388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

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akpasta
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388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by akpasta » Sun May 05, 2019 4:22 pm

Hi Folks,

I'm using a Tascam 388 and I want to dump to digital to mix and do vocal overdubs and maybe some other overdubs.

I've been told that for my purposes GarageBand is probably sufficient so I'd like to start there.

I need recommendations on a thing that will transfer from the 8 line outs on the 388 to my computer. I'm looking for a thing that can work with any software that isn't "too" expensive.

I'd like something that I can also use to record the overdubs as well (if possible).

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thank you!!

kslight
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by kslight » Sun May 05, 2019 5:55 pm

How much are you expecting to spend?

The thing with the 388 is, you’ll need to transfer all 8 channels at once (as opposed to 2 at a time or whatever) due to sync issues...so logically then you need an interface capable of 8 simultaneous ins.

akpasta
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by akpasta » Sun May 05, 2019 6:12 pm

I realize I need 8 simultaneous ins. I’m hoping to spend no more than $500. I’ve been told I can spend as little as $100

akpasta
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by akpasta » Sun May 05, 2019 6:22 pm

Would an M-Audio M Track Eight be sufficient? https://m-audio.com/products/view/m-track-eight

There's a used one for sale in my area.

kslight
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by kslight » Sun May 05, 2019 7:32 pm

akpasta wrote:
Sun May 05, 2019 6:22 pm
Would an M-Audio M Track Eight be sufficient? https://m-audio.com/products/view/m-track-eight

There's a used one for sale in my area.
I have no experience with this model but on paper it seems like it should work.

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Sun May 05, 2019 8:12 pm

24/96 is good for tape capture as it retains a lil more detail

388 tape outs are RCA unbalanced - so you'll want an interface that's compatible - get one that has 8 1/4" unbalanced ins

make or purchase an 8 channel RCA to 1/4" snake as short as possible with quality cable n jacks - this will prob make more of a difference in sound than the interface itself - especially on the budget end of the market - though literally the cheapest interface you can find should capture a 388 perfectly

an interface with level controls on the inputs might be handy - the interface might have a "sweet spot" or at least is factory calibrated to line up with 0VU at a certain point (usually someplace in the -20dBFS to -12dBFS range)

food this tidbit about the EQ that's worth noting:
Connect the 8 PGM outs into your interface. Turn all inputs to REMIX. If you have drums recorded on track 1 and want them on track 1 in Logic, pro tools, whatever, then assign the first channel to 1/2 and "pan" it to the left. This makes the PGM (program) output 1 receive what is on the tape AFTER it goes through the EQ. Follow this idea for all your tracks and you're good to go.
there's prob a million devices out there - get one that works with your computer and looks pretty and don't worry too much about it

you'll hopefully be having fun working hybrid in no time

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by Nick Sevilla » Mon May 06, 2019 7:40 am

Questions:
1. What computer do you have? Specs please.
2. What operating system is it?
3. Afterwards, are you planning on using this interface a lot of the time? Or just to transfer recordings once they are done on your 388?
4. What is your monitoring setup like? Some interfaces provide software monitoring, some do not.

You will need some way of making sure your unbalanced output is turned into balanced, as most 8 channel audio interfaces
are all balanced input. Not hard to do, as someone else on here has suggested.

I recommend this :

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -interface

As to "M-Audio" well, their drivers have always been buggy garbage, so I would stay the heck away from them.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

akpasta
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by akpasta » Mon May 06, 2019 8:02 am

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Mon May 06, 2019 7:40 am
Questions:
1. What computer do you have? Specs please.
2. What operating system is it?
3. Afterwards, are you planning on using this interface a lot of the time? Or just to transfer recordings once they are done on your 388?
4. What is your monitoring setup like? Some interfaces provide software monitoring, some do not.

You will need some way of making sure your unbalanced output is turned into balanced, as most 8 channel audio interfaces
are all balanced input. Not hard to do, as someone else on here has suggested.

I recommend this :

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -interface

As to "M-Audio" well, their drivers have always been buggy garbage, so I would stay the heck away from them.
Thank you for the response.

1. MacBook Air 2018. 1.6ghz, 16gb RAM
2. OS Mojave 10.14.4
3. I want the interface to transfer recordings. I also need an interface that will let me do up to two inputs live so I can do some additional overdubs.
5. My monitoring set up at the studio are some studio monitors. At home it's headphones or a vintage stereo receiver.

