New to recording and just purchased a Tascam 424. Advice?

[DIY8track]

I purchased a used Tascam 424, 4 mics and cords and some TDK high bias sm60 tapes online. Everything should be coming in a few days.

Does anyone have a manual for the first Tascam 424. I could really use one.

Where can I find some Maxell High bias tapes, I can only find TDK tapes online.

When I mic my entire band in one room will their be a lot of bleeding between mics. I'm going to have to mic the drums with two mics, my amp with one for guitar and a vocalist.

I just need some recording tips, tricks.

Thank you.

[creaturesleeper]

I purchased a used Tascam 424, 4 mics and cords and some TDK high bias sm60 tapes online. Everything should be coming in a few days.

Does anyone have a manual for the first Tascam 424. I could really use one.

Where can I find some Maxell High bias tapes, I can only find TDK tapes online.

When I mic my entire band in one room will their be a lot of bleeding between mics. I'm going to have to mic the drums with two mics, my amp with one for guitar and a vocalist.

I just need some recording tips, tricks.

Thank you.

They don't make those Maxell type II's anymore so you'll have to find some on Ebay probably. Although someone here in Portland gave me a number for a company here that supposedly still spools cassettes but I haven't called em yet so I don't know. NW Media (503)223-5010 if you want to check into it. They may have old stock in the warehouse somewhere I'm hoping. The person who told me this used to work for them so it seems reliable. You can isolate the bleeding somewhat using moveable gobo's...basicly just office partitions. I did a live album this way in a small space with my three piece band and it actually came out really well with minimal mic bleed. Just try to keep the overall volume as low as possible and place mic's well. An SM57 will work well on the guitar amp just place it in the center of the cone an inch or less away from the grill. Experiment! for the drums use a pair of X Y overheads and one mic on the kick and it well work pretty well. Drums sound great on a 4 or 8 track cassette! If it has Dolby NR experiment with that too turn it on for the drums and than turn it off during mixdown for some extra wierd sparkle. Also one thing to remember use as few tracks as possible for the 8 track cassette it's not very wide tape and it'll sound better I think. Put the bass track on the edge of the tape ie. track 1 or 8 if the heads are used alot sometimes the outer tracks lose their higher freq's due to the way they wear this is why bass is usually put on track 1. Above all Experiment! There's really no rules! Mic placement and room treatment are way more important than a bunch of expensive gear.
Good Luck!

[DIY8track]

The gobo idea sounds pretty good.

thanks for the tips.

I bought 4 nady sp-1s. Their extremely cheap to buy. 9 dollars a mic, but their dynamic and the reviews were good.

[Dakota]

I just need some recording tips, tricks.

Thank you.

Make sure to use the heck out of the varispeed!

It's awesome and fun and *so much easier* than trying to trick DAWs to act like tape varispeed. Record a pass of the drums at double tempo with the tape speed on high, drop that down to normal speed and do overdubs from there. Or do guitar solos and chimy bits at slow speed, playback at high speed. Or do the backing/harmony vox with the "fine pitch" either a bit slow or fast, it'll become like other singers.

The original 424 does 3 speeds plus the fine pitch. 2 speeds was the common design, so use that to your advantage.

Use the easy backwards trip too - just flip the tape.

[DIY8track]

What would be the advantage of recording the drums at a higher speed or recording the guitar at a slower speed?

What would be the difference if I just recorder everything at one speed?

[vvv]

Recording the drums at a higher speed and then slowing down for playback will make them sound thicker, and lower.

Conversely, recording the guitar slower and speeding it up will mebbe make it smoother, and change the EQ a bit ...

[thththediamondz]

totally agree with dakota about varispeed.

i record on the computer now, but tape speed effects are the one thing i
still use my 4 track for.
i love it. absolutely.
have a mkIII now, but i really miss my old 424, sounded so much better.
one thing i like to do is tape the whole song at normal speed,
then go to double time and do a 2nd vocal but just track the reverb, delay and stuff.
it's kinda hard to nail it at first, but u get the hang of it.
then, of course, slow back to normal speed.

u don't have to worry about this but i've run into small problems going back into the computer. timing starts slipping and i end up doing a little editing to match it up again.

also use my mkIII for backing tracks live.

[thththediamondz]

totally agree with dakota about varispeed.

i record on the computer now, but tape speed effects are the one thing i
still use my 4 track for.
i love it. absolutely.
have a mkIII now, but i really miss my old 424, sounded so much better.
one thing i like to do is tape the whole song at normal speed,
then go to double time and do a 2nd vocal but just track the reverb, delay and stuff.
it's kinda hard to nail it at first, but u get the hang of it.
then, of course, slow back to normal speed.

u don't have to worry about this but i've run into small problems going back into the computer. timing starts slipping and i end up doing a little editing to match it up again.

also use my mkIII for backing tracks live.

