recording??

[musikarero]

I'm thinking about getting an inexpensive digital 4 track recorder but have no idea which one to get. I'm looking at the Zoom PS-04 because it is only $199 bucks. I don't need anything big or with a lot of bells and whistles. Just something to put my ideas down on and for my friend and I to make a simple two simultaneous recording. We've done this for years on my old tape recorder but I'd like to be able to have the digital capability now. Any suggestions on what is a good unit would be a big help...thanks!

 

[pack-rat]

I am not sure about the Zoom, but I use my friend's Boss BR532 Digital Studio 4-Track and it is really good for the stuff I do.

 

[tvanveen]

I have an Fostex MR-8 which I like. The zoom looks nice for sketching stuff out...I went with the MR-8 cuz it's got 2 XLR inputs, and records with decent fidelity for the price.

For band jams I can set up 2 mics to record in stereo.

If I was just using it to work out ideas I think I'd prefer the zoom for it's size (I'm guessing the Fostex is twice as big), but since I have the pipe dream that I might actually want to try and make a decent recording one day I'll take the Fostex.

It's $100 more.

 

[tvanveen]

Oh, and the other reason I went with the MR8 is because it uses CF cards, and I already had about 9 gigs worth...

 

[OrangeChannel]

Any reason why you'd adhere to the portable 4 track only? I'd recommend a USB or firewire recording setup. M Audio makes some rather inexpensive USB based devices as does Tascam (tho I'd avoid the us-122 as it's crap). I have M Audio's Firewire 410 in my home studio and it's pretty rad. I find the digital medium an awesome power to work up tunes, tho' I'm pretty new to having my own setup so I've been trying to defeat the learning curve.

 

[H.A.]

I got rid of my MR-8 and picked up a Digidesign Mbox on ebay for $355.00. USB connection to my PC. It comes with Pro-Tools Le for Mac but you can download the Win XP version via their website with your serial number for the unit. 32 tracks of recording. This thing blows away all the porta-studios I've owned in the past. I'm looking into a laptop with an external hard drive for storing the audio and thus making it completely portable. Check it out sometime, alot of bang for the buck

 

[tvanveen]

You would just need a hard drive to make that portable? Seems like you'd need a laptop.

 

[H.A.]

I'm looking into a laptop with an external hard drive for storing the audio and thus making it completely portable.

A laptop is necessary to be portable, I use it now with my PC though, and only have $355.00 invested.

H.A.

 

[tvanveen]

It's a pretty slick unit. I think what you go for depends on what you're using it for. I think if you spend a lot of time tweaking your own arrangements and want a high quality recording it's the way to go.

Right now I'm in a mode where I'm sketching stuff out with the intention of bringing it to the band for further fleshing out. Once we have it worked out we can record it on the MR-8 with decent quality.

 

[H.A.]

The MR-8 is awesome for getting things sketched out, that's for sure. The wav file transfer to PC is killer too, very easy to do. The only problem I had with mine was with the CF cards losing the data or not being able to mix down. Have you had any problems with that?

 

[tvanveen]

No, but I haven't done anything big or complicated. I also checked on homerecording.com to make sure I had the right cards.

 

[H.A.]

The other issue as far as the CF cards go that I ran into was I could only find 256MB cards that would work (at that time) and with 4 tracks mixed down to 5 & 6 and then 4 more tracks then mixed with 5 & 6 down to 7 & 8 for final wav conversion I could only fit a 3 1/2 minute song on a card.

 

[tvanveen]

There's a forum on homerecording.com where people keep track of what cards work. It just so happened that the 1 gig cards I use for my cameras work fine with the MR-8.

CF cards have come down in price a lot since then too...I probably paid $3000 for all my cards, I could get them now for $1200 I think.