Recording Advice

recording advice for my friend Hanson

record at the fastest speed possible. good tascam four track machines have two recording / playback speeds. try to use 3 3/4 inches per second, IPS for short. Normal tape speed, aka your Prince "sign of the times" tape, is at 1 7/8 IPS. Faster speed means less information per inch of tape. cramming information into small spaces compresses it. sure you save tape and money by having the machine run slowly. but how cheap are you and how serious are you about getting a good recording? a bad recording is useless. so you could have a closet full of bad tapes, but you saved some money. ok enuff, here, buy good tapes too, look for HI bias, not normal, look for chrome / metal tapes. heres a bit from wiki on it: Metal Cassettes (IEC Type IV) also use 70 µs playback equalization, and provide still further improvements in sound quality. The quality is normally reflected in the price; Type I cassettes are generally cheapest, and Type IV usually the most expensive. BASF chrome tape used in commercially pre-recorded cassettes used 120 µs (type I) playback equalization to allow greater high frequency dynamic range for better sound quality. see there?
Longer length tapes are not advisable. use shorter tape length, 60 minute tapes to me are too long, much more vulnerable to stretching and breaking and dragging. seriously, use shorter tapes.
and pay attention to when it might run out while recording.

If you are lucky enough to use a 4 track machine, which doesnt take much luck as they are out of fashion and all over ebay and pawn shops and craigslist for under 100$, even 50$, and you are recording live room sound, like you playing guitar with a keyboard drum machine flowing at the same time and youre using your left big toe to scratch a record on a toy turntable, then by all means record on all four tracks at the same time. this means you need 4 mics. put them in different places. test it out, go back and listen with headphones. raise and lower each tracks volume to see what is what, what mic is good, what mic sucks, where best placement is... if you are using an amp that has an output, you might wanna try hooking that up to the 4 track direct too... direct input and mic input into a recorder will result in big differences. direct in is typically cleaner sounding.
some alternatives for typical microphones are A) perhaps you have a VHS camcorder other camcorder... use whatever wires you need to get the sound flowing into the 4 track... i use to use a vhs camcorder, turn it on, face it to the noise, use RCA (red and white) cables out and into the 4 track, nice recording that way, they typically use condenser microphones which pick up everything. speakers can also be microphones, but only in a non feedback kinda way are they very useful. wire a speaker up and connect it to the input of a recording device, use headphones on the output of recording device, and you eliminate feedback.

one touch recording (pushing play and record and being done with it) is also very awesome. radio shack tape recorders and older boom boxes have built in microphones which are usually condenser mics. great stuff.

Do NOT use EQ when recording. an EQ pedal in your pedal chain is AWESOME by the way, can really change your sounds, but on the 4 track leave all the EQ right in the middle if at all possible. play with the EQ a lot when youre taking that tape and playing it / mixing it into a normal tape deck.

use headphones out of your tape deck. 4 track left and right into input left and right of standard tape deck. use the EQ on 4 track machine. playback a few times, check it out, monitor sounds and play with panning and eq and speed. sometimes 4 track machines have a pitch dial. its kinda awesome.

make it loud. get the red bars to come up here and there. not constant all the way to the top, unless you try that out and like it. but keep it in the yellow and red is what i say. go open up 2 myspace music pages at the same time and let them compete, you can see what i mean. most guymen tracks up there are pretty freaking loud for mp3's, i think so anyway. (its been a while since i checked it out)

if you transfer your sounds to a computer then you should first make it into an AIFF or a WAV file. both are good. cd quality. later on for sharing purposes turn them into mp3's, but only for emailing to people and for sharing on myspace. save your WAV files and burn them onto a disc as an audio cd for back up. and save your original tape if you really like it.

keep your master copy tapes away from magnets like TV's and speakers. magnets will destroy the sound that you recorded, over time even a weak small magnet will erase your tapes. keep them dry.

probably missed some good points but uh i just wanted to do this. its the sharing bug. finally bitten by it.

