Tascam 2488 forum how do I record 8 tracks of live drums at one time ?

jimkane66

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Feb 14, 2013
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I own the original Tascam 2488 and for the life of me I can't figure out how to record 8 tracks of drums simultaniously. Any help would be great. Thanks, Jim
 

busta speeker

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Feb 23, 2012
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Hi, Jim! Busta Speeker here. I too own a 1st gen 2488, bought new in '04, and I still love it! OK, here's how I record drums: I use an outboard mixer (new Carvin 1648) to feed 4 to 7 seven drum trax on the 2488; the number of trax is determined by what else is being recorded at the same time, i.e. one or two guitars, bass, lead vox, etc. I can do some great drum submixes w/ just 5 trax; 7 is a luxury, and 4 is a necessity when I have to do simultaneous recording of scratch vox, bass, and two more instruments (guit/guit, guit/keys, whatever). I ALWAYS put snare and kick on separate trax-- absolutely required (natch!); w/ 5 trax devoted to drums I send the toms and overheads to a stereo pair of Tascam trax, because any necessary mixdown EQ doesn't interfere much w/ each-- mostly bass @ mids for the toms and mostly treble for the cymbals. I then have the hi-hat on it's own track--not required, but definitely preferable cuz hi-hats are the heart of the beat! Of course, when just one other instrument is being recorded (like the song arrangement template rhythm guitar, for example) you can and should split the toms from the overheads to their own stereo pairs of Tascam trax. A basic five-piece drum kit doesn't really need more than seven trax to get everything on tape (oops, I mean disk-showin' my age here) more than adequately; I'll use the 8th input for my talkback mic. BTW, I use 12 mics/channels on the Carvin input mixer on a five-piece kit: Snare1/Snare2/Kick1/Kick2/SmTom/LgTom/FloorTom/Hi-Hat/OverheadLeft/OvrhdRight/OvrhdCenter(right above drummer's head)/Room-ambience (usually a ribbon mic). To do it this way requires at least a four-buss mixer (like my 1648 Carvin). I send the snare mic(s) thru Main Left output to track 10, kick mic(s) thru Main Right to track 11, hi-hat thru Sub(buss)3 to track 12, all three overheads and the room ribbon(and hi-hat when only using 4 trax for drums) thru Monitor sends 1&2(w/ onboard Carvin 9-band EQs activated) to trax13/14, and the toms thru subs1&2 to trax15/16. The beauty of this setup is that the toms and cymbals are already panned just the way you want 'em GOING IN to the recorder- the stereo trax put em up just the way you have em panned on your input mixer! To hear what this setup can do for a less-than-stellar drumkit, go to our website @: www.bearbonesproductions.net and listen to "Just The Tip" by Highway 30 on our songs page. I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me directly if you need more help-- Believe me, I've learned a LOT of shortcuts/work-arounds/ whatever, and I have this little setup doing stuff TASCAM hasn't even thought of! Good Luck!- Busta Speeker/(208)888-7461/bearbonesproductions@hotmail.com