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Entry level recording equipment

3K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  track7 
#1 ·
Tascam Portastudio 424mkIII

Fostex MR-8

Just leave mics, cables, headphones out of the picture for now, and also the cost. They aren't relevant to this.

Anyways, I want something to create some demos, mainly to give to people so they can sample my music, but it has to be studio quality (if possible.)

What do you guys recommend?
 
#5 ·
No. It has some of the advantages - ease of copy, cut, & paste; non destructive editing, etc. It even has advantages hard disc models don't - it's quieter, smaller, and uses less power. But it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive. This means the signal is heavily compressed, like ATRAC used in minidisc, or the MP3 format. Now, this is fine in a delivery medium, but when you start comping tracks, you lose quality in a hurry.

It would be GREAT as a little portable "idea notebook". But you said "studio quality" and it isn't.

The Fostex VF-80 goes for $500 new and is the cheapest 8 track HD model I know of. If you look around, you might be able to find the older VF-8 for less, and it's basically the same machine (except you can't add an internal hard drive). People are selling their used VF-16 (same thing in 16 track version) for around $500. It's a good unit (I have one) for the money, besides a couple of small quibbles. This is the direction I'd go.
 
#6 ·
JESTER700 said:
No. It has some of the advantages - ease of copy, cut, & paste; non destructive editing, etc. It even has advantages hard disc models don't - it's quieter, smaller, and uses less power. But it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive. This means the signal is heavily compressed, like ATRAC used in minidisc, or the MP3 format. Now, this is fine in a delivery medium, but when you start comping tracks, you lose quality in a hurry.

It would be GREAT as a little portable "idea notebook". But you said "studio quality" and it isn't.

The Fostex VF-80 goes for $500 new and is the cheapest 8 track HD model I know of. If you look around, you might be able to find the older VF-8 for less, and it's basically the same machine (except you can't add an internal hard drive). People are selling their used VF-16 (same thing in 16 track version) for around $500. It's a good unit (I have one) for the money, besides a couple of small quibbles. This is the direction I'd go.
Actually the MR8 is 16 bit/44Khz, and since you can get a 256MB CF card for pretty reasonable these days, it makes it a nice little setup. Especially since they were thoughtful enough to throw in XLR inputs.

All specs Here. It also imports/exports .wav, so you can buy the $50 version of Acid and do arranging and drum loop editing on the computer once it's transferred. This is the kind of stuff I did on my Boss BR8 when I got into digital recording. Very cool.
 
#7 ·
But since it doesn't have phantom power in the XLR inputs (I don't think?) I would need a preamp for any mics I use (planning on getting a condensor mic anyways,) which I don't really want to do. What do you guys suggest? (I'm new to this recording thing, so I may be wrong on some stuff.)
 
#8 ·
Polaris20 said:
JESTER700 said:
No. It has some of the advantages - ease of copy, cut, & paste; non destructive editing, etc. It even has advantages hard disc models don't - it's quieter, smaller, and uses less power. But it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive. This means the signal is heavily compressed, like ATRAC used in minidisc, or the MP3 format. Now, this is fine in a delivery medium, but when you start comping tracks, you lose quality in a hurry.

It would be GREAT as a little portable "idea notebook". But you said "studio quality" and it isn't.

The Fostex VF-80 goes for $500 new and is the cheapest 8 track HD model I know of. If you look around, you might be able to find the older VF-8 for less, and it's basically the same machine (except you can't add an internal hard drive). People are selling their used VF-16 (same thing in 16 track version) for around $500. It's a good unit (I have one) for the money, besides a couple of small quibbles. This is the direction I'd go.
Actually the MR8 is 16 bit/44Khz, and since you can get a 256MB CF card for pretty reasonable these days, it makes it a nice little setup. Especially since they were thoughtful enough to throw in XLR inputs.
I'll be hogtied. You're right. That looks like a really cool unit! Memory cards sure have gotten bigger.

Anyway, this looks like a great unit. I wish it had ADAT transfer, but ya can't have everything. I might think about something like this myself in a bit... ;-)
 
#14 ·
JEMavenger said:
Right now I have an SB Live!...would anything be possible with that?
Sure. Get a cheap but effective multitrack recording program like "Cakewalk Guitar Tracks", an inexpensive mic preamp like one of the Tube MP series put out by ART, and a decent microphone. Voila! That's the basics, but you can always have more- e.g. great wav editor software, compressors, etc.

-Ben
 
#16 ·
Hey i'll chime in...

It really all depends on what you want to do, how far you want to take it and also the style of music your producing to some extent.

If you already have a half decent computer (i.e 500 - 1000 mhz 128meg ram etc) then you have no excuse not to use a computer.

The SBLive is fine for capturing at 16/44 and is unless you get up to the 200+ mark isn't going to sound any better or worse than any other consumer based soundcards.

So already there you have your recording machine. With unlimeted tracks dpendent on your hardware.

As someone already mentioned you would need some way of getting the signals into the computer and then software. Software really isn't an issue cause you can get 100's of track software with fx etc for peanuts. Everyone has their favourite and mine is Cubase SX, this is expensive but the cut down version Cubasis VST is only about 60 pounds and is more powerful than most hardware based stuff.

Feeding the signal into the computer is where you will really only have to spend some money - BUT you'd more than likely have to do this anyway if you went the hardware route.

Obviously you will need mic's. And this is where i'd recomend spending the cash. A good dynamic for electric micing and a nice condensor for volcas acoustic etc.

You hen have a choice of using a mixer (if you will need lots of inputs) or a mic pre-amp/channel strip if you are soley recording from one input.

If you bouight a hard disk recording unit or a tape based unit then you'd only be spending much more afterwards in getting mics and other sound enhancing stuff to make it more studio-like. If you use the power built into the everyday word processing tool already then you can jump straight to spending the money on getting those good mics, pre-amps etc.

There are some very nice hardware machines and they have great advantages over computers in some ways. But going that route will definately be more expensive. Cause when you start the hardware direction everything you add on wil always have to be hardware again and its much more expensive.

Track7
 
#19 ·
Yes Avenger...you use the line-in. The mixer/channel strip/pre-amp whatever you are using will plug into that.

In the recording software there will be a setup box for you to choose which soundcard you want to use. If you only have 1 then that will be set automatically as default, and you're ready to rock

Track7
 
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