What are the various formats for multi-track recording?
Doc
other options for doing multi-track recording?
Thanks
Robert McTigue
adat stuff. You can link DA 38s to a DA 88. I have done 40 track for
"live events". There are others I'm sure but I'm not up to speed on them.
Scott Dorsey
>Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are the
>other options for doing multi-track recording?
ADAT, DTRS (DA-88), DASH, Mitsubishi. Plus lots and lots of standalone hard
disk recorders varying from the really slick RADAR down to the Tascam and
Mackie units.
I don't have any problem with linear recording, but it definitely seems to
be on the way out these days. So machines like the DA-38s, which are really
great for live event recordings, are basically selling for peanuts.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
JP Morris
> Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are the
> other options for doing multi-track recording?
Besides the others already mentioned, 6-track recording on magnetic film,
and Decca used to use a system where they recorded digitally onto 1" IVC
video recorders.
This probably isn't very useful, as I suspect you're asking from a more
practical 'what can I do?' viewpoint, but in case your aim is to collect a
list of methods in which it can be done, I've listed these oddball formats.
> Thanks
>
>
--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=- j...@it-he.org
Fun things to do with the Ultima games http://www.it-he.org
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Steve Jorgensen
Besides what others have mentioned, there are also the gazillian
consumer-level and semi-pro all-in-one DAW units like the Yamaha AW2816, etc.
Most of these record songs in a proprietary format, but can import from or
export to a set of .wav files. Many can also back up project data to CD-R so
it can be re-loaded later.
Personally, I find these things harder to use than software DAWs like Logic
and PT, but I didn't cut my teeth on analog, and I haven't used any of the
DAWs with connectors for a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Scott Dorsey
>Doc wrote:
>> Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are the
>> other options for doing multi-track recording?
>
>Besides the others already mentioned, 6-track recording on magnetic film,
>and Decca used to use a system where they recorded digitally onto 1" IVC
>video recorders.
6-track magnetic film is really analogue tape in disguise. Sure it's
got perfs, but the technology is similar. And I have never seen a
dubber with punch-in-punch-out, which makes it of limited utility for
multitrack production. Although for all I know, Sondor or Magnatech
may well have it as an option.
>This probably isn't very useful, as I suspect you're asking from a more
>practical 'what can I do?' viewpoint, but in case your aim is to collect a
>list of methods in which it can be done, I've listed these oddball formats.
What's so oddball about six-track mag? I should be running it right now
but I'm kind of putting the job off until I get back from the AES show.
Buster Mudd
anahata
> Six posts so far and no one's even mentioned good old analog tape?????
>
"Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape"...
--
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Home: 01638 720444 Mob: 07976 263827
J. P. Morris
> JP Morris <j...@it-he.org> wrote:
>>Doc wrote:
>>> Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are
>>> the other options for doing multi-track recording?
>>
>>Besides the others already mentioned, 6-track recording on magnetic film,
>>and Decca used to use a system where they recorded digitally onto 1" IVC
>>video recorders.
>
> 6-track magnetic film is really analogue tape in disguise. Sure it's
> got perfs, but the technology is similar. And I have never seen a
> dubber with punch-in-punch-out, which makes it of limited utility for
> multitrack production. Although for all I know, Sondor or Magnatech
> may well have it as an option.
The only other time I've heard of this being done (outside of film
production), I totally failed to find any information on the web about this
format (although that was partly because 'Sondor' was spelled wrong).
Do you know of any good resources about them? I'm curious.
> What's so oddball about six-track mag? I should be running it right now
> but I'm kind of putting the job off until I get back from the AES show.
Nice. But as far as I'm aware, and not counting pre-1970 recordings, the
only band to have used this format to record an LP was Mercury Rev, and
IMHO they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic anyway. In my book, that
counts as 'oddball'. ;-)
Could you lock two of them together and get ten or twelve tracks?
> --scott
--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=- j...@it-he.org
Anti-walkthroughs for Deus Ex, Thief and Ultima http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone http://rotj.it-he.org
The DMFA radio series project http://dmfa.it-he.org
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Scott Dorsey
>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> JP Morris <j...@it-he.org> wrote:
>>>Doc wrote:
>>>> Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are
>>>> the other options for doing multi-track recording?
>>>
>>>Besides the others already mentioned, 6-track recording on magnetic film,
>>>and Decca used to use a system where they recorded digitally onto 1" IVC
>>>video recorders.
>>
>> 6-track magnetic film is really analogue tape in disguise. Sure it's
>> got perfs, but the technology is similar. And I have never seen a
>> dubber with punch-in-punch-out, which makes it of limited utility for
>> multitrack production. Although for all I know, Sondor or Magnatech
>> may well have it as an option.
>
>The only other time I've heard of this being done (outside of film
>production), I totally failed to find any information on the web about this
>format (although that was partly because 'Sondor' was spelled wrong).
