This is a fairly basic section geared to those that do home four track recording, and have realitivly limited equipment. It contains everything to get started, and lots of helpful techniques for those that have been at it a bit longer.
Here are the different topics you will find in this guide.
First, connect the left and right outputs on the drum machine (usually 1/4") to the stereo inputs on the four track. Now, before you reach for the trim knob, turn up the drum machine up itself, there will be less noise this way. Try not to use any EQ while recording--save any needed EQ for mixdown when you can hear the other instruments with the drums. I like running it into a compressor before going to tape. This keeps everything more even, so you can record hotter overall, and not have the snare popping up, and distorting everything. If your compressor has it, put it on the hard knee style of compression (this cuts the gain quickly, instead of gradually like a soft knee style). Get the vu meters on your recorder showing constant green, and occasional red. You can afford to go even "hotter" when you have dbx noise reduction on. When recording the drum machine, I like to keep it in stereo--taking up two tracks, but you can record onto one track (this will give you a mono drum sound like on early Jimi Hendrix stuff).
First, you want to set the kit up in the largest room possible (when I say this, I mean largest room in your house--not a 15,000 square foot warehouse). Again, you don't want to touch the EQ, until mixdown. You want to get the best possible sound by positioning the mics. For the bass drum, I recommend putting a pillow inside it to get rid of unwanted overtones, and speed up the decay. I would a mic like the Shure beta 52. Something with extended low frequency response--designed for bass instruments. You should place the mic inside the drum, about 2-3 inches from where the beater strikes. To mic the snare, I recommend a Shure SM-57. Place it at a 45 degree angle, and not pointing at any other of the pieces. next, if you want a really separated sound, you can mic each tom separately with a 57. But if you like a more plain sound, or you don't have many mics, you can skip individually miking the toms. Next, is the overheads. I recommend a Shure SM-81 condenser mic, but any dynamic mic or condenser (preferred) may be used. Place these so you don't get too much cymbals (not too high). These will also pick up the ambient room sounds. Don't add any reverb while recording, unless it's part of the sound. You want to save the reverb for mixdown. You will probably want to mix all the mics down to two stereo tracks, instead of putting each piece onto a separate track while recording.
The next thing to go to tape is usually the bass guitar. There are two ways to do this--you can either go direct, or mic the bass amp. Going direct will produce a very clean sound; miking the bass amp will provide a heavy sound, and give it more "punch". When going direct, you will want to plug into a direct box, because plugging right into the input on the fourtrack will give you a very puny sound. If you are going to mic the amp, I recommend using a mic with extended low frequency response like the Shure beta 52. The next thing you will probably want before going to tape is compression. This will even out the sound, and give it more force. You will want to set the ratio to something like 6:1; the attack at about 20 milliseconds; and the release to about a half-second. Get the levels on the vu meters constant green, and occasional red (you can go "hotter" if you have dbx noise reduction on). Once again, I don't advise adding EQ or any reverb while recording. Save it for mixdown.
Guitars can be the easiest thing to record. I like to turn the amp up LOUD and put a Shure SM-57 about five inches in front of the speaker grille, and looking at a point about 1 inch above the dead center of the speaker cone. Then I run the mic through a compressor which is connected via an insert point. There are a few other methods I have used, and can sound pretty good. The next way to do it is going direct. If you are recording clean guitars, you can usually get away with plugging the guitar directly into the mixer input. But, if the guitar is distorted, you can't do that! It will sound really crappy and harsh. You have to run it through an amp simulator first. There are all kinds of these--something like a Huges and Kettner "Red Box", or a Marshall DRP-1, I think. But, the way to record guitars it to mic an amp cranked up to 12!!! Ok, Ok, some of us do live in apartments, or have certain domestic situations that don't allow the noise, but there is still hope. The magic ingredient is air . And cranking yer big amp up to 12 isn't the only way to get that air between the amp and mic. You can get a little mini amp like those Marshall micro stacks or a "Pignose" amp. Just put the amp in a shoe box, stick the mic in there, and stick the lid on. With a little compression, and some EQ at mixdown, you can get one awesome tone! Once again, make sure you are recording as hot as you can, without distorting. And remember about dbx--it gives you more headroom, letting you record "hotter".
Getting the vocals on tape can be one of the hardest things in the process. You want to be sure to get the best mic you can (a condenser is preferred) to get the cleanest sound possible. Generally, stand about 6 from the mic so you don't overload the input. If you have a loud vocalist, make him/her stand just a bit further from the mic. If you have a quiet vocalist, make him/her stand a bit closer. If you have the facility, the headphone mix can immensely help getting the vocals recorded. If the singer is a bit quiet, you can turn him/her down in the mix, so he/she will have to sing up, to hear himself/herself over the rest of the instruments. If you have a really loud, overambitious singer, you can turn his/her voice down in the headphone mix, so he/she will do less in order to hear more of the other instruments. Another common use of the headphone mix is adding reverb so the singer can hear it, but the reverb not be recorded onto tape. It usually feels uncomfortable to sing without any reverb, but you don't want to add it while recording. You want to add it when you can hear the rest of the instruments while mixing. While recording vocals, you definitely want to use compression. Vocalists tend to change their vocal level during a performance, and it will be impossible to mix when their voice keeps popping up or dropping below all the rest of the mix. So, you want to set your compressor to the soft knee type; set the fastest attack you can; release about one half second; ratio about 4-6:1. Compressing will give you a more even signal, and as a result, you can record hotter and get a better s/n (signal to noise) ratio.
