the VCR recording experiment

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom Hicks
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Tom Hicks

Tom Hicks

Well-known member
I took 4 stereo VCRs to band practice with an 8 channel mixer and recorded multiple takes of 5 tunes.I posted both mp3 and streaming of the first tune's initial mix.
The tapes have about 60 dB of dynamic range.I used ECM8000s on the drum OHs,a 57 on snare and V67 on kick.V76 doubled later on lead vox with the NT1 on harmony vocal.All other instruments were D.Id and we tracked with phones.
So,put on yer dancin' shoes,please listen and let me know what you think about the use of the VCRs for mobile/live recording.
Tom
 
Tom,

Interesting idea.
How did you sync the VCRs later on? SMPTE?

The recording is nice and clean, though I don't really care for the style. It could use some "finalizing" or some kind of volume booster, but other wise it sounds great.

Oren
 
Tom.... the singer's flat in quite a few places... you might want to drop the key a notch so he can nail those notes!!

The mix needs quite a bit of punching-up -- also, there's a harshness to the hi-hat that I don't care for... it's harsh-bright rather than smooth...

Reasonable mix balance though, just needs some "kick"!

Bruce
 
KC returns!

Takes me back to 1976 with KC and the Sunshine band playing this song on Don Kirshner's rock concert!

Not high fidelity, but definetly a thumbs up to using VCR's in a most unusual manner.Im interested in knowing how you sync them together.
 
I dumped the 4 VCR tapes to cool edit where I cut them up into individual mono files for each tune.I imported the waves into n-Track and used the offset feature to line them up.We slated the takes so it was pretty easy to visually allign the tracks.
Thanks for the comments,just what I like to hear!
Tom
 
I agree with what Bruce said about the mix. The VCRs certainly don't sound horrible, I wouldn't want to do any critical recording on one. What I'm trying to figure out is how you synced what I'm assumming is a consumer grade VCR that wouldn't have SMPTE capabilities. Enquiring minds want to know.:D
 
Like I said,the tracks were manually synced up within n-Track Studio using the offset feature.I zoomed in untill it was easy to see the start of a wave and click-dragged them into line.4 hifi stereo VCRs times two passes = 12 to 16 mono tracks per tune depending.
Tom
 
Tom,

Nice use of the V.C.R.'s. I agree with Blue Bears comments. Other then the obvious lack of fidelity and considering how you did it, I have definitly heard worse recordings that were done with more elaborate gear............................. Very interesting indeed.

cool.




later.
 
shake shake shake...hehe. really having fun listening to this. i think the recording is coolio.
 
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