in some of the best studios in the world. I did my first pro tools record over a decade ago. The album I just finished I did on a Tascam 38.
 
:o Oh... Then perhaps running out and investing $500 for software, and $2000 for a 2 Jigawatt computer is a little premature?

I must confess, the sound I get out of my 38 turns heads... just hope adding the HD24XR helps not hurts. I considered trying to get a 16 track 1" instead but the upkeep, cost of tape, and mostly size of something like a Tascam MS-16 kept me from doing it.

Any thoughts on the best way to combine the two formats?
 
i'm not sure i agree on this. i think it is all in the hands of the engineer.
ive heard some damn good stunning stuff done on the pc.
its all a question of the sound card convertors quality.
ive owned various multitrack tape machines in the past of various formats.
including 38. ive also recorded on old studers.
if you like THAT tape sound, you could always start off the beds on 38 ,
then using a multiple input sound card transfer to pc, and add all the
other tracks. ive seen many discussions between top AE's around the net on this, and all i know is a lot now do all recording and mixing on the pc.
i think its work methods.
 
Nate74 said:
I must confess, the sound I get out of my 38 turns heads... just hope adding the HD24XR helps not hurts. I considered trying to get a 16 track 1" instead but the upkeep, cost of tape, and mostly size of something like a Tascam MS-16 kept me from doing it.

Any thoughts on the best way to combine the two formats?
Click to expand...

The HD24XR is a cool machine. I would recomend that you track as much as you cann to the tape machine and then dump it over to your HD24XR for more overdubs etc. Then mix with your analog console. Its easy and it will sound good and you will get a lot of work done. Eventually you may want a computer so that you could dump particular tracks over and edit them and then dump them back to the HD24XR, but no need to rush out and do that.
 
I really like the idea of editing on the PC, then sending tracks back to the HD24. Now this is gonna be a total Newbie question, but when you send a track back to the HD24, how do you "line it up" with the rest of the song? I'm sure it's simple, but for an analog guy, it seem like magic that it's even possible. :)

Also, if "lining" tracks up is possible, couldn't I record everything to tape, then dump to the HD24. I'd just be limited to 8 tracks at a time of recording?
 
I got onto the PC for two reasons.

First and foremost, Drumagog introduced a way of drum replacemtn that couldnt be touched by any hardware device. I spent a LOT of money on FORAT's, DDrums, ALesis products, the usualy suspects. Even an AMS with the trigger/sample option. This 300 dollar app blew me away

Secondly, as bands were getting ccrappier and crappier, I needed a better razor blade. Editing was my main concern. We tried all sorts of things, from an AMS AudioFile to early versions of Pro Tools, but nothing really grabbed me until Sonic Foundry's Vegas.

I dont create music, or MIDI or anything of the sort, I just wanted a razor blade, and it is an AWESOME one. You can mix in it as well, I am somewhat comfortable mixing in it, and have been almost exclusively, but other apps can offer some cooler mixing features, I just want the razor blade mostly

About compressors. Here we got a huge problem, not just compressors but studio gear, and more importantly workflow in general. These plugs are made mostly, almost totally, by people who have never used the devices they "model". Most havent even seen one or have any real practical knowledge about what it does. If you go to IRC's Effnet, go to the #music-dsp channel and you will see the people making this stuff. They copy and paste pages from " the engineer's guide to DSP" (http://www.dspguide.com/). Very relevant if you are trying to estimate how far railroad ties will drift over a given lentgh of tracks and time, but not so easily useable for realistic audio purposes. You will find that many compressors' detect circuits' RMS mode simply multiplies peak level by .707

great in theory, worhtless in real life

there are a few OK ones out there, but overall, plugins are pretty depressing.

Check out the Sonalksis line for a decent comp and EQ

Ultrafunk has a great noisegate, with ALL the features you would expect, since a PC knows whats coming ( the whole point for a device to be on a computer in the first place IMHO )

Princeton Digital's reverb is cool, IMHO the first synthesis plugin reverb that actually makes reverb sounds

Convolution reverb like SIR, Accoustic mirror, and Voxengo Pristine Space are AWESOME, though CPU hungry. Get all the impulses youll ever need at www.noisevault.com

Choruses and flangers mostly suck, but youll find some that will work

Sidechaining will be a horrific problem. There are sidechaining apps like DB Audioware and TC, but theyre sketchy art best

Have fun joining us in the In the Box world
 
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