Trying Out Home Recording

[shredmaster26]

I have a few questions lang mga tsong... I have a Tascam 424 MKIII Multi-track recorder (4 tracks)... I'm planning to invest on a personal home recording  system... I know dami pa ako kulang na equipments like mics, pre-amps, amps,  2 track cassette recorder for mixdown, and other effects/devices... I would like to know kung anong brands ba magandang gamitin with my Tascam recorder... sympre yung affordable lng... =) Any tips will be highly appreciated... =) Thanks! =)

[BAMF]

No offense to the analog guys, but this is the Digital Age .

IMHO...but mastering to tape is so old school. The cheapest way IMHO to get into home recording is to use a PC, multitrack soundcard and software.

BAMF

[fredzs]

cheaper to get a pc, mixer(u can use this as ur preamps) and mics.. digital ka na.. u can edit anyway u want.. add real time effects.. mas madami kang options..

[abyssinianson]

mastering to tape may be old school but it has a warmth to it that digital analog TRIES to emulate. besides, there are limitations to digital that makes the usage of analog alongside digital to make music a feasible option for people who make music.

[BAMF]

mastering to tape may be old school but it has a warmth to it that digital analog TRIES to emulate. besides, there are limitations to digital that makes the usage of analog alongside digital to make music a feasible option for people who make music.

To each his own of course. But now that PC recording has spoiled me, I'm not sure if I'd still want to put up with tape hiss, hi frequency loss with every bounce and manual, real-time mixing on analog. Not to mention the expense, not being able to cart away the working tape from the studio etc.  Plus if you go analog, you are certain to spend tons of cash on outboard effects, unless your signal processing is via PC as well. Or your sound will go flat.

I used to gas over those tascam 4 track recorders. It was still above my cost rationalization at the time. Now I pass by  of them sa Pier 2nd hand or sa Deeco brand new, sold quite cheap but I don't even look at them anymore except for historical appreciation. I guess the age of Lo-Fi is over.  Everything that it can do, my PC can do better . Certainly a Tascam 4-track is no match for a PC in terms of sound quality or even "warmth" . That's the domain of larger analog setups, which I do admit, has a certain softness and warmth to it, specially if the engineer working your case knows what he's doing .

IMHO, whatever warmth I lost by going full digital is more than made up for by functionality, cost-effectiveness and DIY-ness of Digital. For a home recording setup, a PC can't be beat. Of course IMHO.

[KitC]

To each his own of course. But now that PC recording has spoiled me, I'm not sure if I'd still want to put up with tape hiss, hi frequency loss with every bounce and manual, real-time mixing on analog. Not to mention the expense, not being able to cart away the working tape from the studio etc.  Plus if you go analog, you are certain to spend tons of cash on outboard effects, unless your signal processing is via PC as well. Or your sound will go flat.

The technique with tape is to route the signal from pc to tape to achieve the desired saturation then back into the pc for editing. You will have achieved the desired effect and there will be no generation loss when doing multiple mixdowns in the pc. Tape hiss can be eliminated thru judicious use of noise reduction. The only problem will be aligning the tape tracks because of latency induced by the distance between the write and read heads, easily remedied by putting  an audio timing pulse at the beginning of all audio tracks.

At this point in time, analog sounds more musical than digital gear. That's why the top mix engineers pass their signals thru Neve's, LA2A's and other analog gear to take away the edge from digital recordings.

[abyssinianson]

Kit is right...there is certainly nothing wrong with PC editing, it is a godsend. However, acheiving warmth through digitzed media has a lot of obstacles to overcome and it has yet to be as consistent with producing a musical tone compared to analog outboard gear. Project studios do what they do but archiving music requires the media to sound a certain way to appeal to a musical ear. Mixing engineers are fickle like that, you know?

But then again....unless you are listening to music on really good speakers, you can't really tell if something was processed conscientiously. Most of the time, people listen to music in the car and the speakers on those are nowhere near as accurate as a pair of good studio monitors. The flaws come out in the studio and in audiophile speakers so, since engineers listen to the music on those, they HAVE to polish the mixes otherwise, other people on similar specialized systems will say: Why on earth did they release this music sounding this crappy?

[BAMF]

Aight ! Certainly no contest

[titser_marco]

I used to gas over those tascam 4 track recorders. It was still above my cost rationalization at the time. Now I pass by  of them sa Pier 2nd hand or sa Deeco brand new, sold quite cheap but I don't even look at them anymore except for historical appreciation.

Sa Deeco? wow. Never thought they'd gather enough sense to sell those types of things.

Anyway,. I use a cassette 8 track multitracker (the Yamaha mt8x) and for me, it works but I would think twice about recording an entire album there. I got that juggernaut of a thing (yes, its that big) primarily to record song ideas and work on them. I have a bad memory and an idiot when it comes to notation so that's the next best thing - to use the multi tracker as a scratch pad of some sort.