[jgimbel]

If you guys are recording a song at the "wrong speed" and then correcting it (which sounds like an awesome idea, I'm dying to hear it) what are you guys doing to correct the pitch afterward? I've got a 464 that has the "pitch control" so I could make that low to slow the tape down, record, then take it back to the right speed by putting the pitch control back to center, so it'd be the right speed of the song but the pitch would be high. I don't really know what the best way to change something to the correct pitch would be. I have this issue with a Magnus chord organ and a toy piano that are slightly off pitch, which I can record to my 464 and change the pitch, but then the speed of it's off. I'm using Cubase, which lets you select audio and "transpose" it but it's FAR from artifact free. Still trying to figure that one out.

[Dakota]

If you guys are recording a song at the "wrong speed" and then correcting it (which sounds like an awesome idea, I'm dying to hear it) what are you guys doing to correct the pitch afterward? I've got a 464 that has the "pitch control" so I could make that low to slow the tape down, record, then take it back to the right speed by putting the pitch control back to center, so it'd be the right speed of the song but the pitch would be high. I don't really know what the best way to change something to the correct pitch would be. I have this issue with a Magnus chord organ and a toy piano that are slightly off pitch, which I can record to my 464 and change the pitch, but then the speed of it's off. I'm using Cubase, which lets you select audio and "transpose" it but it's FAR from artifact free. Still trying to figure that one out.

With tape, time and pitch are locked together. A half step up is about 6% faster in tempo, and so on. No way around that in the analog domain. But tape speed changes sound way cooler than pitch/time plugins, so it's worth getting used to using.

Example for an organ or toy piano that's slightly off: make a scratch mixdown in Cubase of whatever song you are working on. Transfer that to to one or two tracks on the 4tk, set at normal speed. Then while listening to those mix tracks on the 4tk, fish around with the fine pitch control and get the toy piano or organ in tune. Record your parts to a new track, playing along with the mix. Now set the 4tk back to the original speed. Transfer the keyboard tracks back into your DAW, chop, slip and edit them into the right time locations. They'll be both in tune and in time, and tapey sounding.

This process extends for anything you're doing going back and forth between tape and DAW. Put a scratch mix on at neutral (or whatever) speed, overdub extra and fun stuff while getting experimental with the speed, transfer back at neutral (or whatever it was set to for the transfer of the monitor mix) speed.

Hint: double speed is octave up and twice as fast, half speed is octave down and twice as slow a tempo. The fine pitch typically does about a minor third up and down.

It irks me every session that DAWS don't have varispeed that acts and sounds like tape varispeed. Yeah, I originally came up in the tape days - and wrestle to retain as much as possible from what I like about that medium.

[jgimbel]

Thanks Dakota, duh, I don't know why I hadn't though about putting a mix onto the 4-track first. I had been listening to the mix from the computer, playing along and recording onto the 4track, then changing the pitch afterward. Duh. I'm usually pretty decent at figuring things like this out, big slip up here. Thanks!

[austin]

When I mic my entire band in one room will their be a lot of bleeding between mics. I'm going to have to mic the drums with two mics, my amp with one for guitar and a vocalist.

To the OP: Don't forget that you can bounce tracks after you record them -- You might experiment with recording the drums to 3 tracks and then bouncing them down to just one (nothing wrong with mono drums!). Then you'd have 3 tracks open to overdub your guitars and vox. (You could still play guitar live with the drummer on the initial take, if you're more comfortable -- it would just get replaced post-bounce.)

[DIY8track]

Could anyone upload the manual for the tascam 424.


I read the manual for the tascam mk3 and..
As simple as cassette multi tracks may seem I was surprised at how specific the methods are for performing things like bouncing tracks and paning for tracks 1 and 3 for left and 2 and 4 for right regardless of what track your instrument is plugged into. Not to mention this thing I read about tape cue and how you have to set the nobs correctly to listen to your track with tape cue without bouncing or overwriting your recorded tracks.


If anything do all the tascam 424 operate the same, besides the higher mk's having more switches etc. Could I just use one of the newer manuals?

Thanks again.

[thththediamondz]

i just scoured my room, made sure but i tossed it out when mine broke.
stupid.
i don't remember all the details, & i haven't even bounced on my mkIII,
but i remember the monitor section as being different and easier to use.
i think it had it's own little section.
also there was a third speed, for slower than normal.
i think, as far as bouncing, that 1/3 were tied to the left buss and 2/4 to the right, but that doesn't create problems once you get used to it.
not much help, i know, but i do think you'll
be relieved when yours comes &it's not a mkIII.
basically the same thing, but mkIII just seemed like more of a pain somehow.

[thththediamondz]

i just scoured my room, made sure but i tossed it out when mine broke.
stupid.
i don't remember all the details, & i haven't even bounced on my mkIII,
but i remember the monitor section as being different and easier to use.
i think it had it's own little section.
also there was a third speed, for slower than normal.
i think, as far as bouncing, that 1/3 were tied to the left buss and 2/4 to the right, but that doesn't create problems once you get used to it.
not much help, i know, but i do think you'll
be relieved when yours comes &it's not a mkIII.
basically the same thing, but mkIII just seemed like more of a pain somehow.