At the four track level, your options are somewhat limited here. In mixing, you can make a great song/recording sound like crap, but you can't make a poor song/performance/recording sound good. Thats why it's important to have each performance perfect because there isn't any such thing as "fixing it in the mix". First step-getting the basic levels. Put all the pan pots to center, and listen to the mix, setting the faders/sliders to their correct level. You want to be able to hear each instrument equally. Next, after you have the levels correct, start to pan things out. Put the drums center (if in mono) and the bass near the center. Place the guitars and other light things out a bit further. Stick the vocals up the middle. Do what you think sounds good. Next, you will set the EQ. You shouldn't have to add much, because you should have gotten the instruments to sound pretty close to how you wanted them while recording them. Use microphone position, a different guitar, the EQ on your amp etc... Anyway, if you still need to add a little bit, try to go easy on the high EQ, because this will add a lot of hiss to your tape. The thing to worry about while EQ'ing is that each instrument doesn't get the same sound. You want to use different EQ on each instrument. If each has the same EQ, then they all have the same tone, and the same sound!! Nothing will stand out!! As an example, if you like your cymbals bright, you need to keep your guitars dark. The object of EQ is to: give each instrument it's own sound, and give the mix enough high so it's clear but not shrill, and enough bass so it's powerful, but not muddy. The next part of the mix is outboard FX. Set up an effects loop with your reverb or effect unit. You want to give everything a bit of the same reverb so it sounds like it's coming from the same place. In the drum kit, you generally give the snare the reverb, and the toms about 2/3 - 1/2 of what the snare gets. You usually don't give the bass guitar any reverb, or the kick drum. They will get too muddy. Give the guitars and keyboards a good amount, and give vocals a a bit, without making them muddy. Oh, when you are listening to the mix during mixdown, you should turn down the volume--you will get a truer picture of what is going on at lower levels. Finally, when you think everything sounds great, clean and demagnetize the heads on the main deck and the mixdown deck. Hit record on the mixdown deck and play on the multitrack. Then take the mixdown copy and listen to it in cars, on stereos, on walkmans...If it sounds wacky, make the changes in the mix and re-record to the mixdown deck.
Backwards Echo
You can listen to almost any Led Zeppelin album, and hear this effect. Jimmy Page invented it after filpping the tape over, recording the echo, then flipping it back over. This produced a sound where the reverb would procede the sound very quietly, increase in volume and intensity, then the sound would play. This gave a very cool, erie sound. Some also refer to this effect as "preverb", and that is actually what was on the Led Zeppelin songs. Although this can be done on larger tape machines, four-trackers are at an advantage by only having to pop the tape out and put it back in on it's other side. Anyway, there are three different variations, and each is illustrated below with the word "tape". The reverb is shown in blue, and the actual attack, or sound is in red.
Preverb--("Zeppelin effect")
This looks like: tape, tapE, taPE, tAPE, TAPE
Backwards Echo
This looks like: TAPE EPAT, EPAt, EPat, Epat, epat
Backwards Echo Before the Attack
This looks like: EPAT, EPAt, EPat, Epat, epat TAPE
Radio Voice
Well, this one gives the effect that the voice is from the radio....bet you wouldn't have guessed that. There are a few ways of doing this.
There are two ways to get more tracks with a four track. You can do a bounce on the machine, or you can mixdown to another deck and go back onto your machine. The first method, most machines can do. You have something on the first three tracks lets say one, two, and three. You mix those together and record them onto track four. Then you have a copy of one, two, and three, on track four. Now, you have tracks one, two, and three to record onto again. This method has it's downsides--the mix will be in mono, you can't pan things out. And, it can be a bit noisy if you do it a few times. You should look in the manual of your machine to get the specifics of this process. The second method involves a second deck. You mix the four tracks you recorded down to two stereo tracks on another machine. Then you take those two tracks and copy them back onto two tracks on your four track-freeing up two more tracks. Here is an example. I have stereo drums on tracks one and two. I have the bass guitar on track three, and guitar on four. I mix these down to the hard drive on my computer in stereo (taking up two tracks on my computer). Then I copy the two tracks onto tracks one and two of my four track. Then I have tracks three and four for the guitar solo and vocals. You can do this with a cassette deck, but I strongly recommend using a digital source such as a DAT or the hard drive on your computer via a sound card. I use my computer.
Ok, in closing, use fresh tape to record on. Tape wears out, and then gives bad frequency response. Always run your deck at high speed, if you can. This will give you a better signal to noise ratio. If it has some kind of noise reduction system, that would probably be good to use also. But, most important--Always keep your machine clean. Clean the tape heads before a session, after one, when you take a break, right before an important take...it's worth it. There is no such thing as over cleaning. The cleaner is cheap-you can buy teac head cleaner from mail order catalogs--and get q-tips (Johnson & Johnson is probably a good brand) anywhere. Also remember to clean the pinch roller--it gets dirty also. Use separately designed rubber cleaner though. Don't use the head cleaner. Ok...ummmm.....oh! If your deck has auto punch in/out, a good time to use it is for putting a guitar solo on the vocal track in between singing. Well, Thats all I can think of now. Remember this:
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, and I will try to answer them.