Sos online backup spool2/3/2024 It's very difficult to play back a Dbx-encoded track successfully without decoding, but tracks encoded with the simpler Dolby B system and, to some extent, Dolby C, can be played back successfully witsh an appropriate EQ curve to counteract the inherent brightness of the encoded signal.Īnother thing to check is that the playback speed of the potential purchase matches that of the one used to make the original recordings. Most cassette systems I've encountered seem to use Dbx's technology rather than Dolby B or C, but all are fairly common. It's particularly important to match up other things, such as the noise-reduction implementation, because anything recorded with NR may not play back properly without, and vice versa. If the four-track is unable to deliver four outs in any configuration, the pragmatic solution is to find a better second-hand one that does, and eBay is full of them - although bidding madness can mean that vintage gear, no matter how poor or antiquated, often costs more than it should. Effect sends can also potentially carry the signal from individual tracks, although many designs have the send fixed after the master fader, so there's no way they can be isolated from the stereo outs. For example, there might be a monitoring bus that's independent from the main outs, in which case it may be possible to use the headphone socket or associated outputs alongside the main left and right stereo outputs. With analogue transfers, it's important to record all tracks at the same time wherever possible, as shown here, where the four tracks of a Tascam Porta 05 are being recorded to computer via an RME Fireface 400 interface.Some multitracker designs have signal routing that's flexible enough to enable you to extract audio tracks even without dedicated outputs. In the worst cases the variations can cause phasing, particularly where there's spill, and they may even be severe enough to disturb synchronisation over the length of the track - which can be very difficult to fix. If all tracks are playing together, the speed changes are synchronous and not really a problem, but when they're played back separately the results can be unpredictable. Having to make multiple passes to transfer one song is a hassle, but it also creates audio problems: unlike a digital recording, which plays back according to a relatively steady clock, tape is prone to small but continuous speed fluctuations, as the assembly of moving mechanical parts spool the tape from one reel to another. The chief problem is that many tape-based multitrackers (other than open-reel types) had more tracks than outputs, so simultaneous transfer of discrete tracks isn't always possible. The quality may not have been superb, but lo-fi recordings have a certain charm and, when mastered correctly, make perfectly serviceable release material. Millions of people once owned a four-track cassette recorder/mixer combination (or Portastudio, as Tascam named the concept), as it was a cheap and simple way to produce demos, and in some cases independent releases. This being the case, many people are tempted to dig out their old multitrackers and port their archives into a software environment, so in this article I'll take a look at some of the problems and difficulties they're likely to face, and offer some practical advice. On a more practical level, once audio is encoded in WAV or AIFF format it can be ported into just about any software program, making it extremely future-proof. Noisy tape recordings can be recycled to make sample breaks, and beat-detection algorithms make it easy to develop songs that you recorded with no click. Somehow, I've never found the time or motivation to bring it all together, but there are now good reasons for having a go.įor a start, even a basic computer-based setup now makes it easy to edit and compile work for release via services like iTunes, or at least for an airing on MySpace. From my rather disparate recording activities, for example, I've accumulated a musical archive that spans at least six different formats, and that's not including the recordings I've made on review equipment. It's anyone's guess how many hours of recorded material have been abandoned in attics around the world as its creators switched to new and incompatible recording media, and never got around to copying their old work across. Take a peek into the attic of someone who's been recording for many years and you may well find a pile of old multitrack machines gathering dust, alongside some cobweb-covered quarter-inch reels of tape and stacks of Zip drives, compact cassettes and CD-R archives. We offer some advice on making the transfer. With modern DAWs, you can breathe life into the masterpieces you recorded long ago on outdated formats.
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