23EURODESK SX4882 User Manual

16.Professional 24-Track Studio

16.1 Recording

Chances are you’ll occasionally want to record more than eight tracks at once, e.g. ou’re recording a band playing together live. The following example covers a rock band with drums, bass, two guitars, percussionist, brass section, lead and backing vocals. In the real world, you’ll hardly ever be taking all these artists at once, but if you are:

Channels

Source

Route

Destination

1

Kick

Direct out

Track 2

2

Snare

Direct out

Track 3

3

Hi Hat

Direct out

Track 4

4

Tom 1

Subgroups 5 and 6

Tracks 5 and 6

5

Tom 2

Subgroups 5 and 6

Tracks 5 and 6

6

Tom 3

Subgroups 5 and 6

Tracks 5 and 6

7

Tom 4

Subgroups 5 and 6

Tracks 5 and 6

8

Cymbals (overheads) L

Direct out

Track 7

9

Cymbals (overheads) R

Direct out

Track 8

10

Bass microphone

Subgroup 3

Track 1

11

Bass DI

Subgroup 3

Track 1

12

Escaping prisoners

Subgroup 4

Who knows?

13

Trumpet

Subgroups 1 and 2

Tracks 9 and 10

14

Trombone

Subgroups 1 and 2

Tracks 9 and 10

15

Sax

Subgroups 1 and 2

Tracks 9 and 10

16

BVs 1

Subgroups 7 and 8

Tracks 11 and 12

17

BVs 2

Subgroups 7 and 8

Tracks 11 and 12

18

BVs 3

Subgroups 7 and 8

Tracks 11 and 12

19

Conga L

Direct out

Track 13

20

Conga R

Direct out

Track 14

21

Guitar 1 microphone

Direct out

Track 15

22

Guitar 2 microphone

Direct out

Track 16

23

Lead vocal

Direct out

Track 17

Tab. 16.1: Channel assignment

Tape Monitoring will be via MIX-B in tape return mode. Once tracks are layed, they will be flipped onto the A-channels (1 to 17), and overdubbing can commence via tracks 18 to 24. Also “bouncing”, reducing several tracks onto one or a stereo pair, requires access to the full routing matrix. This is available to the A-channels, but not the B-channels.

16.2 Very tricky headphones

In a multi-musician scenario you’ll probably want as many different headphones mixes as you can muster. With the current channel/group/track assignments it is possible to set up four independent, or semi-independent, headphone feeds while still keeping back auxes 3/4/5/6 for “wet” monitoring (see 16.3).

Subgroup 7 => aux return 3 =>

Subgroup 8 => aux return 4 =>

headphones 1

headphones 2

Main mix (and)/or MIX-B =>

Main mix (and)/or MIX-B =>

headphones 1

headphones 2

Active switches: S55/(S82, S77)/S76

Active switches: S69/(S82, S89)/S88

See also fig. 14.4 “Subgroup-driven auxless headphones mix” and associated text.

In the above configuration HP 1 and HP 2 comprise a blend of the main mix, MIX-B and an additional feed from a subgroup. The subgroup feed can be used to select which channel(s) should be boosted in the cans relative to the main mixes.

◊Choose to send to subgroups 7 and 8 from channels which are routed to tape from their DIRECT OUT. Otherwise CHANNEL PAN, which will already have been set for recording via another group, is unlikely to be pointing to where you want the cue signal to go. Aux sends 1 and 2 are available as two separate mono headphone feeds, or as a single stereo headphone feed. You’ll need an extra stereo amplifier to amplify the aux 1 and 2 outputs to drive headphones properly.

Overdubbing:

It’s all change. Flip the recorded music onto A-channels, in order to feed from tape into all the headphones buses.

Alternatively:

(and probably much more sensibly): use the headphones routine outlined in section 15.2 (fig. 15.1).

16.3 Wet monitoring

It is customary with live recording to lay tracks dry. (Not so with MIDI setups: often a tape track is used to record a complex effect. In a MIDI studio a take is generally MIDI sequencer driven, and hence reproducible should the recorded effected track eventually prove to be unsuitable, in live recording, a great take is irreplaceable! Hence the extra caution when laying live tracks.) With dry recording you will probably want to audition tape tracks with some reverb and/ or echo, to get a better idea of how the final mix might sound. By pressing the AUX 3/4/5/6 SOURCE switch ( S 17 ), aux buses 3 and 4 are available to the B-channels, i.e. tape monitoring. You could send to reverb from input channels, but the FX would disappear on tape playback. Bring the FX back on aux returns 1, 2, 5 or 6. Remember 3 and 4 have been used for headphones patching.

16.4 Mixdown

All aux sends and subgroups are now available for mixing, as are A-channels 23 and 24.

◊If you have two different instruments recorded onto one track,

the mixdown settings for each might be totally different. Set up two A-channels. One for each instrument, and switch between them.

The B-channels may be used e.g. as FX returns in place of the normal aux returns (the advantage being that these channels have PAN and EQ) or as an extra stereo aux send.

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