"If I can't figure out how to work this thing since everyone here knows (what did you call him? 4 track) I'm gonna get one of you guys to help me find out where he lives and I'm gonna make Buster take an 18 wheeler load to where he lives and I'll have Buster sit on him until he shows me how to work this contraction."

If buster has to go through death valley to get here, have him bring me a rock.

"Is this the same guy that rants and raves about copywrite? "

Nope

"Sir, if you are the same gentleman I'm thinking of, please forget everything I said and I relly apologzize if I hurt your feelings. Really!"

Finally we somewhat agree on something, as I feel sorry for you as well. Really!

------------------------------------------

Now that we all agree...what are your major issues with the recorder, what other gear are you working with ( mixer, mics and so on ).

As your going to be combining live sax with some keyboard backing, your going to have to pay much mind to get them to meld somewhat natural. Right off I would say with backing, go for two parts. First part being drums and bass..get those in order on your keyboard, then record them to the tascam across two tracks. After that layer other filler flesh out parts directly to the recorder. Main reason for this...while you could stack everything in the keyboard then just record the entire backing to two tracks, you would lose some after the fact mixing control (regardless of you mixing freedoms within the keyboard ). Heck you could record all parts independent, you can do anything anyhow any order.

For your sax...HAVE to go with two channels, while mono is workable and fine...a close mic and a room mic with a sax ( and many other random things ) would be great. PLUS it could kill any need for any type of reverb effects blah blah blah and so on, as you would have a great natural sound tracked in the first place. On top of that two mics would help balance it with the keyboard parts, as most of those should be ( or at least the piano voice of your board ) in stereo.

In relation to the natural sax and the harsher sound of the keyboard, you can get a feel for the dynamics of your recorded sax parts...and match your keyboards effects before the fact to fit better with the sax.

Thank you so much friend. I like the idea of a mic in the middle of the room. I'll experiment. That never crossed my mind. Natural reverb.

I have sequences I've done with my keyboard to play live. I intend to record the sequences straight into the Tascom, which hasn't arrived yet, and record the sax on a different track. Did you say record the sax on two tracks?

Like I mentioned before, Honky Tonk, Nighttrain and tunes that are played forte in the middle of the horn are much easier to record. The problem is the low C, B, and Bb being play in a sub-tone on slow pretty ballads, which are hard notes to pick up.

What about a mic by the bell, another mic at the bottom near the big key holes on the low notes and a room mic. Do you think this would be too many mics.

You know your business I can see. I'm glad we're friends now, friend! I'm elated that I didn't delete this post as I almost did yesterday.

I like to joke around, but I don't like the long drawn out arguments. Thanks for your experience. If you want to know how to lay bricks, send me an email.
Boo Hargis

"Thank you so much friend. I like the idea of a mic in the middle of the room. I'll experiment. That never crossed my mind. Natural reverb."

Yeah your gonna have eight tracks, PLUS with what your doing with the keyboard...no reason not to take advantage of it.

"I have sequences I've done with my keyboard to play live. I intend to record the sequences straight into the Tascom, which hasn't arrived yet, and record the sax on a different track. Did you say record the sax on two tracks? "

Yup two tracks. Also record the keyboard on two ( pointless to say, lol but ive seen some folks sequence 16 tracks on a keyboard only to record the mono left ":/ ). ALSO check this...after you have your stereo keyboard tracks on the recorder, you can copy paste those two tracks to two more tracks ( lots of twos ). If you do this...you have the freedom for multi EQs, multi pans and so on.

Example of the advantage you would get with copy and paste is. Recall how I stated you could record everything independent to have greater control over the mix...well you can get the same results in part by doing this. For rough example lets say your keyboard has (drums,bass,organ,piano). WELL on your first two tracks, you could focus on EQing the (drums,bass >...on the other two tracks ( the copy pasted ones ), you could focus on EQing the (organ, piano).

Just more freedom for you to get what you want

"Like I mentioned before, Honky Tonk, Nighttrain and tunes that are played forte in the middle of the horn are much easier to record. The problem is the low C, B, and Bb being play in a sub-tone on slow pretty ballads, which are hard notes to pick up."

Ok check this out your close mic should be about a foot from the bell, low notes are HARD to pick up super close...you need a bit of space for the wave to develop where it can be picked up. Foot away on the close in combo with a room mic you shouldnt have a problem. This is one of the reasons multi mics is good...you dont have to capture EVERYTHING with one mic on one track, you have the freedom to mix multi sources to get one sound.

Also play around with your EQs on your mixer/recorder slightly to help pick up the notes you need. Some might tell you to record flat then add EQs in the mix, BUT why use EQs only after you recorded? Try to track the sound you want in the first place, boosting EQs and so on while tracking is going to yield dramatically different results then if you just EQ a recorded source. Only once again...your open to do whatever whenever however.

Speaking of EQs...depending on a ton of factors ( the room, the mics, the mixer ) your gonna run into some noise issues, also the factor of recording at a 16bit sample rate is going to lead to some things perhaps sounding a bit off. MOST all your noise is going to happen in the high eq range ( the room mic will suffer the worse from this ). So if you have some shhhhhhhhh or whatever on your track, roll the high EQ back a bit. You should be able to almost completely kill any unwanted noise, just know there is a balance of killing noise and keeping your frequency range open enough so you dont lose whatever good sound that is there.

"What about a mic by the bell, another mic at the bottom near the big key holes on the low notes and a room mic. Do you think this would be too many mics."

If you think you can swing it, I would say try it at the very least. Just know this, mic near the keyholes shouldn't be very predominant in the mix. More or less a general mix with three mics...I would put the close mix front and center, then soft pan the other two mics left and right and adjust their levels. With two mics room and close, I would soft pan and balance them.

The only slight issue your going to run into with three mics, the tascam only has two inputs...so you would be dependent on externally mixing the three tracks into two tracks to send to the recorder. NOT that big of a deal JUST if you do this your gonna have to make sure you track near exactly how you want the end result, as your doing a mini mix while tracking.

"You know your business I can see. I'm glad we're friends now, friend! I'm elated that I didn't delete this post as I almost did yesterday. "

hahaha no worries

"I like to joke around, but I don't like the long drawn out arguments. Thanks for your experience. If you want to know how to lay bricks, send me an email.
Boo Hargis"

Man you know...there might just be a point in time "


[This message has been edited by Alone&Forsaken (edited 01-05-2005).]

Hey friend change your name from Alone&Forsaken to Ready,Willing&Able. Or I can help! Anything but Alone&Forsaken. Your gonna be valuable here. Just practice what Dave and I are learning to do and calm down a little bit if you read something you don't like> It ain't worth it. You'll sleep better. I know I am since I've been working on what I call my anger stress problem.
Read my other post about the Tascam arriving.

"Hey friend change your name from Alone&Forsaken to Ready,Willing&Able. Or I can help! Anything but Alone&Forsaken. Your gonna be valuable here. Just practice what Dave and I are learning to do and calm down a little bit if you read something you don't like> It ain't worth it. You'll sleep better. I know I am since I've been working on what I call my anger stress problem.
Read my other post about the Tascam arriving."


Well, thanks but its just random bit of info. As for my user name, its the title of a Hank song...that to spite all the hank in my collection hit me real hard some time back.

Ill go check that other post now.