I'm thinking about using my Tascam tape recorder to record the entirety of my band's songs into it.When the thought popped into mind it was only natural that i ask you guys how you have or would do it.
So far i've used it for no more than a 2-track recording & i want to experiment a bit more.Given that i work entirely ITB when it comes to effects & the limited track number of such machines i would love to see if any of you have taken this route before & the techniques you applied.Afterall you must induldge in bounces...
However if anyone out there has worked with multi-million-dollar outboard gear & still used a 4-track for recording, or any advice in general that can be given, then i'd love to hear from you too.I have the basic guidelines in mind but i thought it would be beneficial to a lot to start this thread.
Thanx in advance!
I would go with bassoon on track one, modified speak and spell on track two...
We'd have to know the make up of the band to give good advice.
I remember using the following method for cassette 4 track band recordings with a 3 piece + vocal band: stereo drum mix, plus one track of bass and one track of guitars. Mix that down to stereo, put the mixdown back in the 4 track and record vocals on one track, and backing vocals/guitar overdubs on the other track. Mix that down again and you've got your final product. Couldn't really do another round of overdubs on that generation as sound quality would be too degraded.
Why the hell are you using a 4 track recorder in 2012? Seriously...
Why not? Currently I've been recording an artist friend of mine using his VS-2480 setup by his request, where we are limited to 16 tracks at 24/48, rather than my Pro Tools system, and the fact that we have to make a decision there and then and commit to it in order to move forward is making things unbelievably faster, and definitely more productive. No what ifs, no yeah buts. And the end product sounds awesome already, because it has to. From the first note on. If anything is not sounding awesome, we erase it and record over it until it sounds so.
I would be interested in taking a 4-track challenge at some point again. It's been 15 years since I've last used a 4-track recorder, and I still remember how irreplaceable the amount of force the musicians put on themselves and instruments in order to get it right was.
Why the hell are you using a 4 track recorder in 2012? Seriously...
Because its AWESOME!!
Do it man, tape is the s@#t.
I miss the limitations on the old 1/2 8track i used in the early 90's
Get a good sound and thats it!
I still track most everything to 2" and if need dump to pro tools.
If i'm not mistaken you wont find a CPU at electrical audio, at least when I was there a few years back there was not one.
If you have a mixer, what I would do is track a few tracks of drums in stereo, that way you dont get loss due to dumping down. R
If you have a Singer/Guitar/Bass/Drums band I would put a single mic on everything, including drums and track everything simultaneously. Very focused mics (maybe not on drums) and some sort of GOBOs would be your friends in this
As one of the guys stated above, depending on number of band members you may need to record some parts, mixdown, than record others.
I retract my previous question...now I see WHY? You gotta cut me some slack though, I was born in 1989.
I'm thinking about using my Tascam tape recorder to record the entirety of my band's songs into it.When the thought popped into mind it was only natural that i ask you guys how you have or would do it.
So far i've used it for no more than a 2-track recording & i want to experiment a bit more.Given that i work entirely ITB when it comes to effects & the limited track number of such machines i would love to see if any of you have taken this route before & the techniques you applied.Afterall you must induldge in bounces...
However if anyone out there has worked with multi-million-dollar outboard gear & still used a 4-track for recording, or any advice in general that can be given, then i'd love to hear from you too.I have the basic guidelines in mind but i thought it would be beneficial to a lot to start this thread.
Thanx in advance!
to get a good result, you need to plan out what the final result will look like.
you will also want to consider which individual elements you might have problems with later, and want more control over (bass and vocals, in my experience).
here's my recommendation for a 'standard' rock band, your needs might be different, depending on how many overdubs you want, etc:
If you have a Singer/Guitar/Bass/Drums band I would put a single mic on everything, including drums and track everything simultaneously. Very focused mics (maybe not on drums) and some sort of GOBOs would be your friends in this
As one of the guys stated above, depending on number of band members you may need to record some parts, mixdown, than record others.
I retract my previous question...now I see WHY? You gotta cut me some slack though, I was born in 1989.
my favorite is a kid out of Chicago, probably younger than you. age has nothing to do with it; it's an aesthetic. Probably most people doing it are in their teens-30s.
I think the limitations would be cool, but I would doubt that a cassette based 4-track could come close to modern DAW's in sound quality.
I would rather track to 2" than my Dell laptop, but I don't have access to a 2" machine.
Some really great albums were recorded in less time than most of us spend on demos with equipment inferior to what most of us have today. The fact that infinite tracks leaves decisions to be made later is a crutch.
The material is important as are the players. The media is less important.
-e
Much of the Beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. - Henri Matisse
Back in the day (....) on a Yamaha 4-track cassette we used to:
-- Track drums, bass and rhy gtr to a track each
-- Bounce the drums and bass to the remaining track
-- Track lead gtr
-- Bounce lead and rhy gtr to one track
That left two tracks for lead and backing vox, and whatever additional funkiness we could think of. We used to use a stomp box reverb on the effects loop until the bass player's brother got an Alesis Midiverb, which we thought was the absolute nads.
As others have noted, it's a whole different mindset - you have to make final decisions as you go. It forces you to trust your gut and go for vibe, which honestly is not the worst thing!
I think the limitations would be cool, but I would doubt that a cassette based 4-track could come close to modern DAW's in sound quality.
I would rather track to 2" than my Dell laptop, but I don't have access to a 2" machine.
Some really great albums were recorded in less time than most of us spend on demos with equipment inferior to what most of us have today. The fact that infinite tracks leaves decisions to be made later is a crutch.
The material is important as are the players. The media is less important.
-e
Much of the Beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. - Henri Matisse
(ps - the OP did not indicate that this is a cassette)
I've heard things done on a Tacsam 388 that sound better than any DAW recordings I've heard.
I think the limitations would be cool, but I would doubt that a cassette based 4-track could come close to modern DAW's in sound quality.
I would rather track to 2" than my Dell laptop, but I don't have access to a 2" machine.
Some really great albums were recorded in less time than most of us spend on demos with equipment inferior to what most of us have today. The fact that infinite tracks leaves decisions to be made later is a crutch.
The material is important as are the players. The media is less important.
-e
Much of the Beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. - Henri Matisse
The 4-tracker that he might get to use doesn't necessarily have to be an analog cassette tape recorder. There are digital 4-trackers around that sound fantastic.
The original poster still has not provided his bands configuration, so speculating on a basic 4-piece garage band scenario, my preference would be like this:
The lead vocals/soloist instrument and the drums and bass are the most important elements in majority of the music styles. Everything else is just accompaniment and secondary.
So, get the drums and bass in stereo together onto two track RIGHT.
Bounce it to the other two tracks while laying down two guitars along with it, each one on one channel, to give the recording a bit stereo width.
Empty the other two tracks and use them for vocals and the harmonies, and solos etc.
Getting a great mix on the fly is a must, so the use of very high quality sound processors and compressors to treat the individual instruments and making each pass sound like a record as it is being laid down on the recorder is unnegotiable.
You will probably want to subgroup higher parts like guitars and keyboards
into one sub group, vocals to another, drums and bass to another.
If you set basic panning while tracking it will give you much better separation
in the sub groups.
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