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Brunothemad
New member
I am attempting to mixdown onto my 388 in stereo, using it as a 2 track recorder to preserve bandwidth. Is there any way this is possible?
Thanks
Thanks
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themaddog
Rockin' & Rollin'
Sure, you'd just record onto only two of its tracks at a time. But, that would leave 6 tracks empty, for which you could make other mixdowns if you really wanted to.
-MD
-MD
Herm
Well-known member
Do you mean you want to mix down a song that was recorded on the 388?
If so yes but you would only be able to do that with 6 of the tracks off of the 388.
If so yes but you would only be able to do that with 6 of the tracks off of the 388.
cjacek
Analogue Enthusiast
What are you mixing down from?
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Brunothemad
New member
Pro tools, but I want to see if the 388 has the ability to record onto the entire 1/4" tape with two tracks to increase bandwidth that wouldn't be available if I mixed down onto only 2 of the 8 tracks.
cjacek
Analogue Enthusiast
No, you won't be using the entire width of tape. There are 8 seperate tracks on the 1/4" tape and you'd be using 2 of them. Each track width is the same as that what you get on a cassette deck, which is pretty narrow. You will get substantial hiss when dbx is turned off but some people like that and you may also get a bit more "air" that way. I don't want to disuade you from trying out the mixdown onto the 388 but personally I don't see a good idea here. If you were to record all your tracks to the 388, however, and then process them into pro tools and do a mixdown to a CD then I can see it but mixing down from protools to 2 tracks of the 388 is not such a good idea 'cause I just don't see the benefits. What you want to get is half track, like the TASCAM 22-2, 32 or several Otari models outthere. Look locally.
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ofajen
Daddy-O Daddy-O Baby
It's been a long time since I had a 388, but I seem to recall that you could assign an input to multiple recorder tracks. So, perhaps you could enable all 8 tracks to record and then assign the left input channel to all the odd numbered tracks and the right input channel to all the even numbered tracks? That would put the signal onto all 8 tracks at once. There might be some benefit in signal to noise, assuming that you're not using the dBx noise reduction already, which gives you tons of apparent signal to noise. However, using multiple tracks to record the same content will not alter the bandwidth performance. If the recorder is up to spec, the bandwidth should be the same for all tracks.
Cheers,
Otto
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Beck
Guest
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately this is not the same as two tracks using the entire width of the tape. It actually adds noise (although you won’t really notice that using DBX) and does nothing for bandwidth or dynamic range.
You’re still limited by the specifications of each individual track because you ‘re dealing with eight separate elements in the head and its associated circuitry rather than two. Each track has its own signal-to-noise (which is cumulative on a multi-track), the same headroom, frequency response, etc.
Using two tracks on the 388 will sound just fine… at 7.5 ips with DBX it will certainly warm up a Pro Tools mix. If you wanted to try it without DBX (though I wouldn’t) the one thing you can do is improve crosstalk by using track-2 for left and track-7 for right. The tracks are much farther apart this way, which allows you to hit the levels a little harder. The reason you don’t use tracks 1 & 8 is that edge tracks are more vulnerable to high-frequency dropouts.
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Hi_Flyer
New member
you would be better off getting a true mastering deck for this.
but if you want to incorporate a 388 into some kind of hybrid setup, you could break out eight stems from Pro Tools and fill up the 8 tracks on the 388 (stereo drums on two tracks, vox on a track, stereo vox on two tracks, bass on a track, etc...).
but if you want to incorporate a 388 into some kind of hybrid setup, you could break out eight stems from Pro Tools and fill up the 8 tracks on the 388 (stereo drums on two tracks, vox on a track, stereo vox on two tracks, bass on a track, etc...).
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themaddog
Rockin' & Rollin'
Still another option would be to slave Pro Tools to the 388 with a sync box. That way, you could get the best of both worlds, if you insist on using Pro Tools.
-MD
-MD