Musicians, home digital recording on the cheap, What have you got?

[scottmandue]

So I'm having pizza and beer with my buddy and he is complaining about the guitar player in his band keeps erasing his vocal tracks.

Then we reminisce about how he and I used to record comedy routines on an old recorder of mine.

That got me thinking and looking at digital recorders online.

I/we are no pros so we don't need anything fancy and I'm on a really tight budget.

I see this tascam DP-02 digital recorder @$350

8-tracks but only two live recording... but that is all I need... if I was going to record the band I would just set up two mikes and record the live sound.

Built in digital effects, CD burner, CF card.

Anyone out there using something like this? Or what are you using?

Thanks in advance,

[Gogar]

Do you have an iPhone? No, I'm not kidding.

[scottmandue]

Unfortunately no I don't...

I could check to see if someone else in the band does (not my band)

What do you have in mind?

[Roosterrusek]

Hit up Ebay and look at the Roland 1680. 16 tracks, buttloads of virtual tracks, and you can record 8 at a time.

[Roosterrusek]

In fact, here you go. I used to have one of these and they are pretty easy to learn and use. The audio quality is great....Victor Wooten recorded his first solo CD on 2 of these linked.

Roland VS-1680 24 bit digital studio workstation - eBay (item 270584385585 end time Jun-24-10 20:06:32 PDT)

[WolfeMacleod]

Go with software. Like Adobe Audition. Go straight into the computer.
Forget the standalone multitracks. Software should be much more flexible, visual editing, no tape...


Adobe - Audition 3

[WolfeMacleod]

Go with software. Like Adobe Audition. Go straight into the computer.
Forget the standalone multitracks. Software should be much more flexible, visual editing, no tape...


Adobe - Audition 3

ahh.. now I seee his is for live recording.

Might work, if you've got two laptops... or you might be able to get a cheap mic mixer and input it into a single audio-in...

[scottmandue]

Thanks, I was going to ask about software...

How do you get the inputs into the computer?

Edit to add, I guess you use the computer audio in.

I do have a computer kicking around that is not being used much, that is one nice thing about the tascam, has a USB I can plug right into the computer, or can save to CD or CF card.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Roosterrusek

In fact, here you go. I used to have one of these and they are pretty easy to learn and use. The audio quality is great....Victor Wooten recorded his first solo CD on 2 of these linked.

Roland VS-1680 24 bit digital studio workstation - eBay (item 270584385585 end time Jun-24-10 20:06:32 PDT)

I like Roland products but the way my musician friends smoke and drink around their electronics I am a little leery of buying used.

[Gogar]

The Roland boxes like the 1680 or 880 were nice in their day but their day was over 10 years ago and the tech has advanced a considerable amount since then. If you want a little handheld thing you could spend a few hundred bucks and get the Alesis or M-Audio, or any number of little recorders, slightly bigger than a cell phone, that have microphones on them for stereo recording, or you can run a line into them, and do multitrack stuff as well.

I just suggested an iPhone app because that would be the ultimate 'on the cheap' if you already had a phone.

[ramonesfreak]

i can highly recommend the tascam DP-02 , though the built-in effects are garbage. the reverb is ok but i generally rely on external reverb. i wouldnt bother with iphone multitracking

[Red88Carrera]

I use an M-Audio Delta 44 audio card(4 input) to input into a PC. For a mic or instrument pre-amp, I use an M-Audio audio buddy(also has phantom power for studio mics). For software, I use Samplitude Studio. Unlimited number of tracks. Tons of professional editing features. Everything is available cheap on fleabay.

[Red88Carrera]

Here's a screen shot of the Samplitude software. It's got great mixing capabilities.
This is only 4 tracks.

[island_dude]

I use the Olympus LS-11. Its a great value. It comes bundled with Cuebase LE which is more than enough multitrack capability. Its compact, easy to use has 8Gb or internal flash and sounds great. Its not really a studio recorder but its perfect for recording 2 tracks at very high quality (96Khz, 24bits).

[IROC]

I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff, but even I have been able to do some neat sounding things with an M-Audio USB interface and Apple's GarageBand software. The M-Audio has guitar and microphone inputs. I've had better luck recording guitar by mic'ing the cab than going straight into the computer via the 1/4" jack and it works well for vocals, too...

[imcarthur]

Not to get too promotional here (and mods: delete if I cross a line) you can win a free pair of our new monitors for your home studio. Details are on the Focal Professional Facebook page.

Ian

[stomachmonkey]

I have one of these in my mobile Voice Over rig,

TASCAM

Replaced by this,

TASCAM

If all you want to do is get sound into your PC they work great.

They also provide Phantom power for mics so no additional power supply needed.

Whole thing is powered by the computers USB port.

M_Audio is nice as well.

[slakjaw]

+1 for the 1680 those are really nice.

[slakjaw]

10 years already? Damn man I feel old.

The Roland boxes like the 1680 or 880 were nice in their day but their day was over 10 years ago and the tech has advanced a considerable amount since then. If you want a little handheld thing you could spend a few hundred bucks and get the Alesis or M-Audio, or any number of little recorders, slightly bigger than a cell phone, that have microphones on them for stereo recording, or you can run a line into them, and do multitrack stuff as well.



I just suggested an iPhone app because that would be the ultimate 'on the cheap' if you already had a phone.

[imcarthur]

Is anybody going to GearFest 2010 @ Sweetwater next week?

Ian