Tape to PC??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oregonredneck
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Heh. I stopped into a Hat shop on 6th street during lunch at the Texas Linuxfest yesterday. Wouldn't a cowboy hat with flames look cool on top of an aliens head? They had quite the selection of those at that place. Lots of ascots, but not much in the form of trucker hats. And the usual vintage looking ones.
 
2-inch tape? Really???

Airline format? For a tech-retarded songwriter? Really???

C'mon.
 
Sorry I didn't get back sooner. We have a new baby in the house. The 4 track is a X-28H Fostex Mutitracker. I did read the manual and I'm sure I can get recordings at least onto a normal stereo tape. Getting them onto the PC would be nice but I'd settle for being able to get them onto a CD. I think I'm going to start looking at digital stuff like some of you suggested. Someone said they'd need a price range to know what to recommend, I'd like to spend less than a grand if I can. Like I said, I just want to be able to make clean vocal and guitar recordings. I have always paid for recordings in the past but don't feel it's cost effective to pay for just a simple vocal/guitar track every time. I write a lot of songs and it would end up costing a fortune. Right now I'm just using a standard 60 min TDK cassette tape. (If that's helpful at all)
 
c7sus said:
2-inch tape? Really???

Airline format? For a tech-retarded songwriter? Really???

C'mon.
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Well you can get that stuff dumpster diving over the years. Or some bundle deal. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Grandma and my parents used to pen pal of sorts with 4" reels of 1/2" tape. Since the grandparents didn't know how to read, but could operate a tape machine. Tech retardness need not apply. I knew a few computer programmers (mainframe) who never have and likely never will own a PC.
 
Page 35 of 36 on the manual says line output L and R. There's also Tape out 1, 2, 3, 4, with matching specs. So take those 4 and run them into a 4 channel (or more) sound card. Like a Delta 44. It looks like RCA jacks (30 from the image, details on page 13, image on page 8). So you might need some RCA to TS plugs, not sure if that's their name or not, but radio shack has them. Looks like a 1/4" stereo plug (but mono, as in tip plus sleeve only, no ring), with an RCA input on the other end. I've got two pairs myself. For running the Delta 44 output to the stereo, through RCA cables. So four of those plugs and two stereo RCA cables, and a four channel interface. It's an unbalanced connection, so turn off your cell phone(s).
 
A good quality 2 input interface would be quite a bit less than a thousand dollars, and it would let you mixdown your 4-track tapes. Just connect the stereo output of the 4-track to the inputs of the interface and record the mix. It would also let you record two live tracks at a time into your computer like you can on the 4-track, but you can layer many more tracks and use all sorts of effects.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
A good quality 2 input interface would be quite a bit less than a thousand dollars, and it would let you mixdown your 4-track tapes. Just connect the stereo output of the 4-track to the inputs of the interface and record the mix. It would also let you record two live tracks at a time into your computer like you can on the 4-track, but you can layer many more tracks and use all sorts of effects.
Click to expand...

We have a WINNER.
 
That and tape's speed isn't always that consistent, so you can't really do multiple passes as there will likely be some temporal differences on each pass. Even if you line up the start of each track, they'll likely end at different times if you do more than one pass. Not that you'd notice on most things < 2 minutes. But if you've got segments in excess of 10 minutes... For my reel to reel type tapes, the first 30+ seconds is mostly a waste as it takes time to settle in on a speed. Not as much of an issue on cassettes, but still a possibility. The mechanical linkage is still a RUBBER band for all intents.
 
Shadow_7 said:
That and tape's speed isn't always that consistent, so you can't really do multiple passes as there will likely be some temporal differences on each pass.
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Maybe someone suggested multiple passes, but my recommendation was to mix on the 4-tracker and record the stereo output which would cause no sync problems.
 
I agree with Shadow_7 that if the OP wants to get all 4 tracks into the computer to be mixed "in the box" an interface with 4 analog inputs is the ticket, doing the transfer 4 tracks at once in a single pass is by far the best way.
 
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