Tascam TSR 8 mixdown or bouncing

[biskid]

Hi, I just recorded my band on a TSR 8, 5 tracks for drums, 2 for bass and 1 guitar. I've been considering uploading all to a computer and then editing, mixing and adding a vocal track. Is this the way to go or should I mix the bass tracks onto 1 track(can i even do this?) and do the vocals on the freed up track, skip the computer, do the mix onto the tape(is this also doable?) and get it mastered elsewhere? Thanks

 

[grweldon]

I used to have a TSR-8. It's a great machine. From what you've described, you don't have a free track to "bounce" to since you've recorded on all 8 already. If you had a free track, you could take the two bass tracks into your mixer, adjust their levels, then output that submix to the available track, freeing up the two bass tracks to be recorded over with whatever you wish.

Of course you can't do this now because you don't have a free track on the TSR-8. I'm not as savvy on taking things into the computer (yet) and shooting them back out, but certainly if you have 8 available inputs on your PC or MAC, then you could output all 8 simultainously and record them into a audio sequencing program. Like I said, I'm not proficient in this method yet, but I believe you can even adjust the position of track forward and back in an audio sequencer, so even if you only had two inputs on your computer, you could still send tracks out two at a time then adjust their position to be in sync.

Of course, if you just have the standard PC audio card, the A/D converters won't be too hot (or so I've read, over and over) so you might be shooting yourself in the foot to start with.

My question would be....can you do without one of the bass tracks, or is it just essential to have stereo bass. What was different about the two tracks? Was one a DI and one a mic? Two mics in different spots?

I'm just getting back in to recording after about a 12 year absence, so I'm not really hot on todays methods and styles, but I rarely used more than one track for a bass. Of course I've mixed more than one signal for bass, but I've always put them together on a track. Certainly less flexible, but it help to get the sound you may be looking for.

I hope I've typed something that is useful to you...

 

[soundchaser59]

If you have 5 drum tracks, then you must have some kind of mixer to feed those mics into the TSR. I was wondering why you used 5 tracks for drums? Most people with limited resources only use 4 mics for drums. Is it really more important to have that kind of detail control over your drum mix than to have more tracks available for vocs and guitars?

If I had a decent mixer and a TSR-8 (I sold my TSR-8 a year ago) I would mix the drums down to two tracks, use one track for the bass, 2 or 3 tracks for guitars, and 2 or 3 tracks for vocs. The TSR is a good machine, but I was never dazzled by the way bounces and ping pongs came out on it.

A trick you might experiment with some day is get a great rhythm section mix on the TSR8 (drums+bass+rhythm guitar/s+keys, etc.) and mix that down to stereo cd or hi-fi vcr or even mini disk, then record that stereo mix back to 2 tracks (preferably on a different empty reel), and use the other 6 tracks for leads and vocs. The dbx on that machine makes it possible to do tricks like this without noticeable losses in end quality.

 

[carelessorc]

I would go with Soundchaser's suggestion. Recording to a CD recorder (or your computer if you have a decent soundcard) then playing that back onto two tracks of your TSR-8 should be fairly straight forward. I assume that you have a mixer and effects?
If not, then the computer based software route might be easier/cheaper.

Orc

 

[BMWerks]

That's it. Dump all your TSR-8 tracks (I still have mine) to a decent stereo two track mastering unit, DAT, high-end cassette machine, (metal type IIII) CD, or whatever gives a good clean, dynamic stereo mix. With a little EQing, come back to a new reel, using any two inside tracks IE, tracks 4+5 or 5+6 as there will be less stress and degradation towards the inner portion of the tape. Try to keep the end tracks for mid to high frequency program signals.

Another little tip; When recording your bass, use a touch of chorusing. This tends to "fatten up" the signal of just about everything you put through it and in this case, might help to eliminate one of your basses.

Good luck, hope this was helpful.