Recording to DAW...then to cassette mix

W

Will25

New member
Ok sooo I haven't got a reverb unit but I want a reverb effect on my vocals for a track I've recorded on my 488 cassette. Would it work to record the vocal onto the computer, add some reverb in the DAW the record it out to the cassette? Or is there an easier way round it?

Thanks for your time :)
 
What you want to do is theoretically possible although I had problems doing this with a cassette portastudio.
I found the tape speed is rather inconsistent on the units I have.
It's fine if your only using the tape because obviously that still syncs up with itself but using a perfectly consistent source such as DAW and trying to tie it up with a rather variable cassette playback was difficult.

I tried recording some drum overheads onto a 488 to hit them hard with tape compression/saturation but trying to get them to line up with the rest of the drums in the DAW later was a problem, they'd fall in and out of tiime with the rest of the kit. although you're doing the reverse I'd imagine the slight differences in playback consistency could make the vocal fall out of time with the rest of the tracks if that is coming off the DAW

On one project several years ago when I wanted reverb on a track on a cassette porta studio I placed a monitor at the bottom of the stairwell and a mic at the top, played back the track and recorded the reverb in the space to blend in with the original vocal. That was before all this DAW nonsense of course but it worked quite well
 
Will25 said:
Ok sooo I haven't got a reverb unit but I want a reverb effect on my vocals for a track I've recorded on my 488 cassette. Would it work to record the vocal onto the computer, add some reverb in the DAW the record it out to the cassette? Or is there an easier way round it?

Thanks for your time :)
Click to expand...

What kind of DAW do you have? Why not just do all your recording through there?
 
Legolas1971 said:
What kind of DAW do you have? Why not just do all your recording through there?
Click to expand...
Because the 488 happens to be his chosen recording medium at the moment. It's what he has, it's what he uses, it's what he feels comfortable with. If someone asks for advice on a good technique to make a 6 string guitar sound like a 12 string, "buy or borrow a 12 string" is not advice and is not answering the question.
I haven't got a reverb unit but I want a reverb effect on my vocals for a track I've recorded on my 488 cassette. Would it work to record the vocal onto the computer, add some reverb in the DAW the record it out to the cassette? Or is there an easier way round it?
Click to expand...
Unless there's a way you can synch the 488 to your DAW by striping the tape {via track 8} and getting it to run consistently, I think you're going to find the same problems that Bristol Posse found. I find that tapes never run at the same speed twice. It's led to many infuriating evenings, I can tell you ! It only needs to be a few milliseconds out in different places for a guaranteed lining up nightmare.
But his answer
On one project several years ago when I wanted reverb on a track on a cassette porta studio I placed a monitor at the bottom of the stairwell and a mic at the top, played back the track and recorded the reverb in the space to blend in with the original vocal. That was before all this DAW nonsense of course but it worked quite well
Click to expand...
points the way to a good place you might think about going. Are there any spaces you have to hand with natural reverb that will net you the kind of result he achieved with his technique ? Like stairwells, near empty large rooms, inside the washing machine, the bath, the loo, a warehouse ?
Before I got a reverb unit, with my 488, I used to use the bass drum from my drum kit. I did it live though and it was very uncomfortable, but fairly effective - I was a novice then but if I were doing it now, I'd do what Bristol Posse did and put the bass drum in front of a monitor and mic it {or vice versa}.
 
grimtraveller said:
Because the 488 happens to be his chosen recording medium at the moment. It's what he has, it's what he uses, it's what he feels comfortable with. If someone asks for advice on a good technique to make a 6 string guitar sound like a 12 string, "buy or borrow a 12 string" is not advice and is not answering the question.
Unless there's a way you can synch the 488 to your DAW by striping the tape {via track 8} and getting it to run consistently, I think you're going to find the same problems that Bristol Posse found. I find that tapes never run at the same speed twice. It's led to many infuriating evenings, I can tell you ! It only needs to be a few milliseconds out in different places for a guaranteed lining up nightmare.
But his answer
points the way to a good place you might think about going. Are there any spaces you have to hand with natural reverb that will net you the kind of result he achieved with his technique ? Like stairwells, near empty large rooms, inside the washing machine, the bath, the loo, a warehouse ?
Before I got a reverb unit, with my 488, I used to use the bass drum from my drum kit. I did it live though and it was very uncomfortable, but fairly effective - I was a novice then but if I were doing it now, I'd do what Bristol Posse did and put the bass drum in front of a monitor and mic it {or vice versa}.
Click to expand...

Wow.....easy on the coffee buddy. It was just a question. I guess questions aren't okay
to ask in your book......Do us all a favor and take a deep breathe.
 
