4-track newb help

[Snarl 12/8]

Totally try a different cable. Also try different outlets in the house and positioning, rotation of the 4-track (if it's not the cable). If that doesn't work try turning off and/or unplugging everything you can in the house. Could be an air conditioner, refrigerator, flourescent lights, etc., etc. My money's on the cable though.

[Gregg Juke]

And, if you determine it's not a faulty unit or a cable, you could always resort to a hum conditioning device like the Hum-X: http://www.google.com/#bav=on.2,or.&fp= ... eliminator ...

GJ

[tweak]

So i'm pretty sure its the cable. I plugged in my farifsa organ directly into in and had virtually no buzz. I saw on Orange county speaker repair I can get a 3 pack of those es 57 mics (Which I've heard good things about from a friend) and a 5 pack of 25ft xlr to 1/4 cables (which would be perfect for my 4 track) for a bit more than on Sm57 and a cable would cost me. How are the cables from OC speaker repair?

Thanks

[Judas Jetski]

My 424 Mk. II has started humming based on what the LED display is doing. I'm really thinking it's nearing the end of its days...

[Snarl 12/8]

I dunno, if I had it to do all over again I'd start with one good mic over four crappy ones. You can buy absolutely amazing mics for $50 nowadays. (Compared to when I started out.) I'd also do room treatment and good monitors first too. You can't really judge your signal chain until you can trust what you're hearing on playback.

[Judas Jetski]

...

[Judas Jetski]

You can't really judge your signal chain until you can trust what you're hearing on playback.

Truer words were never spoken.

[tweak]

So the es-57's are shit then?

[1grex]

ANY time I see the question asked "where do I get tape for my high end cassette 4/8 track" I plug theses guyses


http://nationalaudiocompany.com/799-Stu ... P3753.aspx

even if you've already bought 50 maxxells lol

[Snarl 12/8]

So the es-57's are shit then?

I actually have no idea. Maybe they're just what you need? I'm just going on the "get what you pay for" concept. That one mic that costs as much as 4 other mics could be better. You know, all other things being equal. The other thing to consider is different mic types. There's almost no mic that's great on every source. When I bought my first fostex 8-track in 1986 I let the sales guy talk me into buying 4 AKG D321's. I still use them today. And I made some decent recordings with just those, but getting my first condenser was a revelation on many, many sources. My best mic right now, just so you know, is an MXL2001 that I bought, new, at a crazy guitar center blow-out sale for $15. I bought another one recently for $79, so I could have a pair. I'm not here to tell you to blow a lot of money on one mic - that you need a $1000 Newman [sic] to make a half-decent recording, but do you really think those es-57's are your best bet for the kinds of sounds you're trying to record? I dunno, maybe they are.

One rule of thumb that I try to remember is only to buy stuff you absolutely know you need. That you personally can hear that you need. Don't buy this or that because you hear it's awesome or your friend (or some a-hole on teh interwebs) thinks you should. Or even because it's cheap. Use the gear you have until it becomes crystal clear what the next piece you need is. Right now, it sounds like you need 1 mic cable. (Or, arguably, maybe a soldering iron, cheapo multimeter (or cable tester) and a basic audio gear repair reference)

IMO, the one exception to this rule is the room treatment and monitors. You really have no conception of what you're missing until you get some decent speakers and start taming nodes, nulls and flutter echos. It's like pulling funhouse mirrors out of your ears. When you're just starting out it seems totally ridiculous to focus on things that don't fit in between the performer and the tape/disk. You can always mix it again later when you get better equipment, or have someone else do it, right? But like I said before, you start hearing what's really going on (what frequencies, transients, tones, etc., etc. you're missing) and then you can start knowing what gear you're missing.

Because, Playback is a bitch.

That's just my $0.02. And you should discount that almost 100% if you hear a different opinion from one of the heavy hitters on this board. I'm just a random audio nerd who hasn't done much outside his basement in 20 years. (And who's best mic cost $15.)

[Judas Jetski]

Playback is a bitch.

Truer words were never spoken. Except, perhaps, 6 posts above.

[kayagum]

Ummm....

.... maybe we all forgot our roots and neglected to remember that not all cassette 4 tracks take balanced and/or low-z mic inputs.

Doing some quick googling, it looks like the inputs are NOT balanced nor hi-Z on the OP's Yamaha MT4X.

Manual: http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/ ... /MT4XE.pdf

The easiest (and cheapest) solution is to get low-Z to hi-Z converter... something like this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LittleIMP/. Hosa, Audio Technica and others make a similar adapter.

Your cable will probably NOT solve the problem, since you need to convert the impedance.

What I used for a long time was a Mackie 1202 mixer, and used the 4 mic preamp input channels directly out to my Tascam Porta 1, and had the playback channels in on channels 5-8. I'm sure you can find a 1202 for next to nothing these days, but they are extremely handy for 4 track recording.

As for the 57 mics (ES, SM, whatever), the guy that got me into recording in the 1st place often said, "All you need to make a decent recording is a 4 track and a 57 mic." That is what got me into TapeOp in the 1st place.

[Mark]

So the es-57's are shit then?

I actually have no idea. Maybe they're just what you need? I'm just going on the "get what you pay for" concept. That one mic that costs as much as 4 other mics could be better. You know, all other things being equal. The other thing to consider is different mic types. There's almost no mic that's great on every source. When I bought my first fostex 8-track in 1986 I let the sales guy talk me into buying 4 AKG D321's. I still use them today.

Were you in a four man acapella group at the time?

I have a D321. It's a good mic, but I'm not sure you'd ever need four of them. Did the sales chap offer a really generous discount, by any chance?