Tascam Portastudio 424 fun

[jake-owa]

I love the sound of a well recorded 4 track tune. Decent sounding guitar but excellent playing and recording.

It's weird how songs just pop out when you least expect them. I broke out my old Yamaha 4 track to demonstrate it's use to a friend and made a really cool song in a few minutes on accident.

Great song, keep the cassette machine.

 

[chrisharris]

The combination of my guitar (Ovation Celebrity – kind of twangy & bright) my mic (AKG C535B – not really sure how good of mic this is) and my lack of knowledge is making it hard for me to find a nice full sound.

I don't know if you have the ability to do this, but try it if you can.
cmp 8.7 : 1 above -14 dB
cmp 2.5 : 1 below -14 dB
cmp 1.5 : 1 below -24 dB
exp 1.2 : 1 below -40 dB
Compensation Gain = -2dB
Immediate attack, maybe 15ms release.

I use this a ton when I'm recording this super "thin" guitar that I have (it's a thin body Takamine with a blanket inside to prevent feedback on stage). When you mic this guitar, it's similar to what you're playing.

Anyway, good luck...any questions about the above, just let me know.

 

[Axe4Yahweh]

John;

I have a Tascam 414MKII I bought new last year. I was going to sell it awhile back and changed my mind. I have the VF-160 and the puter but that lil thing is SO PORTABLE.

Anyway, this toon sounds great as is. Nice and warm sounding. Great story. Sometimes I think that we can overproduce songs and make em too slick.

Great job on that 424.

CR ><>

 

[Jagular]

I don't know if you have the ability to do this, but try it if you can.
cmp 8.7 : 1 above -14 dB
cmp 2.5 : 1 below -14 dB
cmp 1.5 : 1 below -24 dB
exp 1.2 : 1 below -40 dB
Compensation Gain = -2dB
Immediate attack, maybe 15ms release.

I use this a ton when I'm recording this super "thin" guitar that I have (it's a thin body Takamine with a blanket inside to prevent feedback on stage). When you mic this guitar, it's similar to what you're playing.

Anyway, good luck...any questions about the above, just let me know.

Thanks for the tip

LOL – I must admit that never crossed my mind

So what you are saying is to throw 3 compressors and one expander on the guitar track? I should be able to do that in Cakewalk by just opening 4 sessions of the compressor/limiter/expander plug in shouldn’t I? Hehe…never thought about multiple compression on a single track.

Wait…how do you compress or expand below a given threshold? Now I’m confused. I’m not sure if I can do that with my Cakewalk compressor plug-in or not.

 

[Jagular]

Jake – Thanks. I’ve been hearing that “keep the 4 trk” a lot lately . I love “accidental” songs. Makes you wonder some time why you spend as long as you do on some of the others

Axe – Thanks much and yes I think I am going to try to be careful not to overproduce this one when I get to tracking it for real. I think this one needs to be just a little understated when it’s all done.

 

[wfaraoni]

Ok thats three! But I'll need about 7 more to make a whole album of your stuff for the ride! Hey, I also liked the collab with the dachays, nice job. Your stuff all sounds great to me including the guitar tone (ovation celebrity?) r u sure. I guess you have more than just gifted vocals, since you are able to achieve superior tone with the equipment you have whatever it is , not excuding this tascam. Ive got some old tapes I recorded some years ago and I wouldn't play them for anyone except my wife, who just thinks eveything I do wonderful. Guess I should get her hearing checked as well.
In a real studio I'm sure you could outperform even some of the best pro s out there today.
I'm not completely deaf yet and I realize this one does sound a little muffled and somewhat sparse, but your guitar playing deserves some praise also, nice phrasing and perfect timing, good composition here as well. I Guess you've got a fan in Dallas.
Thanks for the lesson in talent and keep them coming. Im going to try that multiple compressor trick myself. heck , from where I'm at what could it hurt!
Peace, Bill

 

[erichenryus]

i like your voice. nice guitar playing also. i have no mixing comments. sounds pretty good just like this.

 

[Jagular]

Wfaraoni – Thanks dude . I intend to get the acoustic gtr part a lot tighter when I record it for real. I am not a very good finger picker. I use the thumb and forefinger method . Might as well chop off the other 3 fingers . I can strum up a storm though . Stay tuned for 2 more collabs coming as well in the near future (within a couple months). One with a fellow Homerecer and the other with another friend from the UK. Both are covers and one or both may surprise y’all . Plus I intend to have this song rerecorded in the next couple of months as well.

Erichenryus – Thanks a bunch. This was pretty easy to mix. Not much there

 

[BobOC]

Burned this to a cd a few nights ago, but only had a chance to really listen this morning. Very nice job! I enjoy your singing and playing, and the lyrics are obviously from the heart.

Thanks for sharing the tune....

 

[Jagular]

Wow…thanks man. As long as you promise to replace it with the real version when I’m done with it (assuming it’s better)

 

[powderfinger]

sounds great Jagular........great song.........amazing vocals.......very, very good recording..........pro quality

 

[rushfan33]

Very nice!

