@sam-houston
My Quality
So, I've officially caved. I believe I've gone as far as I can with the quality of my songs with what I've been working with for recording (outdated 32bit Windows XP computer and Audacity. I've gone to great lengths, in my opinion, to resolve recording issues and to improve quality. I now feel that I'm getting all I'm going to get with what I have. So, I officially caved, meaning I give up on attempting any further improvement with what I have. That being the case, I bought (at a pawn shop) a Tascam digital 8 track recorder with onboard effects, mix down capabilities, 40 gig internal hard drive, USB to computer hook up, CD burner, SD card slot, hi (1/4" plugs) and low impedance (2 XLR's with phantom power) inputs, faders-eq-punch in and out-effects send-gain-pan on all channels, multi-effects processor with guitar, bass, vocal and drum programs, stereo reverb processor with send/return controls for multichannel mixing, dedicated stereo master track for mixdown.
I have no idea how to use it and the owner's manual is 80 pages long. But I have it and will be attempting to record with it soon. We'll see how it goes. But hopefully this will resolve some of my quality issues....we'll see.
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Ok, folks. I made some good progress last night. I figured out how to take my old songs and import them into Tascam a track at a time. It can be a little time consuming but it works.
So, I have a previously recorded song with multiple tracks done in Audacity. You have to do it one track at a time. The way I have my songs recorded in Audacity is each track is a stereo track. This won't work in Tascam. Tascam needs any track that's to be imported to be a 16bit mono wave file. So to do this I select a track in Audacity then go to the "Tracks" menu and click "Stereo To Mono" which will change that track from stereo to mono. Leave the track selected. Go to the "File" menu and click on "Export Selected". A diqalog will then come up wanting to know what you want to export it to. Select "16bit Windows .wav" and click ok. Now click undo to get the Audacity song back to it's original state and DO NOT save it because you'll lose your original song settings for the originally recorded Audacity song. Now, with Tascam turned on, plug in the USB to the computer and tell Tascam to make the USB connection (your model and/or manufacturer may differ). Once the connection has been made, browse on the computer with Windows Explorer to where you saved the exported track. Right click and copy. Browse to "My Computer" and find the Tascam. Double click and browse to the "Wave" directory and paste the track there. Close the USB connection on the Tascam. "Create" a new song and name it. Go to the "Menu" and select "Wave" then "Import Track". It will list all relevant wave files in the "Wave" directory of the FAT partition on the Tascam. Scroll down to find your track and select it. Tascam will then ask you which track number you want to import it to, then click apply. The track has now been imported into your song to the track you chose on the Tascam. You can now adjust and do whatever you need to do to that track on the Tascam. Keep in mind though that any and all settings to the original Audacity track will exist now in the Tascam track but the Audacity settings and/or effects and/or Audacity VST effects plugins cannot be adjusted or manipulated once it is on the Tascam. But you can add Tascam effects if desired. So, for example, if you added reverb to that track in Audacity, it will still have that same reverb on Tascam.
While this "appears" to be a lot of work for one track, it really isn't bad at all and doesn't take much time once you understand what you're doing. So now you can do this same procedure for up to eight tracks. Once all eight tracks are filled on the Tascam, you can now mixdown and "Bounce" all eight tracks down to either a single track or a better approach would be to bounce all eight to two tracks to gain more stereo effect. So, by bouncing the eight mixed down tracks down to two tracks, you now have six clean freed up tracks to add additional tracks from Audacity. And you can continue in this way until you get all tracks in Audacity onto Tascam. I also would recommend that each time you import a new track, save the song and each time you bounce, save the song. Tascam does NOT have an autosave feature so be sure to save save save as often as possible.
Anyway....just thought I'd share.
Thanks Mary!! And I will definitely give your songs a listen. By the way, you can upgrade your account here at Mixposure to be able to upload more songs.
I too have a ReverbNation account and I'll "fan" you there as well.
I managed to record some guitar on the Tascam last night. I didn't figure out how to apply effects and things like that but at least I took the first step and recorded something and was able to play it back.
I'm starting to see why Farrell says to keep Audacity. I was hoping to do everything on the Tascam but I'm not convinced that will be the case. Using the Tascam is quite a bit more complicated than Audacity. With Audacity you simply click record and that's it. with the Tascam you have to tell it which track your input is to go to and several other steps just to record something simple on a single track. I'm sure with time and use I'll get used to it and won't even think about that anymore. It's just that Audacity is just so bonehead simple to use. But, I do realize that with Audacity and recording on the computer that everything has to go through the little cheap condenser mic and the computer's typical sound card and the Tascam is a direct input or can be a mic'd input using a higher end mic, like an SM57 or 58 so the quality in that respect HAS to be better. But, in the end, I'm not fully convinced that the output is going to be significantly better. But, of course I'm just now learning and haven't gotten very far into it yet nor have I explored all the features or even mixed down a whole song yet. So maybe I'm completely wrong in that assessment.
But, any advice on using, recording, or mix down would be greatly appreciated.
Yes as TV says, keep at it and it will start to make some sense. I started with an 8 track standalone in 1998 and moved to a 16 track standalone about 10 years ago. The 16 track is what I track and mix all my songs on today and I still haven't figured out everything that it's capable of. I use audacity to clean up the beginnings, endings, raise volume levels and other things on my mixed songs so don't discard Audacity...it's still very useful. Good luck with it Sam and I look forward to hearing a new song recorded on the Tascam.
Farrell
I fooled around with it last night but didn't make much progress. I converted several tracks on my computer to wave files and copied them over to the Tascam. I was going to try to create a new song and import those wave files to individual tracks on the Tascam in hopes that I might be able to remix and master some of my existing songs. But I couldn't figure out how to do it. But that's just the first attempt at doing anything on it so I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I'm excited to see what this thing can do and what I can get out of it. If I can figure it out I believe it's going to be very cool and hopefully my songs will be much better quality.
Hang in there Sam. I too have a digital 8-track stand alone unit absent the onboard guitar, bass, vocal and drum programs. You're right about the length of the manuals, but if you keep messing with it, eventually, it's not all that hard to figure out. (Not to say I've got it all figured out, but I can at least put down a basic recording. The good news is that once you do figure it out, I think you'll be more than satisfied with the end product. Good luck!