Sounds like I need a good quality snake for RCA to 1/4" or XLR, also the interface needs to accept unbalanced inputs.
The M-Audio MTrack Eight has inputs that accept balanced or unbalanced inputs.
The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 says it accepts balanced inputs

Any other recs?

akpasta
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Posts: 56
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by akpasta » Mon May 06, 2019 8:04 am

I'm Painting Again wrote:
Sun May 05, 2019 8:12 pm
24/96 is good for tape capture as it retains a lil more detail

388 tape outs are RCA unbalanced - so you'll want an interface that's compatible - get one that has 8 1/4" unbalanced ins

make or purchase an 8 channel RCA to 1/4" snake as short as possible with quality cable n jacks - this will prob make more of a difference in sound than the interface itself - especially on the budget end of the market - though literally the cheapest interface you can find should capture a 388 perfectly

an interface with level controls on the inputs might be handy - the interface might have a "sweet spot" or at least is factory calibrated to line up with 0VU at a certain point (usually someplace in the -20dBFS to -12dBFS range)

food this tidbit about the EQ that's worth noting:
Connect the 8 PGM outs into your interface. Turn all inputs to REMIX. If you have drums recorded on track 1 and want them on track 1 in Logic, pro tools, whatever, then assign the first channel to 1/2 and "pan" it to the left. This makes the PGM (program) output 1 receive what is on the tape AFTER it goes through the EQ. Follow this idea for all your tracks and you're good to go.
there's prob a million devices out there - get one that works with your computer and looks pretty and don't worry too much about it

you'll hopefully be having fun working hybrid in no time
Thanks for the advice! I also found that tidbit about EQ, so it looks like I'll be going from the RCA bus and not line out from each channel, as I had originally thought!

Are all interfaces compatible with unbalanced ins? I see some say so, and some not, but in my experience in analog audio, you can use whatever kind you want, hahaha. Maybe it's different in the world of digital?

eh91311
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by eh91311 » Mon May 06, 2019 1:38 pm

akpasta wrote:
Mon May 06, 2019 8:02 am
Nick Sevilla wrote:
Mon May 06, 2019 7:40 am
Questions:
1. What computer do you have? Specs please.
2. What operating system is it?
3. Afterwards, are you planning on using this interface a lot of the time? Or just to transfer recordings once they are done on your 388?
4. What is your monitoring setup like? Some interfaces provide software monitoring, some do not.

You will need some way of making sure your unbalanced output is turned into balanced, as most 8 channel audio interfaces
are all balanced input. Not hard to do, as someone else on here has suggested.

I recommend this :

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -interface

As to "M-Audio" well, their drivers have always been buggy garbage, so I would stay the heck away from them.
Thank you for the response.

1. MacBook Air 2018. 1.6ghz, 16gb RAM
2. OS Mojave 10.14.4
3. I want the interface to transfer recordings. I also need an interface that will let me do up to two inputs live so I can do some additional overdubs.
5. My monitoring set up at the studio are some studio monitors. At home it's headphones or a vintage stereo receiver.

Sounds like I need a good quality snake for RCA to 1/4" or XLR, also the interface needs to accept unbalanced inputs.
The M-Audio MTrack Eight has inputs that accept balanced or unbalanced inputs.
The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 says it accepts balanced inputs

Any other recs?
You definitely need to review OS Mojave 10.14.4 compatibility list:
https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ar ... lity/#List

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: 388 Dumping to Digital? What do I need?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon May 06, 2019 1:59 pm

akpasta wrote:
Mon May 06, 2019 8:04 am
I'm Painting Again wrote:
Sun May 05, 2019 8:12 pm
24/96 is good for tape capture as it retains a lil more detail

388 tape outs are RCA unbalanced - so you'll want an interface that's compatible - get one that has 8 1/4" unbalanced ins

make or purchase an 8 channel RCA to 1/4" snake as short as possible with quality cable n jacks - this will prob make more of a difference in sound than the interface itself - especially on the budget end of the market - though literally the cheapest interface you can find should capture a 388 perfectly

an interface with level controls on the inputs might be handy - the interface might have a "sweet spot" or at least is factory calibrated to line up with 0VU at a certain point (usually someplace in the -20dBFS to -12dBFS range)

food this tidbit about the EQ that's worth noting:
Connect the 8 PGM outs into your interface. Turn all inputs to REMIX. If you have drums recorded on track 1 and want them on track 1 in Logic, pro tools, whatever, then assign the first channel to 1/2 and "pan" it to the left. This makes the PGM (program) output 1 receive what is on the tape AFTER it goes through the EQ. Follow this idea for all your tracks and you're good to go.
there's prob a million devices out there - get one that works with your computer and looks pretty and don't worry too much about it

you'll hopefully be having fun working hybrid in no time
Thanks for the advice! I also found that tidbit about EQ, so it looks like I'll be going from the RCA bus and not line out from each channel, as I had originally thought!

Are all interfaces compatible with unbalanced ins? I see some say so, and some not, but in my experience in analog audio, you can use whatever kind you want, hahaha. Maybe it's different in the world of digital?
nah in analog it's all over the place - +4 balanced +4 unbalanced +4 balanced pin 2 hot +4 balanced pin 3 hot / pseudo-balanced / transformer balanced / cross-coupled balanced

everything will require different wiring in different situations - the types "pro" and "consumer" or also referred to as +4 balanced / -10 unbalanced are not really compatible though they will work and most of the time it's even acceptable

in those cases the best you can do is use a transformer device that converts them perfectly like this

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... el-shifter

then use two snakes on either end

every device is different so you have to refer to the documentation to see basically what it is - though it's still unclear sometimes like when you want to find out what style of balanced device something is

here is the reference page for interconnects

https://www.rane.com/note110.html

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