Bouncing Tracks on original 424 portastudio

[aristotle chang]

I am recording on an old Tascam 424 (not mkII or mkIII) and i am having trouble bouncing tracks. i understand basically what to do, but i think i am missing a step that is lowering the quality of the final track.

my specific situation is this: i recorded drums with two microphones, one for bass drum and one for overhead, and each mike was recorded to a separate track ( overhead is on track 3, bass drum is on track 4). i flipped the tracks from mic to tape mode to mix down the two tracks into one drum track so that i would have room for the other instruments. i planned on putting them into track one, so i panned both 3 and 4 hard left and set track 1 to the left position. the drums recorded to track one, but the volume and overall clarity of drums, particularly the symbals, is gone. when i listen to to tracks 3 and 4 in mixing mode, then mute them and listen to track 1 instead at the same volume, the quality is gone.

to make a long story much shorter, i need to know the exact procedure for bouncing tracks together on an original portastudio 424. i want to know where every knob and switch has to be in order to correctly bounce the track.

if anyone has a pdf of any form of the manual for the original portastudio 424 and can send it to me or tell me where to find it online, i would be beyond greatful. after much searching it seems as if it doesn't exist.

thanks!!!

 

[CDT]

I have an original 424 and manual at home. I'll try and get the info for you tonight or early this weekend.

 

[nysbob]

I'm going to hazard a guess that the problem might lie with combining the stereo drum tracks... If you used two overheads there might be phasing or time differential issues that really present themselves when you try to combine them.

I had a Tascam 246 for quite a while and did a lot of track bouncing, but tracked everything in mono including drums. You might try taking the best sounding of your two drum tracks and try bouncing that.

OK, I just reread your initial post and you were using a kick & overhead - that should work OK . I think once you put recorded tracks in playback mode, you can add more EQ on the bounce - you might try adding some top because bouncing dulls things down. If you're using DBX (my machine had it) leave it on the whole time. Were you getting decent meter level on the bounce-to track?