Korg CR-4 owner manual Mixdown, Mixing levels

...............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:

1Rewind the CR-4 tape to a little before the start of your recording.

2If 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.

3Play 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).

4Rewind the CR-4 tape to a little before the start of your song.

5Play back your CR-4 tape.

6Start recording on your stereo recorder in the quiet passage before the song actually starts.

7At the end of the song, stop your recorder, and then stop the CR-4 tape.

8You 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.

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