monday dec 7th never forget playlist

stereolab - enivrez - vous
(Get Drunk! (translation)
One must always be drunk, that is all, our sole purpose. In order not to feel the horrible burden of time which hunches us over towards the ground, one must get drunk right away. But drunk on what? On wine, on poetry, or on virtue it's up to you, but get drunk. And if sometimes on the steps of a castle, on the green grass of a ditch, or in the dismal solitude of your room you wake up, the drunkeness already diminished or gone, ask the wind, a wave, a star, a bird, a clock, whatever flees, whatever moans, whatever rolls, whatever sings, whatever talks, ask it for the time. And the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clockwill reply thus:"'Tis time to get drunk! In order not to become the tormented slaves of time, get drunk constantly. On wine, on poetry or on virtue, it's up to you.")

tribe - why (ono)

social junk - jail

king crimson - elephant talk

lou reed - pale blue eyes

the fall - paint work; i am damo suzuki

The Black Twig Pickers - crossing the james

Basokin - mulume

Acid Mothers Temple SWR - The Condition Of International Job Hunting Activity

A.M. Salad - Tunic Lupus

ELO - turn to stone

Flipper - shed no tears

Fuckwolf - What A Fuck

Geeshie Wiley - Last kind word blues

the califone player wouldnt keep the speed correct, so i went back home and scored normal turntable and a realistic mixer. today i opened up another califone i have and figured out i just need a fuse to make it work.

soon to be on kaosradioaustin.org

१२ ०३ ०९ मूसे

12 03 09 moose lodge show:

How I Quit Crack
Night Viking
Telepathik Friend
Computer Jesus Refridgerator

/what i played\
Peaking Lights; side b of 'imaginary falcons'
The Residents; the sleeper, anvil forest
Delisa Sibiya; Uyongilobola ngani? (from 'zulu songs from south africa')
Mulatu Astatke; asmarina
Laurie Anderson; from the air
Rahdunes; rivers in egypt set sail
PIL; go back
Indian Jewelry, zing zang
Yukhonic; what we feel is necessary
some japanese noise 7" from 90's magazine.. otomo + eye + others.. not sure
Profax; bona fide
A.S.D.; 222
Nautical Almanac; orange & green picture disc
Music From The Morning Of The World; balinese gamelan
The Residents; lights out
Pain Jerk; gadget bondage
Remnant Sisters; this train
Les Georges Leningrad; supa doopa
Indian Jewelry; lost my sight 7"
Acid Mothers Temple; stargate of the hell
Konono #1; kule kule
Maja S.K. Ratkje + Lasse Marhaug; music for shopping
Celina Y Reutilio

११ ३० ०९ मूसे

SERIOUSLY? HINDI??

set list, roughly, at monday night moose w/ jonathon horne...

Yello; no more words
King Tubby; rebel dance
Screenbred; i heard god today
Diamanda Galas; sono L'Antichristo
Silver Apples; love fingers
Mulatu Astatke; yekermo sew
Baaba Maal & Taj Mahal; trouble sleep yanga wake am
(from fela tribute red, hot & riot)
Expo70; cognac smoke
Rahdunes; head of clouds
Danielle Lemair; in my memory
Danielle Lemair; lazer beams
Qu'ran recital from Music in the world of Islam
Trans Am; illegal ass (played at 33)
--
at this point Ralph Barton, aka Bubblegum Shitface, took the stage and proceeded to "perform" the following: (audience folk spun a wheel to determine what exactly)

"whistling"
"noise singing"
"shit knife"
"really bad song" (nelly, ride with me)
"song i've never played. (i try to push it on someone else)"
(and he did that, pushed it on matt tilly)
"smokercize"
(smokers got to exercise while smoking w/ Ralph as instructor)
"iceburgs in july"
"almost 40"
--
back to playlist;
sam & joe; save the children (fear of smell)
the Ex; stop stupid competition
Fear; lets have a war
Moondog; theme
MC ADE; bass rock express

something like that. the end seems unlikely order...