Analog/Digital Hybrid Studio Tascam M-312B > Fostex 80 &g

[Goodnight60]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to get an analog/digital hybrid home recording studio going and get the best of both worlds. I just picked up a Fostex Model 80 reel to reel 8 track and an old Tascam M-312B Mixer. What I'd like to do is track through the mixer and onto tape, then mix some more coming out of the mixer and into my DAW (Logic) for the final mixdown. I'm not quite sure how to route this exactly. I'm looking to record live drums with 3-4 mics, then mostly overdubbing the rest. Maybe a few live guitars....

The M-312B has 4 busses (I'm pretty sure), so however many tracks I record simultaneously I'm gonna have to submix, not a big deal. But if I want to do live mixing on all 8 tracks from the tape machine through the mixer where I can EQ and add some space echo (think Lee Scratch Perry or something....), THEN into an interface or something, how could i route this? Anyone have any leads? Is this redundant? Any help is very much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Here's a video of something I'd like to be able to do. Live mixing, then into my computer. Interface? A/D converter?

http://youtu.be/KYO-XTPHTR4

[Studiodawg]

Why don't you add effects after you dump into the DAW? You can take the RCA tape outs from the Fostex and go directly into an 8 channel interface and save all your mixing and effects for when you are in the DAW.

[Goodnight60]

Yeah, I'll probably just do that too. But if I wanted to be able to mix using outboard gear and utilizing the EQ on the mixer, how could i route that? The mixer's got a good sweep and I like actually turning knobs....Each channel on the M312 has direct outs via line 1/4". Could I go RCA out of r2r to line in on the mixer, then direct out to interface?

[kevin206]

I have the same 8-track. It's been a good machine. I would probably record drums, maybe guitars, then dump to DAW for overdubs. If you want to, and you happen to have outboard compressors and reverbs, you could do something like you originally asked. But you'll have to repatch for mixing. My board is different, I have 8 busses and I have a TAPE IN on each channel with a button to switch it.

Depending on the board, your direct out may be pre EQ, mine is I think. That wouldn't be a problem if the Direct out is just for scratches and you don't need any EQ. Are you wanting all your tracks recorded analog? How many can you dedicate to drums? How many inputs does your DAW have?

If you want to mix through the board, I would get some 1/4" to RCA adapters and patch the 80-8 RCA outs to the 1/4" Line Ins on the board. You would have the channel EQ and individual inserts for compressors. You could send drums to the 1&2 buss for a group compression if you wanted. I would use the 3-4 buss for the stereo mix to send into your DAW. I used to do this and go into my SoundBlaster Line In many years ago.

I'm not real familiar with your board, and all boards have different capabilities, but if you can figure out signal flow you can accomplish a lot. Sometimes it requires repatching.

[kevin206]

A few ways I used to do it...I recorded rock/alternative stuff.

I would record drums and scratch guitar together, sometimes with bass and vocals too, but I was trying to get keeper drum tracks. I usually dedicated 3 tracks to drums, 1 for kick and 2 for a stereo mix. I would insert a compressor on the kick mic channel and patch the Direct Out to a track on the Model 80. Then I would patch a compressor at the insert of the snare channel. I would use all my best mics and mic the snare, every tom, and two OHs. I would route all those mics to a stereo subgroup and patch that in to 2 channels of the Model 80. My scratch instruments would patch from the Direct outs to the Model 80.

So, I had my kick going to track 1, a stereo drum submix going to tracks 2-3, and a couple of scratch tracks. I would do overdubs as needed. I didn't do much bouncing. I would really take some time when building that drum mix while tracking. I would have a nice compressed snare with EQ, toms would be panned EQ'd (I tried gates, but it never worked well), OH mics would be EQ'd to taste. When it was time to mix I would do some work to the Kick with the EQ. It would already be compressed, so that left my compressors available for bass and vocals. I only had to balance the kick with the stereo drum mix. I could bring out a little more snare with the EQ if necessary.

For mixdown, I would have my Model 80 tape outs patched into my boards channel line ins (Well, my board had channel Tape ins). I would put compressors at the insert of the bass channel and the vocal channel. I would set up a Reverb on an AUX channel. I had 8 busses, but I didn't really need submixes with an 8-track. I would route my indivdual channels to my stereo MIX buss with the appropriate panning. Then I patched the Mix bus (poss. 3-4 on your board) to my mixdown deck.

My mixdown deck changed frequently. Cassette, MiniDisc, HiFi VHS, DAW with SoundBlaster card into SoundForge, stand-alone CD-R.

My goal was to record up to 8 tracks of drums, mix stereo to the DAW using Cubase, and do overdubs into the DAW. I had some latency issues that I never bothered working out at the time, so I never actually did it that way.

[WilH]

Wow, I have a very similar setup to the one in that studio video*. Never would've thought about filming myself mixing though, it must drum up business well.
I do everything on tape and mix through the 388 into whatever 2 channel interface I have at the time. I've digitally overdubbed more on top in the past but I find it dicky and unsatisfying, 8 tracks is enough. The digital is just a substitute master recorder before I find the money to get a decent 2 track deck.



*I Only have one Space Echo and no Mutron stuff though

[kevin206]

I do everything on tape and mix through the 388 into whatever 2 channel interface I have at the time. I've digitally overdubbed more on top in the past but I find it dicky and unsatisfying, 8 tracks is enough. The digital is just a substitute master recorder before I find the money to get a decent 2 track deck.

This is what I've done also, even when I stepped up to 16 tracks.

Not to hijack, but it may be useful to the OP and those who read this thread, what specific issues did you have with overdubbing into the DAW? Was it latency related? Sonically not pleasing? Please share.

[WilH]

Nothing latency related, just doesn't feel as fun or rewarding really.