Recording from Cassette or Turntable - Mixing Bench

Overview

This article describes recording from the cassette deck or turntable with the MOTU 828 interface into Adobe Audition.

• You will patch the cassette deck or turntable into the Behringer mixer
• You will set levels with the mixer

Audio Interface

The Mixing Benches have a MOTU 828 audio interface. The Audio Interface - Mixing Bench article has additional information about the MOTU 828.

Set Up

Mixer Set Up

• Turn down the Mackie Big Knob volume box knob.
• Turn down the Control Room and Phones knob on the mixer.
• Pull all of the mixer faders down all of the way.
• Set the Gain knob to zero and make sure that all of the EQ's knobs are in the middle 0 position.
• In the Source section push the Alt 3-4 and the Main Mix buttons.??????

Patching

• Patch the cassette deck's outputs into mixer inputs 1 and 2
  • List patch points
• The mixers outputs are normalized into MOTU 828 inputs 3 and 4

Recording

Setting Levels

1. Press play on the cassette deck
2. On mixer channels 1 and 2 turn the gain knobs up until you see the read peak light flash.
   1. Turn the gain knob back until there is no red peak light flashing
3. Set the Main Mix fader to 0.
4. Turn up the channel 1 and 2 faders until the levels are around zero on the meters.

Monitoring

• On the Mackie Big Knob volume box set the switch to Mixer.
• Turn up the silver knob on the Mackie Big Knob volume box

Audition

Create a New Multitrack Session

1. Open Audition from the dock
2. If prompted sign to the Creative Cloud Desktop app with your Evergreen email and password.
   • Adobe Creative Cloud Sign In
3. Go to File > New > Multitrack Session...
4. In the New Multitrack Session window set the following settings
   1. Session Name: use a meaningful name.
   2. Folder Location: Click Browse and select your folder on your Desktop.
   3. Template : None
   4. Sample Rate: 48000
   5. Bit Depth : 24
   6. Master: Stereo
   7. Click OK

Recording

1. Go to the Mixer window
2. On Channel One click on Default Stereo Input and select Mono > Mic Instrument 1
3. On Channel One click the R button (record)
4. On Channel One click the I button.
   • This allows you to monitor the input.
5. Put on the headphones
6. Talk into the microphone and adjust the Trim knob on the MOTU 828 while looking at the meter in Audition
   • Try to get the signal in the yellow but not in the red.
7. Click the Record button (Red dot) at the bottom to start recording.
8. Hit the Stop button to stop recording.
9. Repeat as needed.

Playback

• If you need to listen to the audio with the speakers turn off the Input button
  • Click the I button.
• Take off the headphones.
• Now you can turn up the Mackie Big Knob volume box knob to listen with the speakers.

Editing and Exporting

• After recording you can edit the audio.
• You will need to export the Multitrack Session to a mono or stereo wav file when you are done
• Read Multitrack Editor - Audition for more details