just ordered Tascam US-1800 usb interface

anyone have any experience?

We're doing a new EP and want to do DIY it. Borrowing a board and a few mics. Any tips or tricks appreciated.

But I would recommend that you use a Tube Mic Pre in front of the input for the vocals and acoustic instruments .... It will bring a little tube warmth into the digital domain (REAL tube warmth) ...

Looks like a cool unit ....

About 15 years experience recording in the digital realm. I've never worked with that particular piece of gear but I can give you a few DIY recording tips.

1.) Watch your levels and don't burn them too hot. Digital recording meters are expressed in dbfs(fs meaning full scale). When translated to the VU scale, you'll find that 0 dbvu is probably at -18 dbfs, at least that's where most the tascam digital gear I've worked with puts it. My adat hd24 is calibrated to odbvu= -15dbfs. What does this mean?

If you look at an old analog tape deck, 0dbvu is almost always where the "red" on the meter starts, going to the plus side. On the old 2" machines, peak levels of +3 to "slamming the needles" at +6 was pretty routine on the hot passages, especially on the drum tracks, so in the digital realm that's going to translate to peaks between -15 to -12 dbfs on your digital meters and believe me, that's plenty hot, especially at 24 bit resolution. Sure, you can record hotter without digital clipping, but the result is often a nice digital capture of overcooked analog circuitry, and it makes mixdown a lot harder trying to keep all those hot tracks in check. The added bonus of recording at sane levels is the headroom you have just in case you do get some really hot transient levels like a drummer really whacking the hell out of the floor tom or the bass player popping the hell out of a string, you'll probably come away without any digital clipping.

2.) Mic selection and placement.

Watch for phasing and when necessary, use the 3:1 rule when using two or more mics on the same source.

http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-center/glossary/t--3:1Rule

Also, don't be afraid to experiment with using different mics to get the one that fits the source best. One of my favorite vocal tracks of all time, Daryl Hall's vocal on "Sara Smile" was recorded using a plain old Shure SM-57. You don't necessarliy need a $50k mic locker to make a good record, which leads me to the 3rd and last tip I have....

3.) HAVE FUN! The best studios and engineers in the world can't make a record that's fun to listen to if the band isn't into it. Set up in such a way that the band/performer is comfortable performing and can put the kind of energy and life into the music that it deserves. Given the choice between "technical" correctness in a recording vs a good performance, I'll go for the performance every time.For instance, if putting the performers into a position where they perform better causes a little bleed over, so be it, as long as it's not so excessive that it ruins the recording, I'll take it

Best of luck!! :hi:

worked in tv and radio so know levels, analog and digital. We're 5/8 of the way through recording the drums. It's a slow process when I work nights and he has a kid and 2 jobs, but we'll get there.