Recording audio to VCR?

  • Thread starter Thread starter vactastic
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vactastic

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Howdy Ya'll, maybe someone could shed some light on this for me.
I read here once about recording to S-VHS Tapes as a poorman's DAT. I Gave it a shot, and nothing just a whole bunch of hiss.

here's is what I had going on

(2) ECM8000's - Picking up room, this fed a

Mackie 1202 - and the main outs of that, coming out L&R into a single RCA plug, then into the AUDIO IN on the VCR.

Also this time around I did not use SVHS, is this that big a deal.

So nothing happened, no audio recorded. Is there anything obvious about what i did that shows why it wouldn't work.

Thanks
Jason
 
You may need to select the proper audio input control on the VCR. Monitor the output of the VCR through your Mackie to see if you even getting a signal in/out of the VCR...It should just loop through.
 
I was monitoring it through ProTools and the level was about half way up the meter with whitenoise.
 
AFAIK you need to have a video signal going into the vcr at the same time in order for it to start recording the signal. Most VCR's will not record if there is just static on the screen. Tune in a station so it has a video signal to sync to.

Those Omni ECM's are going to be picking up every bit of room noise unless you are close micing.

I dont understand the whole VCR mastering deck thing. We used to do that 15yrs ago but I dont really see the benefit these days unless you are really hard up for gear. VCR's often have crappy compressor/limitors built in. With the combo of a lot of room noise from the omni's and the VCR pushing up the level I wouldnt expect too much out of that setup unless you have a prosumer grade deck.

But I could be wrong.
 
I'm the "4 VCRs demo" guy.Here's a clip
recorded in the drummer's garage on 4 VCrs and later mixed and tweaked on my pc.
Looney Tunez has nailed your problem.VCRs are set up default to record audio coming in the 300 ohm tv cable.You need to read the manual for your VCR to find out how to do it.Typically,your remote will have a button called "input" or "select" and that should cycle you through the input options.
Tom
 
It sounds like your VCR is a non-stereo non-Hi fi type if it's only got 1 audio in. You need to use a Stereo Hi-Fi VCR and record to the Hi-Fi audio track. Recording to the VHS linear tracks doesn't do you any better than a cassette. SVHS tape doesn't make a difference. The S part is referring to a split video signal instead of a composite one... nothing to do with the audio.

BTW, it's a good idea to feed your VCR a video signal while you record to the Hi-fi. Hi-fi on a VCR is near digital quality. Note the word NEAR.... there are a few compression artificacts and there is a a little tape noise in the FM modulation process, but it's nothing drastic.
 
vactastic.. you dont have a computer with a soundcard?
 
JR#97 said:
there are a few compression artificacts and there is a a little tape noise in the FM modulation process, but it's nothing drastic.
Click to expand...
Actually, it is pretty drastic on transients like hi-hats... I think the latest MD technology will outperform it with far fewer artifacts....

It's a step-up from a cassette deck as a mix-down unit, but only by a bit...... it does maintain far more high-end content than cassette does........

Bruce
 
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