I received a request: to record City at War, a 5-piece band onto a 4-track cassette deck. After recording digitally in a Brisbane studio and being unsatisfied with the result (added reverb on everything did not match the aesthetic they were going for), this band was keen to go analog. I have a tascam 414 - a neat little unit out of production by the early 00s, and had its prime in the 80s and 90s as a popular choice for home recordings. They have an illustrious history - Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, John Frusciante's Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-shirt, and Elliot Smith's Roman Candle were all recorded on such machines..
The limitation, of course, is 4 tracks, enough to make a modern recording engineer claustrophobic just thinking about it. But, practically every album from the 60s, including Jimi Hendrix's first two records, Revolver, and Sgt. Peppers were recorded onto 4 tracks (albeit large 1" ampex tape machines, not cassette). I had to do what they did and submix and make mix decisions on the spot *gasp*.
In the photo you see 2 small mixers which each combined 2 mics to one output
Track 1: Drum kit. One overhead (sm57), and one kick mic (a beat up phillips karaoke mic that was lying around).
Track 2: Bass. DI.
track 3 2 guitar amp mics (sm58) and a DI'd acoustic on some occasions.
Track 4: Vocals and keys. This track was a feed from the PA ... balancing the voice and the keyboard proved to be difficult. Vocal mic 1: Heil PR40, Vocal mic 2: Sennheiser e835.
Now, this was my first experience submixing, and it was not made any easier by being in the same room as the band with a pair of not-very-isolated headphones. A lot of it was essentially guesswork and watching the red meters on the tascam jump. I had to take a close-enough-is-good-enough approach to setting levels, and pray everything made it onto tape. Only the bass, which wallowed in luxury on it's own channel was easy.
I haven't mixed it yet, but from the first listen, it worked!
Stay tuned for sound
