Mixing

Sorry if this question is answered elsewhere, didn't see... I'm new to home recording, I have a four track cassette recorder which needs to be mixed down to a 2 track, can I use my regular cassette deck for this mix down. I'm not all familiar yet with the ins and outs, thanks for answering...

Not too sure what a 4 track recorder is. I might have used one in drama class waaayyy back in junior high school . I remember the old 8 track cassettes.

Are you trying to record through your sound card? What sort of outputs does your recorder have?

Yeah - that's all you do. Mix down onto as good a quality cassette recorder as you can lay your hands on. And use a good TDK tape.

This of course is all analogue. You end up with a cassette master. If you want copies then copy that master.

However you might want a CD or two at the end, no? And that's not analogue - it's digital.

In which case it is better to get those 4 tracks onto a pc into a Sequencer (which is a digital multitrack), or into a standalone digital recorder. You will need a PC soundcard with multiple inputs though.

Or recording those tracks into a PC one at a time means that they will end up way out of sync. Then in it is a huge fiddle getting them to line up and sound okay. But in my experience not impossible.

That way you do not lose so much quality (analogue to analogue recording loses each time its done, not so with digital.)

Mixing from 4 track cassette to 2 track cassette is a pretty noisy way to go. It would be better doing it in a PC with an audio editor (like FlexiMusic). Then burn to a CD.