Zoom H-4 Multi-Tracking

[Roger Light]

Let me preface this post by telling my ignorance of multitrack recording. I've never even had an old 4 track analog. So, I buy this new gadget (Zoom H-4).
I set down last night and record on track 1 some vocals and guitar, track 2 I add some bass, track 3 some harmony vocals, and track 4 I add some Steel. So I think this is really cool! Then I mixed and created a bounce file of all 4 tracks...this is where I went "south". How does one assign that bounce file to another track so I can keep adding other tracks? I seem to have lost tracks 1 through 3 somehow . David L. Donald, can you help? You seem really knowledgable about these things
Thanks, Rog

[Tony Prior]

Roger, this is simple. The basic premise of a 4 track is that you have a total of 4 tracks available.

If you record a separate Instrument on each of the 4 tracks you have used them all up, nowhere to bounce to.

here's the deal, you record on 3 traccks( 1 thru 3 ) and bounce all 3 recorded tracks to the unrecorded 4th track.

Now you have a track ( track 4 ) with all 3 Instruments on it leaving 3 available for more stuff.

Now you start over, add stuff , re-recording on track 1 and 2, you bounce those to track 3..

Now you have 3 Instruments on track 4 and 2 on track 3 for a total of 6. You can now bounce track 3 and 4 back to track 1, giving you all 6 Instruments on 1 track...and again leaving 3 tracks available, 2,3 and 4 for new stuff.

it gets a little wacky but the concept is pretty good.

To bounce recorded tracks you need an open unrecorded track to bounce to.

good luck, don't go insane...

tp

[Roger Light]

Dang, I really feel dumb I was thinking you could combine 4 and bounce them to a new project. That explains why it erased 1. Thanks Tony

[David L. Donald]

What Tony said is correct.

Though I have not used the H4 for multi-tracking as yet,
I really have no need to with a full Protools studio,
The basic premise is what Tony said.

The other variation is doing 2 tracks at a time.
As noted in the H4 manual. Which seems reasonably clear to me.

Record drum machine and bass together stereo t1 & t2.

The WHILE bouncing to t3 & t4 play a rythmn guitar
or keyboard line 'perfectly', or at least acceptably...
Pan that as you see fit.

Making sure during rehearsal for the take that
the levels and tone balance are correct relative
to the bass drum and bass.

Then bounce BACK to t1 & t2 WHILE playing electric lead and/or rhthmn guitar.
Pan it a little L or R, don't leave everything dead center, makes for muddle.
And checking the sound / tone relative to the bass AND guitar or keyboard track.

Then you have a nice basic rythmn section.
to do Steel and Lead guitar.
Same modus operandi, check each track and it's modification to make sure it all fits.

Now when you have a basic rythmn section you have
2 tracks free for a lead vocal and 1 harmony.
Of course you could bounce them down too in stereo,
and add 2 more harmonies.

The biggest thing is to imagine ahead of time,
the eq, effects and placement in the mix of your elements.

VERY good to do a total inst/track list,
and note how you want each to sound
and where it will be placed.
Including; volume, pan, tonal balance
and artificial environment' (reverb, echo, phasing effects etc)...
Use a light hand on effects.

Also experiment with the microphone emulators,
there are several good mic styles available there.
And each can add 'differentiation' between recorded tracks sounds.

The 1st time you do this, you will likely find
that you have built up some frequency band too much,
likely the lower mids, 500-800 hz and get a muddy sound.

Second time around you will them be listening;
both Minds EAR and Real EAR for this region,
and compensate with your recording EQ,
as you lay each track.

It DOES take some practice,
but I have no doubts that
the Zoom can, in the right hands,
create a 12-20 track recording that could
be played on the radio.

[Tony Prior]

ah yes, I completley forgot, David mentions adding yet another LIVE take to the bounced track, sorry for overlooking that.

There ya go, you can add yet another Instrument to the bounced track..

Using an 8 and a 16 tracker the past few years separates me from the days when I did all this on a two track, then a 4 track..when my mind was able to go farther ahead of where I actually was...

But my mind has been seaprated from many things over the years, this is just one of them

My very first multi take recorder was a Sony 350, A 7" Stereo with Sound on Sound..then I went to some sort of Ampex..I used them both for multi tracking, there were times you could actually make out the Music above the noise !

Then one day Tascam came out with the 144/4 track with all the bouncing and stuff..I bought one right away..I think I paid $899

what a deal

A well planned session with those early 4 tracks really gave very nice results...I think Springsteen did part or maybe an entire album on a tascam 144..

4 Tracks RULE !

well, until you get 8 or 16, or 24, or 32..etc....

[David L. Donald]

I cut most of my multi track Eye teeth
with a Scully 1" 8 chan and bouncing to a PCM-F1 digital unit.

Do the rhythm section to 8 tracks get a nice mix,
leaving some sonic space for the vocal range,
bounce to the digital and then back to
2 middle tracks of the 8 track.

Then add vocals and such.
Sometimes with sub bounces within the 8.
Sometimes with another stereo bounce to digital.

I was told I fooled Todd Rundgren 3 times running with my 8 track work with his girlfriend's backing band,
into thinking it was 2" -24 track.
And this was listened to in HIS control room.
I can't complain...

(I of course bounced to the non-adjacent
tracks
of the 8 track, and to 1/4" tape,
prior to the digital unit arriving.)

[erik]

I own a ZOOM PS-02 and plan on purchasing a MRS-8. It appears the model you purchased is only a 4-track recorder. Had you purchased any of the "multi-track" versions you would be able to, yes, records all tracks THEN bounce digitally to two sub tracks. MY PS-02 allows 3 tracks, then a bounce to 2 stereo or 1 mono which frees up 1 or 2 tracks respectively. According to the website your recorder can dump those tracks into a daw on your computer for mixing which by design is included with your recorder. Did it not come with Cubase LE? Get that software up and running in your computer and dump your tracks in. Then maybe you can send 1 mixed track back into the recorder to overdub more parts then dump those back into your computer so that now you'll have 7 tracks.