>Do you know of any good resources about them? I'm curious.
About what? The mag format? There is a SMPTE spec for it that is
probably available on their website for a fee.
Six-track was pretty much the standard delivery format for film soundtracks
up until about ten years ago. The rush to digital in the film world was
very late, but it happened very fast. A lot of folks are still using it
for film mixes, or at least for safeties.
>> What's so oddball about six-track mag? I should be running it right now
>> but I'm kind of putting the job off until I get back from the AES show.
>
>Nice. But as far as I'm aware, and not counting pre-1970 recordings, the
>only band to have used this format to record an LP was Mercury Rev, and
>IMHO they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic anyway. In my book, that
>counts as 'oddball'. ;-)
As I recall, Mercury used an older three-track magfilm format, as did
Everest and Command. For a while in the sixties, it was very fashionable
for audiophile stuff, because the speed was higher and the track width
was greater. I don't know why it fell out of favour there, but honestly
the use for record production was always pretty minimal in comparison with
the film industry.
>Could you lock two of them together and get ten or twelve tracks?
You can lock lots and lots of them together. I have personally never
locked more than 24 machines together, but I think Cinecitta in Rome
used to have the ability to lock fifty-some machines up.
And they will also lock up to projection, so you can watch the film
as you're mixing the soundtrack. Magnatech made some projectors
with rotary shutters, so you could fast forward and rewind while
watching pix as well, rather than having to mix each reel in one take.
I keep saying I will put some photos of the dubber room here up on the
website, but I haven't actually done it.
TaffJock
Tascam PD6 offer less tracks to DVD-RAM - review here
www.themagicofradio.com. There's a fourtrack from SoundDevices -
Zaxcom have I think a 10 track and HHB an eight track. The Tascam is a
good machine (with some reservations) and with the MixView software
quite flexible. Oh and there's a Fostex 24 track with less
comprehensive facilities which was a bit cheaper as was the Mackie
version. Plenty to chose from.
Richard Crowley
> Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> What's so oddball about six-track mag? I should be running it right now
>> but I'm kind of putting the job off until I get back from the AES show.
>
> Nice. But as far as I'm aware, and not counting pre-1970 recordings, the
> only band to have used this format to record an LP was Mercury Rev, and
> IMHO they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic anyway. In my book,
> that
> counts as 'oddball'. ;-)
>
> Could you lock two of them together and get ten or twelve tracks?
He he he. They've been doing this long before any of us were born.
This was the method of editing and mixing sound tracks for feature
films in Hollywood for many decades. Those racks upon racks of
(servoed together) sprocketed magnetic recorders were replaced
only in recent times by compter-based storage/editing.
Jeff Chestek
> >
> > 6-track magnetic film is really analogue tape in disguise. Sure it's
> > got perfs, but the technology is similar. And I have never seen a
> > dubber with punch-in-punch-out, which makes it of limited utility for
> > multitrack production. Although for all I know, Sondor or Magnatech
> > may well have it as an option.
Wait a minute....
So films are mixed a whole reel at a time?
uhh.....
My first job in the "business" was operating the film mix studio for
Temple University's film department (quite a few years back!). And while
the Magnatech punch-in and out wasn't always seamless, it wasn't half
bad. You did have to pick your spots, but that's more or less true with
every Studer, MCI, and Otari multitrack machine I've ever used too.
It's been too long, and I was too green, for me to know whether our
dubbers had timed erase/bias ramp in/out, but still, whatever it did
kinda worked.
And I can't imagine that the big mix rooms didn't have seamless
punch-in/out. Their whole mix paradigm is based on punch-in.
Jeff C.
--
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My real email should be pretty obvious to an actual human being.
Buster Mudd
> Buster Mudd wrote:
> > Six posts so far and no one's even mentioned good old analog tape?????
> >
> The original message mentioned it:
> "Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape"...
>
Doh!
Tim Martin
"Doc" <docsa...@xhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:KU91f.10944$q1....@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> Besides a computer with a multi-in sound card or analog tape, what are the
> other options for doing multi-track recording?
>
> Thanks
You can buy a standalone multitrack recording system, such as the Tascam
2488 (there are many others.) These units can be used by themselves - plug
in microphones and record. Watch out for some low-end devices, which can
record only two tracks at a time, but there are many which can record eight
tracks at a time.
The standalone units often offer built-on mixing facilities, and can record
the mixed audio track as a standard stereo CD.
These unit are easy to use, and so are attractive for people whose interest
is playing a musical instrument rather than operating equipment.
You can also buy hard disk recorders, which take the individual track
outputs from a mixer. As far as I'm aware, these do not have built-in mixing
facilities - you transfer the data to a computer for mising. (You can also
do this with the standalone recording systems.)
Tim