VHS Recording, Worse than Casette?

[Fuzion]

Hello,
Don't yell at me for this because I hope I am doing something wrong. I just got a tascam 424 original and I have heard tons of stuff about mixing down to a VHS to improve the sound quality. Well, with my first track I cut on the tascam I mixed down to a vhs and first of all I was having trouble mixing from the vhs to a casette. So, if you have info on that please help. But, when I listened to the VHS mix it sounded thin and had alot of little bleeps and buzzes during the mix. Just to try I mixed down straight to a cassette it sounded damn close to the mix I had originally on the Tascam. Now, could this just be me and my bad ears or am I doing something wrong or could it be that much better and I don't even realize. To let you know the VCR was a KENWOOD HIFI but the videotape I had was not HIFI. Any information is welcome.

Thanks

 

[Darkhorse]

I have not actually done VHS mixing, but I've heard alot about it. Number one - I would go to the Main page on this site and read up on mixing to VHS. I believe you do want to use A Brand New HI-FI VHS tape. And not some old crappy one. As far as going from the vhs to a cassette - you should be able to use audio cables to go out of the vcr and into your your stereo using AUX or whatever. If this doesn't work I don't know. Does your TV have auxillary? I don't know if that would even be a good idea but you can try that. Another thing they always talk about - make sure when you start recording on the vcr you don't emmediately start mixing - give the vhs tape a minute to run through the vcr or whatever. You know how when you record regular video and you start recording it usually gives you a bunch of lines and garbage on the screen and then it gets better within a minute or two? Well I guess the same principal applies. Have you cleaned your vcr lately? Have you cleaned your Tracking maching lately. There are lots of variables with just about anything you do(recording/mixing) which can effect the final product. How old is your VCR. I mean maybe its just old and just doesn't work as well as it use to. But many people say it's much better than using regular audio tapes because it has built in compressors and has a low signal-to-noise ratio or something. But like I say - I've never done it - so don't take my words at face value.

 

[JC Lives]

Hey fuzion.

I just wanted to add some stuff for ya here. To begin with, mixing down to a vcr will not imporve the sound. It will only sound as good as what is going into it. There is a bit of a misunderstanding about recording to a vcr. The recording capabilities for the hifi vcr are close to the cd is quality. If you were to record a cd to vcr, and do an a/b comparison, tou would find that the vcr is very close in sound quality. However, it is only going to come close to the signal that is being recorded.

If the sound coming from the recording you made sounds thin, it is because the signal that was sent to the vcr was thin.

I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but it is the cold hard facts.

Peace

Joe