Legolas1971 said:
Wow.....easy on the coffee buddy. It was just a question. I guess questions aren't okay
to ask in your book......Do us all a favor and take a deep breathe.
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I knew you'd say something like that.
By the way, I stopped drinking coffee in 1998. Drank it for 17 years. It was nice while it lasted.....
Questions are fine and people must ask them. I've been part of a few threads where Will25 has asked questions pertaining to his 488 and ways of utilizing it and for now, that's what he wants to become profficient on. If you check it out, all I did was answer your question. You asked why he didn't do X and I gave four reasons why. Your latter question didn't address his specific request.
If I came across as wild eyed, there's not much I can do about that {except maybe sunglasses :cool:} other than to say I'm not.
I guess I major on the "use what you have and find ways to overcome those obstacles that are presented" side of things, even though what is being presented may appear to be more work for the asker.
 
Transfer all the tracks to the DAW, do the reverb to the vocals, then mix down to stereo (or 4 tracks, if the 488 lets your record 4 simultaneous tracks), and re-record to cassette, then finish up your product on the 488.
 
grimtraveller said:
I knew you'd say something like that.
By the way, I stopped drinking coffee in 1998. Drank it for 17 years. It was nice while it lasted.....
Questions are fine and people must ask them. I've been part of a few threads where Will25 has asked questions pertaining to his 488 and ways of utilizing it and for now, that's what he wants to become profficient on. If you check it out, all I did was answer your question. You asked why he didn't do X and I gave four reasons why. Your latter question didn't address his specific request.
If I came across as wild eyed, there's not much I can do about that {except maybe sunglasses :cool:} other than to say I'm not.
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That's great but I was asking Will25 the question; not you......
Also, this is the Noob section so maybe he hadn't thought of using
the DAW. Maybe he could use a different process to get what he needs done.
I also appreciate that you follow the threads as closely as you do to know
who Will25 is; but not all of us do. Again, my question was harmless. I was
trying to be helpful. It's my own fault. I should know better than getting
involved with this nonsense..........
 
Thanks for the replies, quite an amusing read haha. Good point made about the tape speed consistency... sadly I don't have any monitor speakers but I could use some more echoey spaces (my bathroom is pretty good) and get a decent sound. I'll try it anyway!

Without meaning to be all 'how do I sound like....', I was in (brief) contact with the guy in this band who did the recording and mixing all on a 488 mk II using 'really cheap equipment' in his house, apparently. In Our Veins | The Sand Band He said he mixed down to his Mac and used 'some cheap stuff to warm up the mixes'...would he have used a reverb unit and compression etc with the 488 while recording then? ..or just compressed the whole track in DAW?...not really sure how to use compression and my stereo mixes don't sound anywhere near as full and loud as that track...

Thanks again for the help, slowly learning haha :)
 
Will25 said:
Ok sooo I haven't got a reverb unit but I want a reverb effect on my vocals for a track I've recorded on my 488 cassette. Would it work to record the vocal onto the computer, add some reverb in the DAW the record it out to the cassette? Or is there an easier way round it?

Thanks for your time :)
Click to expand...
I was thinking doing how we use hardware fx on daw recordings, but 'flip flopped.
You'd send you voc track to the daw track with a verb plug on it, set for live monitoring, pass that (verb only) back out and record it to your tape.
You get a slightly delayed version of the verb back but, all that means is you just take the offest as if it's just part of the effect ie you have some built in 'pre delay, and adust your verb setup accordingly.
How (or if) you'd do any of this fancy stuff with four tracks to work with.. IDK.
 
grimtraveller said:
Because the 488 happens to be his chosen recording medium at the moment. It's what he has, it's what he uses, it's what he feels comfortable with. If someone asks for advice on a good technique to make a 6 string guitar sound like a 12 string, "buy or borrow a 12 string" is not advice and is not answering the question. ..
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Now it wasn't quite like that at all is it? ..he did say 'to the daw' (or whatever.

I am enjoying some dark italian roast BTW :rolleyes: :)
 
mixsit said:
Now it wasn't quite like that at all is it? ..he did say 'to the daw' (or whatever)
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Well, that was what I felt the question I queried didn't take on board. I know it's the newbie section, but if Will25 knows enough to look into recording his vocal tracks onto the DAW, apply reverb, then try to match it up to go back to his portastudio, then I don't think it's too far a leap of imagination to conclude that he must have at least considered recording wholesale on the DAW and decided to go with the 488. So when people suggest or imply "doing everything in the DAW" that's kind of ignoring the obvious; he's made the conscious decision not to do that.
But it's no biggie. We're not going to invade Iraq over it. :D
 
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