By
AKAI-47
Wed May 21, 2014 7:58 pm
Great thread. Good to see a few others getting some use out of this beast.
I used one for years and have over a hundred tapes made with it. I sold it when times were hard and was looking for one for a while. When...
A few years ago I bought another one and have been keeping it in storage up till now.
It was used as a mixer somewhat, but the tape section was never used (which was what I was most concerned about, because if nothing else, the 4 tracks can be output into my DAW, bypassing the mixer totally). It even still has the cellophane stuck onto the tape section.
However, the mixer is a bit grubby. Nothing bad, just a bit of grime that the seller was too lazy to clean off himself. So, my first question is: What would you say is the best way to clean the mixer up? I know I can take the pots and sliders off and I shall do that, but would you say it is worth buying some compressed air to give a little blast inside? Also, what cleaning materials would you say would be best to get it clean again but without damaging it?
I have looked at the tape section and it is true, the tape does not seem to have been used at all. There is no oxide that I can see with my naked eye. So my second question is, baring this in mind: Is there actually any need to de-gauss or clean the heads at all? It would seem pretty obvious that this isn't needed, but I just want to double check. And also if you can give any advice on good headcleaning practice, along with whatever de-gaussers you use, that would be great!
I actually have a second machine for spare parts. It is battered and one channel on the mixer doesn't work at all. The tape has difficulty playing and the rewind is a bit hit and miss. But still the tapes I have tried play back fine. Those GX heads would seem to last longer than everything else. I know the preamps are exceptionally good for what it is, a 4-Track, at the end of the day, so I'm going to hold onto it just in case. It has the dual voltage switch on the back, but unfortunately, my good machine only comes with American voltage, so I have had to buy a step down transformer for it as well. I haven't even plugged it in yet, but can't wait.
I bought some TDK SA-90 tapes today that cost me nearly £60, so all in all this little set up as cost over £800 after paying taxes on the thing coming in from abroad.
As has been noted, you can stripe the first track with s.m.p.t.e. and fsk and even mtc iirc - it is in the manual so don't quote me on that. And using it's HPF you can lay down a bass track or something actually to the tape as well, leaving you with the other 3 tracks free and all 4 tracks of tape being used. So, it is entirely possible to sync this up to you DAW, though it might be fun to watch the Akai play catch up as you instantly jump from the start to the end of the track in Logic or whatever you use.
So my final question is: Can anyone give some kind of instructions to actually do this? So far, many have talked about it, but no one seems to actually have done it. It would seem to be doable, but probably people just think it is not worth the hassle, but I'm determined to get this going.
I have a choice of DAWs at my disposal. I am thinking Studio One would be my best bet or maybe even Reaper. I have Ableton Live too, but I don't hold out much hope of that getting going. If anyone uses this feature of the Akai, what DAW do you use?
I'm also looking forward, routing this through my soundcard which is a Focusrite. It has six outputs and that corresponds nicely to the six 1/4" inputs on the Akai. I could then route that back into my Focusrite via either the monitor or main outputs on the Akai. Obviously I need to experiment and be mindful of feedback loops, but it would be great to have the main six tracks of the Akai hooked up in real time via my DAW. Studio One has a 'Pipeline' feature which also sounds very interesting and is something worth checking out. It is for mainlining hardware back into the DAW and utiilising it just as if it were a normal VST. Something else to consider. So, my final question is: Do any of you actually hook this up in a fashion like this, with your main DAW?
I think the great way about hooking the Akai/DAW up like this is, you could use the inputs on the Akai to record your vocals and guitars and whatnot, utilising the two Aux sends for effects and the semi-parametric EQ for low rumble cuts and sweetening etc., and recording it directly into your DAW, without having to faff about with hooking things up via your soundcard. Much more intuitive, flexible and hands on. The preamps on my Focusrite are pretty decent, so it will be interesting to see what gets the best results.
Obviously, feeding back from the DAW into the Akai, you would only have six mono inputs, or rather six mono inputs plus one stereo Aux, but you could still have some real fun and be creative with that. And if you wanted to, you could even use it as some kind of 'summing mixer' with the 8 inputs, equalling 4 stereo busses from your computer DAW, which you could then, in my case for example, record into my Panasonic SV-3800.
Long post I know. I'll figure it all out I'm sure. Just thought some one might be interested. Not that much information on these units on the whole on the web.
Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated, if you think I've missed something obvious.
Thanks.
The 4 tracks are physically next to each other along the length of the tape, you don't need sync between the tracks, unless you get a razor blade and slice the 4 tracks apart along the length of the tape, there is no way they are going out of sync with each other.
