stettoman
04-26-2007, 01:43 PM
I hadn't done any analog recording in a long long time. Many years ago I owned a Tascam 8-track reel-to-reel, but I've forgotten what it even looks like anymore...I also owned a little Fostex X-26 four-tracker that I kept around for...Oh, I don't know, sentimental reasons? I had done a lot of livingroom sessions on the little bugger. But I was never that impressed with what it produced; Boomy, somewhat thick tracks that never bounced well. Once I got the ADAT and eventually the DAW the Fostex has been relegated to a shelf space...Until last night.
I'm working on putting an acoustic guitar duo act together to do some local gigging, and needed to record the bulk of my material so my partner could work it up. The thought had occured to me that the most convenient way to do this would be to just get a tape recorder and run continuously. I still had some old Sony UXPRO cassette tapes buried somewhere, so we set up the machine...Instead of the old tried and true musician's buddy, the Sure SM58 that I use to use, plugged diectly into the Fostex, I set up two SP C4s in a sort of "X-Y", though one was directed at the guitar and the other pointed towards the singers. I ran those through the VTB1s and via the line out into the mic/line in on the Fostex. It took a while to tweak the levels, and as the Fostex had always produced a boomy recording without dropping the low eq to the basement, I hedged my bets by doing it this time as well...Then we spent a couple hours tracking live...
I didn't expect much more than a workable recording, but holy smokes! Crisp, clean, perfect blend of vox and instrument (my off-key singing is apparently something the mics and pre couldn't adjust for), and I heard warmth in tone that I didn't remember ever getting out of that machine before, and certainly don't get from my digital equipment!
I wouldn't bother you guys with this, except that I thought you'd find it complimentary what a difference your gear made to the quality recording from an old dusty dinosaur 4-track cassette deck...I've decided to keep the little space-consuming monster out for future projects as well. Glad I never sold it...
Eric
I'm working on putting an acoustic guitar duo act together to do some local gigging, and needed to record the bulk of my material so my partner could work it up. The thought had occured to me that the most convenient way to do this would be to just get a tape recorder and run continuously. I still had some old Sony UXPRO cassette tapes buried somewhere, so we set up the machine...Instead of the old tried and true musician's buddy, the Sure SM58 that I use to use, plugged diectly into the Fostex, I set up two SP C4s in a sort of "X-Y", though one was directed at the guitar and the other pointed towards the singers. I ran those through the VTB1s and via the line out into the mic/line in on the Fostex. It took a while to tweak the levels, and as the Fostex had always produced a boomy recording without dropping the low eq to the basement, I hedged my bets by doing it this time as well...Then we spent a couple hours tracking live...
I didn't expect much more than a workable recording, but holy smokes! Crisp, clean, perfect blend of vox and instrument (my off-key singing is apparently something the mics and pre couldn't adjust for), and I heard warmth in tone that I didn't remember ever getting out of that machine before, and certainly don't get from my digital equipment!
I wouldn't bother you guys with this, except that I thought you'd find it complimentary what a difference your gear made to the quality recording from an old dusty dinosaur 4-track cassette deck...I've decided to keep the little space-consuming monster out for future projects as well. Glad I never sold it...
Eric