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Making your first recording
...............
Mixdown
For mixdown, it’s a good idea to use speakers,
rather than headphones, so turn the speakers
back on.
Unplug the headphones to achieve the best
sound quality from the [LINE OUT].
Mixing levels
When you’re mixing down, make sure that the
master meter’s [+6] indicator is only lighting in
the louder passages. If it is continuously lit,
you will overload the amplifier of the CR-4 and
cause distortion.
If you’re recording to a digital recorder (such as
a CD or MD recorder), remember that digital
distortion is extremely unpleasant—you
should adjust the input levels of your recorder
or (if it has no recording level controls) the
[MASTER] fader).
On the other hand, if you make the recording
too quiet, you may hear background noises
and tape hiss which you don’t want.
You may want to move the [MASTER] fader to
about the [4] position, and get a balance before
adjusting the master level.
There are no absolute rules for mixing, but you
should try to avoid making one part too loud at
the expense of all the others.
Mix positions
You can also use the [PAN] controls to position
the different tracks in the mix.
Typically, lead vocals reside in the center,
equally balanced between the left and right
channels.
If you have recorded a stereo source (stereo
rhythm machine, synthesizer, etc.) on two
tracks, you will probably want to pan these
tracks hard left and hard right to keep the orig-
inal stereo image produced by the source.
Typically, the aim is to make the listeners feel
as though they are “really there”, listening to
the original performance, but you can often use
pan positions for special effects, and an unnat-
ural pan position (or change to the pan posi-
tion) is an attention-grabber. Remember that
people listening on mono equipment (AM
radio, etc.) won’t hear the benefits of this,
though.
Making the mix
When you’ve adjusted the level, you should:
1 Rewind the CR-4 tape to a little before the
start of your recording.
2 If you’re mixing to a tape, rewind the ste-
reo tape to a little before you want to start
the mix (you don’t need to do this if you’re
recording to disc). Put your stereo recorder
in record ready mode.
3 Play back the CR-4 tape, and if your stereo
recorder has meters, watch them carefully
at the loudest parts to make sure that you
are not recording at too high a volume.
Adjust the recording level (or if your stereo
recorder has no recording level controls,
lower the CR-4’s [MASTER] fader).
4 Rewind the CR-4 tape to a little before the
start of your song.
5 Play back your CR-4 tape.
6 Start recording on your stereo recorder in
the quiet passage before the song actually
starts.
7 At the end of the song, stop your recorder,
and then stop the CR-4 tape.
8 You can now listen to the mixed tape. It’s
quite possible that you will not get it per-
fectly right first time, so be prepared to do
it again (and again!) until you get it right.
When you’ve finished, we suggest you
clean the tape heads of your CR-4 before
turning it off and putting it away.