Hi all, I’ve been watching youtube videos and surfing ebay for a week or so and I’m hooked. I’m a songwriter, piano player, and singer (in process) and want to do some analog recording. I’m just looking for some general advice and avenues to explore while I contemplate my new purchases.
I have a nice Petrof upright piano and will record it, probably with two dynamic mics (not yet purchased, but I guess my condenser mics won’t work without phantom power). Then, I’ll overdub my vocals. That *might* be it, but I’d leave the door open to some simple drums or bass. Right now, I record my piano with two stereo condenser mics then add my vocals later in Logic Pro, then sometimes add session drummers or session bass players (options in Logic Pro).
I want to try the analog cassette route. If I’m going to do it, I want to keep an analog chain throughout. I just emailed Zoom to ask them if my AMS 44 audio interface could provide phantom power to my condenser mics and keep the signal analog through the TRS output but they said no, that there is an digital conversion as soon as the signal enters the device which would be reconverted back to analog on the way out of the interface to the tascam. I’m not sure if I would even notice a difference in the sound, but…if I’m not going to keep it analog throughout I guess there is no reason to even go down this road.
The most pressing question I guess is which Tascam analog cassette recorder to buy. With my simple goals, I think that maybe I could make do with a porta 02 or 03; I don’t think I’ll need to record more than two sources at once (the two dynamic mics for my piano). I may want to bounce the L and R channels for the piano into one track. How necessary would it be to get the mkII versions?
I could bump it up to a 414 or 424 but don’t want to overly complicate things, although the options and flexibility seem dramatically higher. Possibly one of those situations where I will outgrow the 02 or 03 quickly?
For mixdown, I think that just about any used cassette deck on ebay would work, right? I just use the RCA lines out from the tascam via to the RCA stereo lines in on the cassette deck and record, right? Any recommendations for that?
Sorry if I’ve made any silly mistakes in describing my situation; I’m a total newb.
Thanks for any advice or thoughts.
I have a nice Petrof upright piano and will record it, probably with two dynamic mics (not yet purchased, but I guess my condenser mics won’t work without phantom power). Then, I’ll overdub my vocals. That *might* be it, but I’d leave the door open to some simple drums or bass. Right now, I record my piano with two stereo condenser mics then add my vocals later in Logic Pro, then sometimes add session drummers or session bass players (options in Logic Pro).
I want to try the analog cassette route. If I’m going to do it, I want to keep an analog chain throughout. I just emailed Zoom to ask them if my AMS 44 audio interface could provide phantom power to my condenser mics and keep the signal analog through the TRS output but they said no, that there is an digital conversion as soon as the signal enters the device which would be reconverted back to analog on the way out of the interface to the tascam. I’m not sure if I would even notice a difference in the sound, but…if I’m not going to keep it analog throughout I guess there is no reason to even go down this road.
The most pressing question I guess is which Tascam analog cassette recorder to buy. With my simple goals, I think that maybe I could make do with a porta 02 or 03; I don’t think I’ll need to record more than two sources at once (the two dynamic mics for my piano). I may want to bounce the L and R channels for the piano into one track. How necessary would it be to get the mkII versions?
I could bump it up to a 414 or 424 but don’t want to overly complicate things, although the options and flexibility seem dramatically higher. Possibly one of those situations where I will outgrow the 02 or 03 quickly?
For mixdown, I think that just about any used cassette deck on ebay would work, right? I just use the RCA lines out from the tascam via to the RCA stereo lines in on the cassette deck and record, right? Any recommendations for that?
Sorry if I’ve made any silly mistakes in describing my situation; I’m a total newb.
Thanks for any advice or thoughts.