While I love the sound of music recorded on tape, I wouldn't say that digital is that evil. It is evil in the sense that we somehow sense an unnatural or unmusical quality to it but going digital has made it possible for musicians to make themselves heard (no matter how good or how bad they are). I like that phenomenon because the economic forces that preveneted or delayed the release of really good music were somehow weakened with the advant of such affordable and accessible recording technology.

[rocketboy]

Bro, if you plan to go digital...let me know if you're selling the tascam recorder.  Thanks 09178112095

[starfugger]

digital is convenient, really. if you had killer A/D converters you can get decent depth to your recordings.  by the way there are digital emulations of the LA2A, Pultec EQ, Fairchild, 1176LN, etc. and they get pretty close according to a lot of satisfied users.  some even actually sell their hardware units seeing that the software emulations actually do the job in pretty much the same way.  im talking about the UAD-1 pci card from the same company that made these legendary pieces of gear, Universal Audio.  it is, by no means, cheap though.  but still a lot cheaper than a single piece of classic gear.  

and, yes, if you do wanna go digital i will be selling my roland vs-840 (upgraded to EX) for dirt cheap, along with 20 zip disks, a zip drive, and software converter.  

http://geocities.com/soundkitchen_ph  do contact me thru my site if you're interested

[abyssinianson]

i don't think i will never sell my outboard gear. it sounds too sweet. kind of like the same reason I always opted for a tube guitar amp as much as I enjoy playing the new Line 6 modelers. sure, theyre fun but, man, it can't purr like a tube amp can and i've owned more amps than I care to remember! in my experience, the software counterparts of my hardware gear have not - as of yet - been able to provide the same "oomph" as a dedicated hardware unit. besides, i like tweaking knobs. i learned the old school way:)

[starfugger]

i hear ya.  nothing beats tube amps really. even amplitube can't sound the same as a miked tube amp. although i did a lot of research about the UAD-1 and came up with a lot of good comments about it.  i'm hoping it kicks ass even if it doesn't sound exactly the same as the real gear (although some would swear that they just couldn't hear the difference ... specially with the Pultec.  the LA2A and Fairchild are very close according to users who ave A/B'd the hardware unit vs. the software.  *crosses fingers big time*  

buttons, dials, and faders are cool.  i don't know how i can survive without them.  i guess that's one of the downsides of PC recording.  imagine mixing with the mouse for hours on end.  agony  

[abyssinianson]

you can survive mixing inside the PC, i actually know a few Djs that still do it and they are relatively huge - Sandy Rivera is one. however, tweaking knobs do make things go faster and, since I mix mainly without even looking at the sequencer window, I base all my mixing on how I tweak the knobs. this is basically because I am fickle about bringing the elements of the mix closer and mix before I put any ambient effects on the tracks.

its weird, I noticed this as I started learning engineering that mixes from the Phils tend to favor a ton of reverb on the vocals and a very roomy "air" to the drums. if the reverb isn't there, then the vocals sound tinny. Side A is notorious for doing this and its sad because the guy has a phenomenal voice. heck, even my dad unconsciously suggests more reverb than I care for when I have him preview a mix. probably that "karaoke" carryover that makes people sound like they're inside a cave..lol. i don't know why on earth that would ever, ever be desireable..ewww.

good luck on the UAD, i hear a lot of people like them. the onboard DSPs certainly would help take the load off the sequencer plugs.

[KitC]

buttons, dials, and faders are cool.  i don't know how i can survive without them.  i guess that's one of the downsides of PC recording.  imagine mixing with the mouse for hours on end.  agony  

I've been trying to get a hold of a BCF2000 to give me flying faders and rotary controllers when mixing. Ideally, I'd like something like the Tascam 1814, M-Audio Projectmix, Mackie Control Universal, or even the CM Motormix. Although the BCF does have the Behri name, it's proven to be one of their better products. There's nothing like riding a fader when mixing; tactile feedback with the motorized faders is an added bonus.

Alternative controllers aside from the mouse are another option. I've been using a Wacom graphics tablet for my mouse input. I've found at least a double increase in speed with a pen-and-tablet combi as compared to a mouse.

[abyssinianson]

the control universal is great for controlling the sequencer window but I would have preferred to get the Mackie D8B had I not read that it has problems integrating with Cubase and Nuendo. Logic users, on the otherhand, have a great time with it:( I can't even find one of the older Soundcraft digital 328s. Nice desk and big faders, perfect for that "on-mixer-feel."  Oh well, I guess I will have to go with the SSL AWS..bwahahaha.

[starfugger]

 im looking some controllers too.  Yes, the behringer controllers are a fantastic deal, very affordbale, at moving faders pa!