separation and distance

[billyboy2674]

Hi all I'm a novice at recording and work it analog-I'm going to get into a computer setup later on but right now Ive got a tascam 4 channel and some effects.
Demos made here are very simple usually 2-3 channels of piano and voice.
Usually when I try and mix them(I've no compressor)things sound up tangled...the piano track is too close to the vocal.Sure I know I can pan them into shape-but the person who receives my demos will be able to hear only the piano or vocal track and I dont fancy that very much.
So my question is-do I have any other way of separating without leaving the tracks liable to exposure?
thx for any advice guys.;-)

 

[chadsxe]

Panning = left/right
Reverb/Delay = front/back
eq = top/bottom

Its all in the mix

 

[billyboy2674]

what type mixer,compressor,or whatever do I need?
To make the mix as effective as possible?

 

[chadsxe]

what type mixer,compressor,or whatever do I need?
To make the mix as effective as possible?

Thats an impossible question to answer, without more detail as off what you want. Even then it still is not a for sure thing.

 

[NYMorningstar]

.Sure I know I can pan them into shape-but the person who receives my demos will be able to hear only the piano or vocal track and I dont fancy that very much.
;-)

If the person receiving your demo only hears some of the tracks it could be because you haven't mixed the tracks down to a normal stereo tape format. On the 4 track all the tracks run in the same direction. On a cassette player only 2 tracks play simultaneously so if you took the tape from the 4 track and played it on a regular cassette player you'd hear only 2 of the tracks play. To solve this problem just send the mix out to a stereo tape recorder.

 

[grn]

reverb only adds sound to the back, not the front. equalization is great for separation. panning helps a lot if you can duplicate a track and pan both hard left and right, leaving the center clear. any mixer could work really, just have to know what you're doing and/or experiment. you really should get into the computer thing, much easier to deal with.

 

[billyboy2674]

youve all been great thx.!
and grn-I am planning to get into the computer thing,it's just that I dont want to lose the work Ive done so far(good songs).
So you'd recommend a mixer then?;-)