Mixing on the Tascam M3700 mixing console

A quick mix on the Tascam M3700 mixing console and MSR16 Reel to Reel multitrack machine to demonstrate how easy the console is to use and how analog mixing works compared to digital. No DAW will be used, no screens just pure analog hardware.
The band is Civil Service and this is the second song from their album we recorded earlier in the year. You can check them out here:-
Insta: @civilservicetheband
Spotify: open.spotify.c...

[@MrPlayerPerson]

This mix video reminds me of my analog days with a Teac 85-16 1" tape deck and my ancient Teac M15 mixing board into my Tascam 32-2 1/4" tape deck. In the late 1980's my set up was considered "state of the art". I had set up patch bays and slowly bought Alesis compressors and Eq's as well as 4 Yamaha SPX 900 and 1 Yamaha SPX1000, I did not eq or compress my recording sessions. I was in recording studio heaven and proud to say that the bands I recorded with had mixes that rivaled the 24 & 32 track studios in town. Today I use Pro Tools with a Tascam DM3200 mixing console and I still have all the external effects that still serve me well. I still do not eq or compress when I record, because I want to keep my option wide open. Great Video and thank you for taking me down memory lane.

[@SolidMusicCol]

I have the same mix desk 🥰

[@Zogger-Rogger]

Nice work 👍

[@380stroker]

Why don't you just record all the multitracks from the multitrack tape as seperate tracks on pro tools or what have you. Then use those digital tracks to mix everything on the board. Then when everything sounds perfect, plug the multitrack tape machine back to the mixing board for final tweeks and you'll be close to done without having to keep rewinding the tape and degrading it. It basically just saves you from playing the tape over and over. The digital multitracks will be deleted and not used for anything other than prepping the mixing console for the tape multitrack final tweeks. If i had a tape machine (I wish!) that's what I'd do to save time and tape degradation. This method will produce an end product that's digital stereo directly from the analog tape multitracks.

[@guerrillastudiosmanchester]

Good question! We tried various hybrid setups and found keeping everything analog as far into the process as possible produced the best results. Tape degradation wasn't really a factor. In fact after the session we will erase the tape and use it again. We can do this for several sessions and have yet to see a noticeable reduction in fidelity. Compared to the degradation of a digital conversion which is very audible. Converting each individual track compounds the digital degradation of all the signals. We found if we leave any digital conversion until the final stereo mix down it keeps this to a minimum. Also its way more fun without protools!

[@MrPlayerPerson]

@@guerrillastudiosmanchester One of the major differences between analog and digital is frequencies response: Digital has a high pass and low pass filter (bandpass) set at 20hz to 20,000k, Analog 5 hz to 35,000+ hz and has no high pass or low pass filter to funnel the sound. As an example, I have a pair of original 1980s Yamaha NS 10 Monitors and I bought a Yamaha CA810 amplifier recently, well its playback frequency goes from 5 hz to 100,000 hz it does not limit high frequencies like digital. Also over the years, I have converted a lot of my recording projects from Analog 1/4 tape to DAT and surprisingly, there are slight changes that occur to the sound of the recording mostly in the high-end which is audible to the ear, and here's why: sampling at 48k a frequency recorded at 60 hz frequency gets sampled 800 times. (48000/60= 800), a sample at 16000 hz gets sampled only 3 times (48000/16000=3), the sample rate in the high frequencies is a downward slope that diminishes the fidelity of high frequencies, which is why big studios use sample rates of 96k hz or 120khz to try to preserve the high end in their recording. The resurgence of vinyl records, turntables, and analog amplifiers is slowly coming back, particularly Half-Speed Mastered Vinyl the sound quality is noticeably a little better.

[@MrPlayerPerson]

In the 1980's Fleetwood Mac (Keith Olsen) and Michael Jackson (Bruce Swedien) would have access to two 24 track tape machines and they would create a "Master Tape" so all the final takes would be transferred to the master tape to retain the full fidelity and brightness of the original track. The mixes would be created on the working tape and once they were finalized they would switch to the master tape, do a few tweaks, and then print the final mix. "Old School" recording from the masters. Watch the movie "Sound City" for more interesting approaches to analog recording. Also read up on George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Alan Parsons, Glyn Johns and Ken Scott, the Abbey Road Beatles Engineers, lots to learn from them.