Digital Recording

[dkimcohn]

Wow this is a great forum!
I've been very interested in music production,and now I want to record it and do it professionally. I've been doing some research, I want to build my own home studio.
What do people think about those digital recording consoles with hard disk such as the roland ones vs2400 series or the korg ones? are they any good for their price?
can I connect multiple equipment such as samplers, a microkorg and other electribe grooveboxes into it and record it?
What if I make a mistake can I edit it easily like other audio programs?
Also, does the console need an amp?, just connect the equipment through the line input and some studio monitors?

This are some of the questions I have before deciding if I would like to buy one of these so far the only thing convincing is that their portable hehe.

 

[AlexW]

The portability is their biggest benefit. Beyond that I find them somewhat limiting in comparsion to a PC or laptop based setup. The screens are very small, so while you can do editing, it's somewhat cumbersome. For the most part, you're stuck with the onboard effects that come bundled with the unit. Ditto the preamps. You can certainly do what you want with them though--most are setup to record 8 tracks simultaneously; though sometimes at a sacrifice of bit depth. I'd look for a unit than can record at 24-bit for the number of channels you want to record simultaneously.

 

[nroberts]

They can be pretty tough to use also. It took me and a friend a couple of hours to figure out just how to export all the tracks to wav so they could be imported into Ardour. My cousin bought one also and can't figure the damn thing out. All around I find these units very difficult to work in and not at all intuitive. They also cost considerably more than a computer (If you are buying pro-tools though it might balance out in the end - I use Ardour so hw costs are my only concern). I think the laptop/usb unit is probably the better approach if you want portability. Then you also have a tool that does other stuff besides just audio work.