recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

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kosmovinyl
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recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by kosmovinyl » Sat Aug 02, 2003 12:02 pm

Hey there. For a new project, I'm doing a band with a Roland MC505 drum machine instead of a drummer. It's a pretty good machine, though it uses samples of old drum patches (808, 909, etc.) instead of generating them itself.

Anyway, I'm recording to 1/2 eight track and on a few songs have been getting what I can only describe as "ghost beats" in the drum track. That is, as we're doing overdubs, we're hearing very dismaying echoes (pingpingping poc poc) of our drum sounds in the headphones, which I presume (though I'm not positive) are printed to the tape.

This never happened on our four-track demos.

If anyone has any idea what might be going on, I would GREATLY appreciate guidance.

Thanks!

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Rodgre
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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by Rodgre » Sat Aug 02, 2003 2:17 pm

Are you printing really hot? Maybe it's print-through going onto the layers below it as the tape gets spooled.

Maybe?

Roger

wardshorsehead
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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by wardshorsehead » Sat Aug 02, 2003 9:26 pm

that's a good thought...kinda like when a loud click track can do this...
hmmm. i wonder if it is the snare that is giving the most problem...

frank

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transmothra
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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by transmothra » Sat Aug 02, 2003 10:27 pm

either that or there's a mic picking it up from someone's cans. see if you can isolate it to a track. just go through and solo each track. you'll probably hear it on one (possibly two) tracks. might have to re-record them! if you don't hear it while soloing tracks, then it might not have printed... i dunno where it'd be coming from in that case.
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The Gibbon
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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by The Gibbon » Sat Aug 02, 2003 10:49 pm

Sounds like "print through"....transfer of a recorded signal from one layer of tape to another because of magnetic induction. You get false signals or pre-echo on playback. Too high of recording levels can cause this along with storage. temp, tape thickness...Always store the tape tails out to avoid it.

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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by silversound » Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:17 am

Yep, what they said!
pssst! hey pssst! Want some free software man? I'll throw it in if you buy my hardware.

kosmovinyl
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Re: recording drum machine to tape question (ghost beats)

Post by kosmovinyl » Sun Aug 03, 2003 6:26 am

Thanks! I'll report back with results ...

J

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