What else do I need?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BeerBreath
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BeerBreath

New member
Hello all,
I've been browsing this BBS over the last week or so, ever since I got my "new" Tascam 424. I know it's old technology, but I've already had some success recording some stuff and I'm psyched! What I plan to do is mix-down to minidisk for a master, then record back from that to the 424 to make distributable cassettes. I know this may not be the best way, but from what I've gathered, it will be relatively affordable and should give me at least acceptable audio quality.

So, assuming my plan doesn't have any major flaws, does anyone have a recommendation on a minidisk deck? Secondly, it looks like I should mix-down using studio monitors. I assume that means I'll need to output the 424 to some kind of amp or receiver and then to studio monitors so I can judge the mix-down. Am I making sense? If so, may I have some recommendations on studio monitors (affordable, please) and an amp. My apologies for any ignorance I've demonstrated here. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
 
Hold on, big flaw in this thinking. The minidisc will degrade the audio enormously and going back to the 424 won't work for consumer cassettes. What you want is a nice TASCAM or Sony tape deck with dubbing. That's all. Just mix to the tape cassette recorder and dupe them off there.

Adding a step of minidisc will suck the life out of your recordings without a doubt. you are adding a step of A/D-D/A that is totally superfluous. Also minidisc uses data compression so you may as well convert it to mp3 and tape it AGAIN for all it will matter. The Sony format compression for mini is pretty good but it will take your sound quality down a level..even from cassette.
 
Hey Beer, (Welcome aboard)

I'm very much a newbie myself..( so please take that into consideration) Personally I would just mixdown to a pc and burn a disc if I were in that situation.

Roland has some (Somewhat) inexpensive powered monitors that might help you out around $100.00... Keep in mind it's not the same as studio monitors costing into the hundreds or thousands, but they work ok.
Check out Musicians Friend.

EDIT:
Jake beat me to the punch- I agree... If you feel you must stay in the tape format, then get a good deck (And tapes) and have at it.


:)
 
. . . more annoying questions . . .

Thanks guys for the input. The idea of going to another tape deck appeals to me just because it seems relatively simple and cheap, but perhaps I would be disappointed in the audio quality.

Hey BillyFurnett, how about this?: Mix down directly to a decent CDRW deck like this one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...1162696713/g=hifi/search/detail/base_id/87199

Don't slam me on my choice of brand or model, I just picked that one to illustrate what I'm thinking. It seems like something like that should be able to take output from the 424.

Guys forgive me if I'm the umpteenthgabillion person to ask these questions. I have perused this board quite a bit to find answers and it's been very helpful. Any continued help would be much appreciated.
 
BeerBreath,

I have done (almost) the exact same thing you are attempting.

I mixed down and recorded from my Tascam 424 directly to my pc.
From there I copied it directly to an old "Realistic" tape deck via Easy CD Creator.
And there I had it.
No need to burn to a disk. Just copy directly from the pc to the tape deck.
I am not sure about the a/d d/a stats. But my final product was as good as what came out of the Tascam in the beginning.

Have fun...Good Luck

Denver
 
But remember though, recording to a digital format and back to tape will not improve your sound quality at all. It will degrade the sinal a bit. In fact the best way to get a mix off 4 track cassette is to record it straight to a tape deck. You want tapes, make tapes, stereo out of the 424 to the line inputs of your tape deck/dubber.

If you want CDs that's a horse of a different color. That TASCAM CDRW will work nicely for that. In fact any standalone CD burner is going to sound better than recording a mix to a cheap soundcard like a soundblaster. So unless you have a kick ass soundcard with excellent converters (pro) just record to a CD deck instead.
 
Beer,
Gotta go with Jake on this one. I too have a 424MkIII.
Don't use it much lately (using AW16G), but when I did or
if I need to, it is always mix to CDR recorder and dubbing
as needed.

Have fun
 
beginning to see the light

Thanks everyone for the continued input. Just one more thing: it was my impression that the cool thing about the Tascam CDRW/Cassette deck that I linked to was that it could take an analog input directly, whereas it was my understanding that CDRWs generally want a digital signal, and hence the need to port to a PC first and mix-down from there. If my thinking is correct then I can just get that Tascam unit. If I'm wrong, then it would seem that any decent CDRW would serve my purposes.

By the way, this is an awesome BBS!
 
Major flaw in thinking- Cassettes are expensive, and all that copying on your Tascam will just wear out your capstain drives. Why not just get a mix in the Tascam you're happy with-, and run it into your PC and convert it to MP3? Then burn a master CD and duplicate that. CDR's will cost you 20 cents each or so. Better yet, get any studio to convert the cassette to a CD. You can buy a Fast Copy high speed duplicator at Comp USA for $200, and burn away. The duplicator will pay for itself in the first run. Cassettes are waaay too expensive to use on a budget.-Richie

Here's an even better deal- send me the cassette and I'll do it for you- way cheap.-Richie
 
Re: beginning to see the light

BeerBreath said:
Thanks everyone for the continued input. Just one more thing: it was my impression that the cool thing about the Tascam CDRW/Cassette deck that I linked to was that it could take an analog input directly, whereas it was my understanding that CDRWs generally want a digital signal, and hence the need to port to a PC first and mix-down from there. If my thinking is correct then I can just get that Tascam unit. If I'm wrong, then it would seem that any decent CDRW would serve my purposes.

By the way, this is an awesome BBS!
Click to expand...
That TASCAM CDRW/cassette deck is cool. Sounds like you're on the right track now.
Minidisc is cool for personal listening but keep it out of your mix if possible.
 
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