Bryan T
06-04-2008, 12:59 PM
My friend bought a Tascam 38 8-track recorder a few weeks ago and then needed to buy some other items to get it working correctly (head cleaner, demagnetizer, tape, calibration tape, etc.). We got it calibrated last night and did a test recording to hear what an old prosumer 8-track adds to a Pro Tools HD setup.
Calibration wasn't too hard, though it left us scratching our heads at times. Both of us grew up using cassette multitracks, but a reel-to-reel is a lot different. We got each of the heads calibrated using the 1 kHz test tape and an external 1kHz signal. Everything looked right on the 8 tracks for that test tone, but things got a little off on some of the tracks when we looked at higher or lower test tones. We didn't mess with the bias, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Anyhow, five of the eight tracks looked great on all of the test tones, so we set out to do some tracking.
We tracked a drum machine, a uke, a xylophone, a keyboard bass part, and vocals. That let us hear how the tape handled different sources. We also played around with recording at higher levels to hear what the tape did to the signal. Tape saturation is a pretty good effect on the voice and the keyboard bass. I was surprised with how much high end the tape had on the xylophone and how clear the uke sounded. We were using my new AKG 414 on the uke and xylophone and I thought it sounded great.
After tracking, we dumped the tracks into Pro Tools for a little editing and to do the mix. Everything worked as it should and sounded good to our ears.
I'm not sure how my friend plans to use the 8-track. I think it would work really well for drums, perhaps transferring to tape after recording/editing digitally, and then transferring back. I really liked what the vocals sounded like on tape, so that's another option for tracking.
Bryan
Calibration wasn't too hard, though it left us scratching our heads at times. Both of us grew up using cassette multitracks, but a reel-to-reel is a lot different. We got each of the heads calibrated using the 1 kHz test tape and an external 1kHz signal. Everything looked right on the 8 tracks for that test tone, but things got a little off on some of the tracks when we looked at higher or lower test tones. We didn't mess with the bias, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Anyhow, five of the eight tracks looked great on all of the test tones, so we set out to do some tracking.
We tracked a drum machine, a uke, a xylophone, a keyboard bass part, and vocals. That let us hear how the tape handled different sources. We also played around with recording at higher levels to hear what the tape did to the signal. Tape saturation is a pretty good effect on the voice and the keyboard bass. I was surprised with how much high end the tape had on the xylophone and how clear the uke sounded. We were using my new AKG 414 on the uke and xylophone and I thought it sounded great.
After tracking, we dumped the tracks into Pro Tools for a little editing and to do the mix. Everything worked as it should and sounded good to our ears.
I'm not sure how my friend plans to use the 8-track. I think it would work really well for drums, perhaps transferring to tape after recording/editing digitally, and then transferring back. I really liked what the vocals sounded like on tape, so that's another option for tracking.
Bryan