MIDI & Multitrack

Part 10: David Mellor looks at ways of getting the best of both worlds by combining a MIDI system with a multitrack tape recorder.

Cassette Multitracker

Policemen look younger, you start to disown parts of your record collection and, just as surely with the passing of time, entry-level cassette multitrackers sprout more inputs and features. Dave Lockwood tries to keep up with the Fostex X28.

Tascam MSR24 24-track 1" Tape Recorder

Ever since the dark ages, prophets and soothsayers have been forecasting the Big One. Well here it is - Tascam's 24-track on one inch tape recorder. David Mellor investigates.

3G Flite 8

A console for concerts

Equipment

David Mellor gets to grips with a multitrack cassette recorder, an autolocator, a 16-channel mixer, a MIDI-to-tape synchroniser and a MIDI mute processor - all rolled into one compact box called the Tascam 644.

From the humblest of 4-track cassette recorders to the might of 48-track digital, multitrack is the technique used for 99.9% of all commercial recordings. David Mellor looks at the background to this powerful tool and wonders how we ever managed without it.

Soundtracs Solo Logic Automated Mixing Console

A lot of bang for the bucks, and MIDI control too!

The Perfect Beat

Is this the ideal way to programme rhythm patterns into your drum machine? Paul Ireson gives Roland's updated drum-to-MIDI convertor a good bashing!

Aphex 105 noise gate

More gates, fewer greenbacks

Drumcheck

In the drumbooth, no-one can hear you scream... Bob Henrit discovers Yamaha's wild-styled Electronic percussion system.

Fostex Model 80 Tape Recorder

A second generation 8-track from Fostex that offers autolocate and timecode control to the budget studio. Paul Gilby opens the box to discover the secrets of the black magic.

Spirit Folio Rac Pac

Rackable, stackable mixer

For A Few Dollars More...

What price a reputation? The Revox brand name is well established and very well respected, but the new model C278 8-track costs a lot more than the Fostex and Tascam equivalents. David Mellor asks whether it is worth the extra.

This little brother to the SBX-80 overcomes a host of syncing problems.

Wilf Smarties kicks off our regular look at new sample CD releases.

Having problems connecting instruments together? Our new series on syncing should solve your problems. This month, John Harris looks at syncing gear to tape.

Chris Baylis - another reader reveals the darkest secrets of his home studio set-up.

Alesis are known, more than anything, for their digital signal processing expertise, yet their new mixer is an all analogue 16:2:2 design - but employing a revolutionary construction technique. Paul Ireson lends an ear.

A Series By Warren Cann.

Readers may suspect that Richard Dean's lapses into metaphysical metaphor result from a peyote button every five paragraphs. Yet this first article in his new series is full of useful tips beyond mere sound-on-sound.

Eight-track reel-to-reel recorder

As 8-track tape recording takes its first steps onto cassette, Fostex introduce another revolutionary idea: the reel-to-reel tape deck with a detachable control panel. Vic Lennard does it from a distance.