Topic: Multitracking the JB3

[cregan]

-Ahoy Comrades-----------

Excellent forum, I've been poking around for a while but haven't yet posted.  Thumbs up to Bri and others who contributed to the archive, FAQ etc section.  It has been a big help.  This question has a bit of an intro...

I'm doing a recording/production based senior music thesis at a liberal arts college in maine.  We have a decent music department but no recording arts curriculum.  i.e. we have no multitrack gear (ADATs, Digi Design interfaces etc).  There is a nice audio lab that is used mostly for (gulp) MIDI compositions.  But there are nice macs running CuBase and good monitors too.  I'm currently in a bureaucratic nightmare that's basically chris vs. college budget committee to get some good toys for the dept and for my thesis project.  I'm looking for a *relatively* cheap way to do multitrack recording.  I was thinking of picking up a JB3 to record direct from a nice soundcraft mixer (M series?) that has an optical out.  This would negate the ability to edit in multi track format on a pc due to the stereo mix down from mixer->JB3.  The other option would be to lay down track by track and then mix extensively in post production on the pc.  That would involve headphone monitoring/cueing/a shit load of cd burning/copying and all that jazz.  I would much rather record a more natural "live" feel than layer too much.  Would the JB3 be able to adequately handle 8-10 sources in this case?  Is this a good approach? Would track by track be better?  Would the college chamber organization

This is an ongoing project that I'd love to share with you guys for tips and suggestions.  I'm also interested in putting the final project up for Bit Torrent.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Free Pizzas?

 

-Chris
Lewiston,ME

   

[InfiniteOhms]

crazy! what are the chances ... another person from maine?!?!??! Anyway, that would work ... but to my un-experianced mind it would seem alot esier to go directly to computer .... is there room for a desktop where you are working? Do you have a laptop or acces to one? One you have a computer at would be pretty easy to set it up with a sound card with optical in and CoolEdit Pro .... it would just save you ALOT of transfering and aligning.

[Lee]

correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you rent some kind of multitrack computer interface for a day, get all the tracks in sync in the digital realm, and then mix to taste later?

[chuckcage]

correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you rent some kind of multitrack computer interface for a day, get all the tracks in sync in the digital realm, and then mix to taste later?

This is good advice.  They day rental on an ADAT would sure be better than all the mess of trying to simulate a multi-track environment.

I use a single ADAT to record my band live, then I go lightpipe from the ADAT to my Digidesign 002R for purposes of archiving/mastering/editing, etc.  Before this, I think I tried just about every ghetto method of multitracking out there.

ADATs are sort of out of style now since ProTools hardware is so cheap.  You can get one for $250 on the used market, but you should leave some budget for repairs.  (They are tape devices, after all, and are a bit tempermental.)  The Digidesign 001 goes for $750 used, which is probably the next best step up.

There are some four to six channel cards out there cheap if you're trying to just scrape by.  However, I've found that scraping by with multitrack can be a lot harder than scraping by with stereo.  A lot of low-end computer based systems can be *really* frustrating.  Heck, even ProTools can be a pain sometimes, but it's rock solid compared to most.

If you just wanted to experiment a bit and learn, you might consider some of the older "Portastudio"-style systems, like the Boss BR-8, for example.  It only does two tracks simutaneously, but it has some neat features, and you can get free software to let you read the WAVs directly from the Zip-discs it records on, which means you can get them into ProTools (or Cubase) pretty easily.  They're about $200-$300 on the used market.

Honestly, it sounds like your best purchase bet for multichannel recording on multitrack is some kind of interface for your Cubase equipped Macs.  For the truly low $$ route, follow the above advice and rent.

Good luck -- it's a lot of fun.

Chuck