glimmertwins
New member
...okay so for the first time ever I finally have a space large enough to house all my gear including my Tascam M-520 console, my Tascam 388, and a UAD Apollo interface(paired with a Saffire for more pre-channels). I have used all these pieces individually, but never together before - so I wanted some help thinking through how I should set this up.
What I think I should do:
1.) Track through interface: I was thinking it makes sense to use the preamps from the Apollo/Saffire as the first stop for my audio - that way I have the option of adding UAD plugins like reverb or compression during tracking since I don't have a ton of hardware pieces. I likely won't have more than 8 tracks I'm recording at a time since it's a small studio and I'm normally a 2 or 3 mics on the drum kind of guy.
2.) Playback out of interface through 520 for mixing - So in that scenario I would use the computer to capture performances and then play them back routed out to the M-520 - that's a total of 16 channels from my computer in a balanced signal converted to unbalanced RCA(RCV insert on console) via a couple of Fostex 5030s which convert balanced to unbalanced).
3.) Mix 16 channels on M-520 console and route 8 channels to the buss.
4.) 8 channels out of buss to Tascam 388 to record direct to tape after mixing(so performance is already captured).
5.) Monitoring - this is another piece I'm unsure of. Ideally I would like to monitor the output of the Apollo, the output of the 520, and the output of the 388 so that I can kind of pick an choose where the mix sounds best for each song - so some songs I might not want the dirty 388 sound so I record the final mix out of the 520, etc. I assume I would need some sort of external monitoring hardware to do this(I'm sure Dangerous makes something for this).
What would you do? Am I making any sense at all? In a nutshell I'm thinking tracking through the interface, mix through the 520, and use the 388 essentially as an effect on mix down to dial in some tape dirtiness according to how hard I hit it. But is there a better way to approach this set up? Alternatively, I guess I could just track through the 520 and use the apollo as a tape machine and maybe I can set up a couple of channels on the apollo as inserts to track with effects and capture the M-520 output but I have heard this 520 can sometime lack some clarity which is why I was considering bypassing the pre amps.
What do you guys think? Is the 388 with the 520 overkill(especially if you have UAD tape plugins)? Thanks in advance for all your help!
What I think I should do:
1.) Track through interface: I was thinking it makes sense to use the preamps from the Apollo/Saffire as the first stop for my audio - that way I have the option of adding UAD plugins like reverb or compression during tracking since I don't have a ton of hardware pieces. I likely won't have more than 8 tracks I'm recording at a time since it's a small studio and I'm normally a 2 or 3 mics on the drum kind of guy.
2.) Playback out of interface through 520 for mixing - So in that scenario I would use the computer to capture performances and then play them back routed out to the M-520 - that's a total of 16 channels from my computer in a balanced signal converted to unbalanced RCA(RCV insert on console) via a couple of Fostex 5030s which convert balanced to unbalanced).
3.) Mix 16 channels on M-520 console and route 8 channels to the buss.
4.) 8 channels out of buss to Tascam 388 to record direct to tape after mixing(so performance is already captured).
5.) Monitoring - this is another piece I'm unsure of. Ideally I would like to monitor the output of the Apollo, the output of the 520, and the output of the 388 so that I can kind of pick an choose where the mix sounds best for each song - so some songs I might not want the dirty 388 sound so I record the final mix out of the 520, etc. I assume I would need some sort of external monitoring hardware to do this(I'm sure Dangerous makes something for this).
What would you do? Am I making any sense at all? In a nutshell I'm thinking tracking through the interface, mix through the 520, and use the 388 essentially as an effect on mix down to dial in some tape dirtiness according to how hard I hit it. But is there a better way to approach this set up? Alternatively, I guess I could just track through the 520 and use the apollo as a tape machine and maybe I can set up a couple of channels on the apollo as inserts to track with effects and capture the M-520 output but I have heard this 520 can sometime lack some clarity which is why I was considering bypassing the pre amps.
What do you guys think? Is the 388 with the 520 overkill(especially if you have UAD tape plugins)? Thanks in advance for all your help!