Routing dilemma

[Son of Mixerman]

Ok, after spending most of the last holiday season sick, misplaced manuals and a memory like a stick of butter Im going to query you fine people. Im laying on my back hooking up the multritrack to the the console after more than a decade in storage(Ramsa WR-T820b) and I can't remember if Its best to send the Buss outs to the Tape inputs of the recorders or the direct outs on each of the channel? Refresh my memory please on to pro's and cons or your advice.

Thanks,
SoMm

 

[knightfly]

It would kinda depend on what you want to do and how many tracks your multitrack is - if it's just an 8-track, I'd hook the bus outs (thru a patch bay, of course) to the tape in's - tape outs (patch bay again) to the tape returns on the mixer.

Reasoning - if you have only 8 tape tracks, this way you can quickly patch to a tape track by just assigning the channel to bus 1-2, or 5-6, etc - The downside of this is noise - the more things the signal goes thru, the noisier it gets, and the more chance for phase shifts (bad)

You can get around the noise thing somewhat by taking the direct outs of the board into the patch bay also, and for critical tracks (or ones you have more time to tweak with) you can patch the direct out into the tape in, bypassing lots of circuitry in the process.

Basically, it's a good plan to put patch points ANYWHERE you even remotely think you might wanna hook something else in.

If you have a 24 track tape machine, you can use 16 in's for directs, and still use all 8 bus outs for scratch stuff, etc... Steve

 

[Son of Mixerman]

It would kinda depend on what you want to do and how many tracks your multitrack is

I have 16 tracks, anaolg tape reel to reel thing. I would like to be able to do mutiple takes to tape without repatching the mic to another channel. I was thinking If I used the buss outs, I could use one input channel and then use buss assignments to get it to the track I need on the second, third etc take. Make sense or am I dyslexic? Will it work that way?

thanks

SoMm

 

[Sennheiser]

Yes it will work that way. You don't say how many busses your console has. I'm not familiar with it.

It will also depend on how many sources you wish to record at once. If you have an eight buss board and a 16 track recorder you can record eight single sources at once or 16 sources if two each are sharing a track and multiple combinations of that.

It's worse with a four-buss, but not many use that for 16 track recording unless doing one at a time with a lot of repatching.

I have a four-buss, but use the direct outs so I can record all eight tracks at once if I have to. I'm not usually recording more than a few sources at once, unless it's drums and then I will buss when all the levels are correct for a two track recording.

The nice thing about my console is that I do not have to repatch anything to go from direct to buss recording. It's all on-board.

 

[knightfly]

As I mentioned in my first post - "The downside of this is noise - the more things the signal goes thru, the noisier it gets, and the more chance for phase shifts (bad) " -

Yes, you can patch things the way you said, and it IS convenient to be able to just push a couple buttons on the assigns to change track assignments -

By using a patch bay the way I suggested, you can have your cake and eat it too. If the easy, push-button way of bus out assignment proves to be noticeably worse quality than using the direct outs (again, thru a patch bay) then you can shorten the path and improve quality by just moving a patch cable or two.

Either way will work, the direct way may (probably WILL) be cleaner, and the bus assign method will be easier. Your choice, your music... Steve

 

[Son of Mixerman]

Thanks Knightfly and Sennheiser. I would need a patchbay that is RCA on the back and 1/4" on the front. I already have 2 balanced 1/4" bays but the console is mostly rca for the buss outs and direct outs. Its a pro console from the 80's designed as a live desk primarily from what I remember. Its a 20 channel, 8 buss desk with pretty decent sound. Ask sjoko2 about these buggers, he knows more about them than I. I think Ill keep it wired the way it is right now until I get the rca patch bay and just move the xlr to whatever channel lines up with whatever track I need to use. Thanks again.

peace,
SoMm