From: gse9k@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Scott Evans)
Subject: My 4-track method  [was 4-Track recording/mixing]
Reply-To: thrash@virginia.edu (Scott Evans)
Organization: or lack thereof
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:19:16 GMT

In r.m.m.bass, Joe wrote: 

> I recently bought a 4 Track recorder, and have no idea how to use it.
> Does anyone have any rocording tips they could post on how to
> use/record/mix/edit/play with a 4-track?  If so, please post.


I figured I'd put this over on rec.music.makers as well.  Let me just
preface this by saying that this post sort of assumes that you're 
experienced at getting decent sounds from your equipment, etc, since
that's a whole different thread.  My very quick thoughts on that:
life is much easier, at first, going direct.  Run the guitar though
a distortion pedal or whatever, set the levels, adjust the 4-track
eq's, and go for it.  Similarly, using a drum machine makes drum
sounds real easy too.  I'm not saying that these are the things you
should all use all the time, just that it's *much* easier to just 
plug things in, direct, and experiment with 4-track techniques, since
there's one less variable to deal with.  Now, moving on....



This is the method I've used for some time now to record stuff on
4-track.  It works well for bands with a "standard" drums, bass,
guitar, vox setup.

I have a Fostex X-26, a pretty basic 4-track with 6 inputs and an
effects loop.  It can only record 2 tracks at a time.  The multiple
inputs help, as does the effects loop.  But even without this stuff,
the overall idea of this process can be helpful.


Record drums on TWO tracks, if you can get them in stereo.  That is, if
you're using a drum machine with stereo out, use 'em both.  If you're
using a real drummer and have a few mics, x-y the room the drums are in
and put em down in stereo.  This really contributes to a "big" sound.
If you have a lot of mics you can mic up most of the kit and run
specific mics through effects, but for this type of recording I find
this to be a lot of trouble.  If you are using real drums, you'll
probably need to have your bassist or guitarist plug into something
with a headphone output and play along.

Next, put down the bass on the 3rd track and rhythm guitar on the 4th.
If you've got an effects loop and are thinking of printing reverb or
chorus on the guitar, it's not necessary (see next step).

So you've got drums, guitar, and bass, and they're taking up all the
damn tracks.  Now the cool part.  Mix that stuff onto a good normal
cassette deck.  The result will be a tape that has the above 4 tracks
all mixed down onto two, and they're in stereo, unlike when you
"bounce" them.  Neat.  But there's more.  This is the place to put
things like reverb and chorus on the guitar through the effects loop,
because the effect will be in stereo, which sounds *much* better; also,
you're not committed to any given level of any given effect.

[ And on the X-26, at least, there's another cool trick;  you can take
  the output of one track (from the individual track outputs) and put it
  back into one of the two non-mixer inputs (inputs 1 and 2 on the x-26).
  Then you can pan that input all the way to, say, the left and pan the
  "mix" pot for that track all the way to the right.  So, for example, 
  if you did this with the guitar track, you would end up with the 
  guitar fully panned to both speakers rather than at the "center" mark;
  believe it or not, this makes a big difference.  You can even put that
  single output through a stereo effect and take both its outputs into 
  the two non-mixer inputs, which means that you have a big stereo
  effect sound;  useful if you want only that one track to have a
  certain effect. ]


Anyway, so now you've got 2 more tracks to play with.  You can use
these for vocals, backup vocals, and solos, say.  Again, no need to
print effects if you have an effects loop; they'll sound much better in
stereo through the loop.  Mix that down with tracks 1 & 2 panned hard
left and right, respectively, and you should have a nice, big-sounding
tape.  [ The same x-26 tricks apply if you want the vox to sound nice
and wide. ]


So, that's it...sorry it was so long.  If anyone has any questions
about this, feel free to mail me.