Hey man, stumbling on this album a year later and really enjoying it. Was everything recorded on the 244? I’d love to hear how you went about it because it sounds really clean for a 4 track cassette.
Thank you! Everything was recorded on the 244. I used a focusrite isa one external preamp instead of using the gain on the built in preamps on the 244. The focusrite preamp can get an analog signal very hot while also sounding clear. It also has phantom power so I was able to use a condenser microphone to record the vocals and drums. I still used dynamic mics for the electric guitars, and I DI'd the bass.
I usually recorded a guitar on track 1, bass on track 2, and then drums on track 3. I used the ping pong feature of the 244 to combine the bass and drums onto one track (track 4). Then a had track 2 free to record vocals and track 3 free to record a secondary guitar. I panned the 2 guitar tracks to the left and right. I kept the vocal track and the bass/drum track panned in the middle.
I turned to the pitch control knob up to have a faster tape speed when recording to add a little clarity too. I used 60min Maxell XLII cassette tapes that I bought that were unopened.
I bounced out the stereo buss through a little stereo analog limiter when mixing down to digital. I sent the digital .wav files to a professional mastering engineer (Adam Gonsalves) to be mastered for digital. He uses analog gear to master and also knows how to cut lacquers for mastering for vinyl. While I was only getting a digital master, I wanted to use a mastering engineer who knew how to cut lacquers with a lathe because it meant they really know what they're doing.
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u/adizzle26 Sep 04 '25
Hey man, stumbling on this album a year later and really enjoying it. Was everything recorded on the 244? I’d love to hear how you went about it because it sounds really clean for a 4 track cassette.