markjazzbassist wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 6:12 am
record your tracks dry and add the reverb in the mixing stage.
This ^^^^^^
Beyond that, don't bounce unless you absolutely have to and even then be careful about what you're bouncing. 3 tracks of backing vocal harmonies? Yes. 7 drum tracks? No.
You'll get cleaner more hi-fi results submixing multiple mics to one track than you will recording a track for each mic and then bouncing. I rocked a 38 for years. It's a great machine for what it is. You're going to have to do some planning and think hard about track counts but that's part of the flow. It will likely help your arranging skills as well. It was discussed in the McCartney 1, 2, 3 thread but one of the reasons that those Beatles tracks sound so fucking good is that the arrangements are great and very SIMPLE. There aren't a million parts but what's there is exactly what needs to be there.
Remember - the 38 cant bounce from one track to the track next door without feedback type artifacts (maybe due to cross talk between tracks). That means you cant fill tracks 1-7 and bounce to 8. You need to fill 1-6 and bounce over 7 to 8.
Get a calibration tape and learn to set up your machine. Do it often. Keep the tape path CLEAN. 99% alcohol on all the metal parts. Gentle soap and water on the rubber (then rinse and dry).
Other struff -
if you've got multiple players and can do it record multiple parts at the same time to the same track. Like say a guitar double and hand percussion. You need to plan where you want those things to get panned in the final mix because you can't unmix them later.
If you've got only one track left and lots of little things left to do put them all on that one track - chorus back-ups, solo, verse piano, whatever. If the parts don't overlap you can mult the output of the tape track to as many channels on the mixer as you need and then use the mutes to go from part to part. That way each part gets it's own eq and fader volume and you just have to unmute it when it gets to that part of the song.
Remember that you can add parts in the mixing stage if you've run out of tracks but still have something important to do. I used to do this with drones and tape loop parts that weren't really rhythm and timing dependent.
Don't slam the tape with crazy hot levels unless you really want that sound. It's a bad default strategy.
Keep notes. Lots and lots of notes. Track sheets, set up notes, tape counter locations, everything. Get rolls of low tac painter's tape and a pile of sharpies. Label all the gear so you know whats going where. There's nothing worse then punching in on the wrong track and erasing that awesome vocal, solo, whatever. We've all done it but hopefully only once.
