Track Bouncing on a 4 Track Cassette

[Dani Pace]

I've got a Yamaha MT120 4 track cassette recorder which I picked up used (don't laugh, I got a good deal on it) but I don't have a manual for it. I've looked on line and so far haven't been able to find one there either. I need some "old school" advice on how to bounce tracks on it. The unit records in either stereo or 4 track, ive got that part figured out. Each input has a selector switch for tape, off, or line/mic, pan, and a slide (fader?) with mic at one end and line at the other, and of course volume. Maybe I've been away from analog too long, but I need advice on using the thing, I just thought it would be a fun toy. I'm not a genius so step by step on how to would be appreciated, thanks for your patience and guidance.

 

[Mark7]

I've got a Yamaha MT120 4 track cassette recorder which I picked up used (don't laugh, I got a good deal on it) but I don't have a manual for it. I've looked on line and so far haven't been able to find one there either. I need some "old school" advice on how to bounce tracks on it. The unit records in either stereo or 4 track, ive got that part figured out. Each input has a selector switch for tape, off, or line/mic, pan, and a slide (fader?) with mic at one end and line at the other, and of course volume. Maybe I've been away from analog too long, but I need advice on using the thing, I just thought it would be a fun toy. I'm not a genius so step by step on how to would be appreciated, thanks for your patience and guidance.

Okay. As you know when you select Tape with a channel's selector switch it plays back the track that corresponds to that channel (channel 1 for track1, channel 2 for track 2, etc). So, what you do is...

Put the track you're bouncing to in stand by/record ready mode.

Put the selector switch in the channels of the tracks you're bouncing in the "Tape" position

Pan all the tracks to be bounced either fully left (if you're bouncing to an odd numbered track) or fully right (for even numbered ones)

Push the faders for the tracks to be bounced, plus the master fader, up to the nominal unity gain (that's the bit where the markings next to the fader are all squished up)

Turn up the monitor volume control for the target track (i.e. the one being bounced to) ONLY.

Make adjustments to levels and EQ

Hit play and record.

Note: You don't need to use the gain control when bouncing unless you do a live overdub using the spare channel. In which case you use the gain control for that channel alone.

 

[johnnymegabyte]

Want the manual ????

Follow this link ( english version ) http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/english/recorders/MT120E.pdf

I have a Yamaha MT3X which I got used about 10 years ago.
I primarily used it as a mixer, but saw a lot of action when taking all my old cassettes an dputting them on the PC to make CD's.
The MT3X seems to have more features, channel 5/6 inputs, bass and treble for each channel and DBX.

 

[Dani Pace]

Thanks Johnny, I hunted all over for a manual without much success, found the ones for the newer models but not the MT120. I mostly intend to use it as a preamp/mixer but also wanted to be able to use it as a portable unit to record songwriting ideas and to work out riffs. Again, thanks for the link.