I've been trying to remaster some old tracks I did back on a 4 track mixer. What I've been doing is recording each track separately on individual Cubase tracks, then recording another track that switches between all four tracks to get a master time track. I then sync up the 4 tracks against the master time track just using a visual reference. My problem is that no matter how detailed I try and match it visually the tracks are not 100% sync'd over time. Any suggestions on how I could do this and achieve 100% nsync???
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Fri, August 31, 2007 - 9:11 AMI don't think there's anything out there can get your music to sound like N'Sync, if you're into that sort of thing... ;) I keed I keed.
You would need a SMPTE track, which I gather you didn't do and/or have a track available for; this would be the only reliable method of getting your material transferred between analog and digital in multiple passes.
If it's only 4 tracks, can't you just record all 4 over at once thru 4 seperate inputs on your audio card? If your analog 4 track doesn't have 4 discreet outputs (there may be individual track outputs) you may have channel inserts which you could use to run the audio out. If your soundcard doesn't have 4 inputs you're kind of stuck, unless you know someone that has a soundcard you could borrow for a Saturday afternoon. 4-8 inputs is an extremely common feature now days on an audio interface.
I can see why lining up tracks visually would be difficult, maybe finding that one transient in the drums without a lot of other music around it could help with lining up? Tough situation.
Good luck.
Or you could invent a time machine, travel back in time and tell yourself to stripe the 4 track with SMPTE... -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Fri, August 31, 2007 - 8:32 PMThere are individual outputs on the 4track but I don't have enough inputs on the soundcard. I'm using the Aux In to connect the mixer now, and there is also a 1/4 Line In that I could use. But the only other inputs are SPDIF, Midi In, Firewire. Not sure if I can convert any of those into a line in with an adapter.
Ya, lining the track up is easy for the vocals and drums but the guitar and bass are kinda difficult. What is a SMPTE track?? -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Sat, September 1, 2007 - 2:12 PMIt esentially marks the tape with a time stamp every 10 seconds or so continuously through out the recording so you have the time captured. I don't know what's technically going on there though.
... and how come it's the same as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers? -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Mon, September 17, 2007 - 9:38 PM<<... and how come it's the same as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers?
i don't know, but Frank says that baby snakes live in them. -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Thu, February 14, 2008 - 4:17 PMSMPTE time code is called such because TV and Movie folks were the first that had to sync music to film, a by product of this was that you could also sync multiple / different tape machines together... hence its application to the purely audio world - and its eventual application to the digital world.
If you really want to do the 4 track conversion, get something that can take four separate ins at once - the older (and especially used) 4-tracks are notorius for playing the tape at slightly different or inconsistent speeds - thus rendering SMPTE time code nearly useless. You would probably have better luck just adjusting individual track delay by ear. -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Fri, February 15, 2008 - 4:45 AMYa, your definitely right about the 4-track playing the tape at slightly different speeds. I've recorded the 4 tracks separately at least 3 times and can't get them lined up properly due to speed variations. I think doing it by ear will be my only option at this point unless I can get several 1/4" to USB cables if there is such a beast but my USB inputs wouldn't be on my sound card anyways so that probably wouldn't work. -
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Re: 4 track conversion to Cubase
Fri, February 15, 2008 - 1:59 PM1/4" to USB wouldn't make any sense since 1/4" is analog and USB is a digital transfer, you would need something inbetween to convert the signal, a.k.a. an audio card.
Use an audio card with four analog inputs and run each track into a different analog in and record them seperately but at the same time... word.
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