4 Track Cassette Tips?

[edgarb]

What's up guys. Myself and another guitarist recently bought a Fostex 4 track recorder. You know, the $99 one from Musician's Friend. Anyway, This weekend, we are going to begin fooling around with it. I guess I am just wondering if there is anything I should have a head's up on, or any tricks of the trade I need to know. Previously, the only recording I have done is into a Jambox. Needless to say, it sounds like crap. I have a POD 2.0 I plan to use. Can I just go directly into the 4 track? My buddy plays acoustic, and I am going to try to get him to use the POD as well, maybe on one of the clean settings. I was a little disconcerted to read that Stone was getting alot of noise out of the pod. Anyway, If there is anyting you feel I need to know, please post it here. I know this is general, but what the heck. I'll go ahead and beat the crap out of myself for asking such a vague question

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[ericonthenet]

Yes you can go straight into your new multitrack. Does your POD have line level stereo outputs? It should. Run them into line level inputs of ch 1 and 2. Pan ch 1 hard left and ch2 hard right so you will keep your pod fx in stereo. Yer buddy can do the same thru ch 3 and 4, if he has a pod, or run a mono mic level signal into an empty ch. Just remember, once you run your mic level guitar thru any fx, it now is line level. Are you gonna record anything else? You could run several things thru a mixer and record to only 2 tracks, leaving 2 more open. Clean and demagnetize your heads often, and use the best tape you can get. Keep notes on what went exactly onto what track and what eq and other settings you used. If you later flip flop tracks it will come in handy. Have fun! I had a much better multitrack once, let it go. Been thinkin' 'bout getting one of those $100 fostex units. Is it Dolby B or C??
Jim

[ericonthenet]

Well, I have a better idea....How big is the hard drive on your PC? I've used a free CD-edit program for about a year to convert songs from LP/cassette/CD to .wav files and burn them to CD-R. It basically takes any stereo line level into your sound card and records a .wav file for you. Hell, you could concievably record a live band, it's just a tape deck in your hard drive. I'd just use the mixer on your multitrack to run your stereo signal into your sound card.
A $99 tape deck has got to have cheap heads and all....save wear and tear. Do a search with keyword "cd edit" and you'll find this free software fairly easily.
Jim