Help needed

[Nico2112]

I'm new here. I've been reading your posts for a while, and decided to post my Q.
I've been multitracking toTascam portastudios for 10 years now, and I reached the point where I need to improve my sound. I'm a drummer, and this whole recording adventure came to me from the desire to hear my drums on tape. Now I'm recording the whole song, drums, guit's, bass and vocals. When I started all was very "basic", mic'ed only kick and snare. From there my number of mic's has grown to 8. I've been told that when using multiple mics you need to use pre amps, compressors, gates and more rack effects. I've never used outboard effects or processors, and to a certain point they "scare" me, and I tend to think that those are too difficult to use for me. I've been trying to understand from reading on websites, but I just don't get it. I know that compared to the topics you talk about here this is a very basic and stupid Q, but:

Could somebody please explain me what 1)mic preamps, 2)compressors 3)gates, are for?

How do you use them, in what situations?

Do I need a pre amp for every mic I have?

Can I use them with a Tascam DP01 8 track digital DAW?

How do I hook them up?

I'm a passionate hobbyist, I don't do this for a living, I just do it for my "peace of mind", and because I love music. I would like to buy low priced or intermediate gear, it would be overkill for me to buy top notch, so if you have any suggestions on low/intermediate priced processors, please fire away.

Please help me here. In my country there is very limited info available, and I went to a pro studio, to check if they would let me see how things were setup, but I got a no for an answer.
Thanks for your time reading my request.
Cheers!

[ermghoti]

First, check the homerecording.com home page, there are links to answers to many of your questions.

This site isn't bad, very basic, it will at least let you know exactly what it is you don't know, if you follow me.

A full response to you questions would take many pages, so you really would do better to search the Internet for the terms that you are unsure about, and save the board for specific issues.

If you are not already aware, your recorder will never record more than two tracks at once, it can play back as many as eight. Trying to keep your budget as reasonable as possible, you may want to get a 8-16 channel mixer. It will have preamps built-in, and will let you combine several inputs to the two tracks the Tascam can handle.

[Nico2112]

Thanks Ermghoti. I'll check those sites out.
I know my DP01 can only record 2 tracks at a time, and at the moment I use two 4 channel active mini mixers (which act, I presume, as preamps).
Again I appreciate your words.
Cheers!