I wish I could get my 424 sound that good when I had it. It really sounds good!
RF

 

[Smokepole]

I just want to comment on the song, the style. That’s great music. I have several tunes in that vein that I hope you'll like when I post them.

Yours is smoooth.

Joe

 

[Jagular]

Powderfinger – Thanks man I appreciate it.

Rushfan33 – I wish I could have gotten it to sound that good back when I used it too . I think I was just trying to do too much with it back then. I really need to dig out one of those old tracks and listen to it (maybe post it for fun) .

Smokepole – Thanks a lot. I’m sure I will & I’ll be watching for them.

 

[Myx62]

My first demo was on a Tascam 4 track(forget the model). I wish I got as good a sound as you got with yours. Some nice acoustic playing. This really wasnt that bad. Good song. Decent vocals. Im really trying to enjoy country, seeing as my wife likes it so much..... Id keep the 4 track. I got rid of mine cause the heads were shot. Good work for the time and equip you used.
Myx

 

[Guernica]

Hey Jag,
NICE 4 track man! ......strong country tune too.
....You are a great singer for this genre man.
....Very nice work
g

 

[chrisharris]

Thanks for the tip

LOL – I must admit that never crossed my mind

So what you are saying is to throw 3 compressors and one expander on the guitar track? I should be able to do that in Cakewalk by just opening 4 sessions of the compressor/limiter/expander plug in shouldn’t I? Hehe…never thought about multiple compression on a single track.

Wait…how do you compress or expand below a given threshold? Now I’m confused. I’m not sure if I can do that with my Cakewalk compressor plug-in or not.

Think of the center line as infinity, and the db's get bigger up to 0db. When I say "below," I mean closer to the center line. I just cut and paste a preset I made, and that's the way that cooledit "thinks." If you're using Cakewalk, you have to do the expansion with a different plugin, but I *think* you can set up the compressor to do all 3 runs at the same time. If you can't, then the above is not really gonna' be helpful, because it won't work as well if you do it in stages. I mean, I'm sure it can be done in Cakewalk...I just don't know how...and I don't know how to do this with an actual analog compressor either. I'm posting a pic of the graphic so you can see that I'm doing is basically a modified version of the traditional "soft knee" compression.

Cooledit's compressor has taken me a couple of years to figure out, but now that (I think) I have, I love it b/c of the versatility. By the way, I certainly don't think I'm God's gift to compressor knowledge, I just remember that you've commented a couple of times that my acoustic sounds don't bug you, so I thought I'd pass this on. Hope it helps.

 

[chrisharris]

Oh, and if you CAN do this, and you listen to the acoustic track by itself, it'll sound like a huge pile of ass...LOL...but it works okay in the mix, I think.

 

[Jagular]

Myx62 – Thanks man. I really appreciate it. Ahhh….the good old 424 days….. I’m still leaning toward selling it at this point because I really need some new gear (sound card & monitors high on the list). This will get me there a lot, and I mean a lot, quicker. I convinced my wife (sort of) that if would take my lunch to work every day I could put $4 each day I take lunch away to save for gear. Plus if I can sell any of my old equipment, those proceeds can be mine to spend as well. I have about $1,000 (maybe more) of what I consider high priority expenditures. You can imagine how hard it will be to get to even the $300 for the new card (I want a 1010lt – I know I could go with the Audiophile, but I want to factor in some expandability – although the Audiophile still isn’t out of the question). This tight financial situation will probably be gone in a couple of years, but meanwhile, I need to scrimp for any gear I want to get.

Guernica – Thanks a lot. Too bad I’m not 20 years younger and 40 pounds lighter. I might be able to make a splash in this town . Although being 40 pounds over weight helps make a pretty good splash in the pool

Chris – Thanks for the explanation. I see how it all makes nice curve. Now it makes sense. I don’t know if I can accomplish that with the standard compressor plug ins I have in Cakewalk. I did download a demo plug in that was a dynamics processor the other day. I may have to see if that would do the trick I seem to remember you could set certain compression over certain ranges. Thanks for the help man. I appreciate it.

 

[pdlstl]

Re: Re: 4 thumbs up (if you count the ones on my feet)

Hey, and Brad Paisley's buddy Kelley Lovelace (who has had a rather nice string of hit songs recently for Brad & others) lives just down the street from me. I haven't met him yet, but maybe someday...hmmm...maybe I should make him a casserole and take it down to him

Jagular,

I had mentioned in my post "Caution! Bluegrass inside..." that I had spent 27 years as a pedal steel player. Well, the last three years I was in N'ville (Nipper's Corner, Old Hickory and Edmonson Pike), I played steel for Brad. He and Kelley remain close friends of mine. I had the pleasure of playing on Brad's freshman album (nominated for Album of the Year at the CMA's) and all of his demos. I was a member of good ol' AFM Local 257.

I did have to turn Brad down in 1998 to work in his road band as I'm just getting too old to be a road dog.

Small world ain't it.

BTW, very nice tune!

Earl