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i have finally decided to move out of the world of four tracks and into the world of eight tracks. i am planning on buying a tascam 38 1/2 in reel to reel. the only thing is i am clueless about what board to get. old or new, anything will do. i don't have a huge budget (the cheaper, the better), but any suggestion would help.i will mostly be recording myself, so i don't think i'll ever need to record more than four mics (or whatever) at once. i already have a few mic pres and i was thinking about investing in some nicer ones, so the board doesn't have to have really nice pres (but i would spend more if the board did have nice pres).
one thing i don't know is: what are busses? if i'm going to be recording onto a maximum of four tracks at once with an eight track recorder, how many inputs and busses do i need? someone please help me - keep it in terms a four tracker would understand. i know my four track has a little switch with "buss" on it (and i use it all the time), but i have no idea what it really does.
hopefully someone can clear this up, and i would also love to know some specific models of boards.
i hope i'm making sence, and thanks a lot for any help.
again, any advice would be greatly apprieciated.
Follow Ups:
You will probably want an 8 bus mixer. The least expensive, but very good sounding ones would probably be Mackie and Behringer.
I'm a big Mackie Fan. They have very nice Mic Preamps on their boards. Very quiet. I would not go with a Behringer, only because Mackie sued them and lost. Again, I'm a Big Mackie fan.As far as busses go, You don't really need to have 8. Lets say you have a 16 channel mixer with 4 busses. 1-7 mics are drums and sent to buss 1. mic 8 is bass, sent to buss 2. mic 9 is lead vocals sent to buss 3 and mic 10 is lead strings sent to buss 4. then all the busses are sent to left right out. very simple. Just repeat the process until all the bands recorded.
Check out the makcie 1604VLZ 16 mic in's and 4 busses. Very nice piece for small home recording stuff. Mackie gives you lots of options on their mixers, thats why they are so versital.
One50
Busses as you are describing them are multitrack outputs. ie 8 buss console like the Mackie has eight tape outputs at once. This is further complicated by the fact that in the mackies case it also has direct outs meaning that you can record a channel direct out to the tape machine. when we talk about 12/4/2 console that means 12 input channels 4 group busses (where you would normally assign your multitrack outputs) and a stereo master buss. 24/16/2 would be 24 inputs 16 group busses and stereo buss. The benefit with busses are the ability to pan/mix signals across a stereo pair. ie you have 10 mics on a kit, but you want to end up with only two tracks as you are using a 8 track recorder. The recommendations you have recieved for consoles are resonable, the Mackie is very good for the money, the behringer is good and very cheap, but I would look out for a secondhand Allen & Heath GS3, They are selling for ridiculous prices secondhand, and in my opinion are the best console in this catagory. The Mackies mic amps are very quiet, but have a slightly "odd" quality to the sound. I can talk as I own one, amongst others.Good luck
Regards Roland
i would like to get a used board (more quality for less money). i like the looks of late 70s/early 80s stuff like teac boards. there seem to be a lot more boards that were made back then to be suited for an eight track reel to reel (obviously because the reel to reels were made back then). anyone know anything about any older brands and models - especially ones that would work well with a tascam 38 (the only specifications would be eight channels and simple features).
thanks for any help.
I have an older AHB (Allen & Heath Brothers) with a split design. 24 inputs, 16 direct outs(!), 8 busses, 3 aux sends, 16 tape returns, and big 'ol VU meters. It's a pro console with XLR mic & 1/4" line ins, inserts, pre and post aux sends, 3 band EQ w/ sweepable mids, Hi & lo cut filters, pan pots, large faders on every channel. It has an oscillator onboard, a comprehensive master section with monitor switching and an outboard power supply.I have an apartment in NYC, and this console is not small (4 1/2' wide, 3' deep), so I don't have the room to accomodate it. It is in excellent working order, and is awaiting a home. If you have an 8 or 16 track MDM, this could be just what the doctor ordered. I don't want to ship it b/c it's extremely heavy, and it would cause me pain to see it damaged in shipping. Besides I want the buyer to have the opportunity to see it and listen to it first.
Please email for pictures or more info....
You are in an FANTASTIC position if you are willing to look at used mixers. The home studio world used to be almost exclusively based around 8 track recorders, so there were many good quality 8 buss boards sold in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. I'm ignoring the low end here and will only discuss the better quality consoles. Because of the almost total abandonment of the analog 8 track studio by the home studio crowd, there are huge quantities of good quality 8 buss boards available for very little cash. The boards that I would suggest you consider all sold for between $3K and $7K or $8K; that was a LOT of money back then, so you are getting construction quality that is not available today except from a few "boutique" manufacturers.
I was in your position a couple of years ago and I found a Trident VFM 16 x 8 console. Trident was one of the top handful of pro quality consoles and even their bottom-of-the-line VFM model is constructed far better than anything Mackie has ever produced. Each channel strip is constructed on its own frame; the board consists of 26 of these modules. Each module is able to be removed and serviced without affecting the rest of the console. For anyone considering a used console, modular construction is even more important than if you were purchasing a new board. An old board is going to need, at a minimum, some basic maintenance and many good techs won't even work on non-modular boards - its just too much work to get inside the console.
Because of the rush to digital, you will have the opportunity to consider boards that would have been far too expensive a few years ago. My top recommendations would include: Soundcraft Delta, Soundcraft 600, TAC Scorpion, TAC Bullet and even the smallest MCI 400 series and Neotek Series 2 desks. (among many others) The 16x8 format was considered obsolete by the pros (too small) many years ago, but it was often the smallest size offered by many $10K to $20K consoles. Those little desks are now selling for absurdly low prices, considering their quality and remaining utility. If you are still interested in looking at used 8 buss consoles, feel free to email me off the forum. I spent a LOT of time researching this issue before I bought my little Trident (another VFM just sold for around $600 on ebay a few weeks ago!) and I'd be glad to answer any questions or make more suggestions. Good luck.
steve
lex125@pacbell.net
digital? I'm still not sure about transistors....
Some other good brands from that period (though less frequently seen) are Auditronics and ADM/Audio Designs. I picked up a 16x16x4 (yep a quad board) Auditronics board off e-bay for $100. Needed some work, but at that price...A good place to ask about boards, especially Neoteks is www.recordingconsoles.net. Just watch out that many of these will need a recap in the near future as they are around 15-20 years old. Still you get a quality you can not touch with todays little boards. Fix them up and you should get another 20 years out of them no problem.
Only problem is that a rebuild and replacing bits (general maintainance etc) could cost well over 3-4 times what the board is worth. In the UK, you can barely give away an analogue console. I recently saw a Euphonix CS2000, in excellent condition with a lot of extras, probably cost the best part of £200,000 selling for £25,000. These are great desks, and the asking price is ridiculously low. However the maintainance price is still that of a £200,000 console. If I gave you a Ferrari, you would still expect to have to find £10 - £15,000 a year to maintain it.Regards
Roland
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