Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Analog 8-track for Tracking OR Analog 2-Track for Mixing Down?

yourmomsp · 20th July 2005

I wanted to make an album that has an intentionally, intimate home-made feel to it, one that will also allow me to try to mixing on my own. Currently, my set up is a motu 828mkII running Cubase SX. I got this Akai MG1212, 12-track analog machine, for free from this guy that was leaving town. The tape machine is broken and the tapes have been discontinued, but I've still been able to use it as a 12-channel mixing board.

I'd like to start playing around with tape and use the sound qualities of tape to further capture a "home-made" feel. I guess the issue that I'm trying to decide on (given my budget) is the following, given that I want to also do my own mixing is...

1) Should I get an 8 track reel-to-reel like a TSR-8 that I could do tracking on and bounce back and forth between my motu for any editing. I would do my mixing on the akai mg1212, but when it comes to mix down, I probably would mix down to a stereo wav file on my computer, probably at 24/96 resolution.

or

2) Should I get a 2-track machine, track entirely digitally, then mix out onto the akai mg1212 and mix down onto a 2-track machine.

I guess, if you were in my situation, what would you go for?

20th July 2005	#1
yourmomsp Gear interested Joined: Jul 2005 Posts: 21 Thread Starter	Analog 8-track for Tracking OR Analog 2-Track for Mixing Down? I wanted to make an album that has an intentionally, intimate home-made feel to it, one that will also allow me to try to mixing on my own. Currently, my set up is a motu 828mkII running Cubase SX. I got this Akai MG1212, 12-track analog machine, for free from this guy that was leaving town. The tape machine is broken and the tapes have been discontinued, but I've still been able to use it as a 12-channel mixing board. I'd like to start playing around with tape and use the sound qualities of tape to further capture a "home-made" feel. I guess the issue that I'm trying to decide on (given my budget) is the following, given that I want to also do my own mixing is... 1) Should I get an 8 track reel-to-reel like a TSR-8 that I could do tracking on and bounce back and forth between my motu for any editing. I would do my mixing on the akai mg1212, but when it comes to mix down, I probably would mix down to a stereo wav file on my computer, probably at 24/96 resolution. or 2) Should I get a 2-track machine, track entirely digitally, then mix out onto the akai mg1212 and mix down onto a 2-track machine. I guess, if you were in my situation, what would you go for?