Otari 1/2" 8 track/mxier question

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Peck

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Hello, my name is Robert. I am new to the board, so thanks for having me. I am really glad to have found an all analog forum.

I am wondering about a mixer for my Otari MX5050 1/2" 8 track. I am going to record 3 vocal tracks, three guitars, a bass, and a synth to start off. I want to treat all of those with an outboard fx processor separately. If I can bounce the vocals to one track, I might add some drums (this would be ideal b/c I want drums).

Anyway, I am looking for the mixer that will do the job and sound professional. I have been looking into the Allen Heath Mix wizard mixers, but I am not sure how many channels I am going to need (or subgroups for that matter). I am assuming I will need more than I think.

I know that they make one 12:2 mixwizard. Another 14:4:2 I believe, and probably some others. Are these mixers capable of doing what I want them to do, or am I going to run out of channels?

Is there a better option in that price range for what I want to do?

I am pretty new to this, so excuse me if this is an obvious question. Thanks for your time. :cool:
 
Peck said:
I am wondering about a mixer for my Otari MX5050 1/2" 8 track. I am going to record 3 vocal tracks, three guitars, a bass, and a synth to start off. I want to treat all of those with an outboard fx processor separately. If I can bounce the vocals to one track, I might add some drums (this would be ideal b/c I want drums).
Click to expand...

Do you mean that you want to apply varying levels of FX to all channels, or that you want to apply three totally different FX units to the mix? If it's the latter, you'll either have to have a mixer with 4 effects busses, or apply effects to some tracks as they are being laid down, echo on the guitar etc.

Usually it's considered best to apply reverb at mix-time, since it can be (ab)used to add 'fake stereo' to mono tracks.
The middle option would be to get the raw track down perfectly, and then bounce it to another channel with echo or whatever you're applying, and then erase the original when you're completely satisfied.
If you use these techniques you'll only need one or two FX send/return channels.

I was quite happy on an 8-channel mixer, but I now have a 16-channel desk (mostly because I'm thinking of locking two TSR-8s together)
 
I would look for a inline mixer from tascam. Like the m35 or maybe even a 1508 would be a nice mixer for recording.
The mixers you are looking at are good mixers but are designed for live sound more so than recording in the analog world. They can be used but there are drawbacks to using mixers like that. Mainly you are always patching cords to use it. With a mixer designed for recording mainly your bullshit factor goes way down when it comes time to do anything.

With a machine like the otari 5050, If you want to do any bouncing you will have to bounce all tracks that have been recorded and not just 3 of say 7.
If you do that what happens is the 3 tracks you bounced will be out of sync with the other 4 cause of the head delay between the play head and record head. It would work best if you recorded say your drums on 4 tracks and bass guitar on 1 and maybe a rythm guitar on 1 track and then bounced them down to 1 track if you can get buy with mono on those instruments or two tracks if you need a panned aray of instruments there.
Then you can go back and add vocals and lead instruments to the tracks that you had recorded the drums and guitars on.
That would leave you 6 or 7 tracks.
I hope that makes sense. :rolleyes:
 
Herm said:
With a machine like the otari 5050, If you want to do any bouncing you will have to bounce all tracks that have been recorded and not just 3 of say 7.
Click to expand...
That would seem like a big omission. Can't you force it to copy from the sync head?
 
Yes I suppose you could do it that way as long as it has the same response as the play head.
 
Thanks Herm and JpMorris for the info. Yeah, I do want to apply totally different efx to each track. Not just varying levels of the same effect. So I guess I really need to reconsider the allen heath mix wizards, if they are not even solely intended for recording. I really was thinking that the 14:4:2 mix wizard would be a great mixer for what I am doing, but I guess I need to investigate it a bit more. This mixer situation makes me a little uneasy, because I know I need to get it right the first time.

Anyway, I really just want a reliable mixer, that will give me enough channels, effect returns, and a quality sound.

Thanks again.
 
I'd say that you should be looking for a mixer that has 8 subgroups. They would generally be given model names like 16-8-2 (16 tracks, 8 subgroups, stereo channel).

The subgroups are what you would send to the 8 track tape, then from the tape you can send them back into the mixer for mixdown, bouncing etc.

I have a studiomaster 16-8-2 and it's perfect for what you are after but others with this configuration will be great for you. Trust me, this will do everything you will need or want from a mixer when recording to an 8 track.
 
MyName,

Thanks for the recomendation. I really appreciate it. I'll start looking for mixers with the 8 subgroups. Have you been happy with the studiomaster? I saw on Ebay you can get a used for one for a pretty good price. Thanks again.
 
Yeah, they are great. The eq section is very good.

Grab one if you can.

I have a manual i can scan for you if you buy one without.
 
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