Buy a 600 dollar digital multitracker?

[skaltpunk]

Should I buy a 600 dollar digital Multitracker or wait and build a computer for recording?

[BrettB]

what a question. Depends what music you want to record, what it is that you exactely need and what it is that you prefer working with.

You gotta be a little more specific, otherwise I'm afraid you won't get many answers...

[Prism]

What multitracker? Who makes it? How many tracks? Do you want portability?

Isaiah

[frank_1]

Prism... Nice avatar! But it's still not better then my Monkey!! I love my monkey! Ha, ha! And yes if you must know, that is my kid. LOL

Hey, a really cool avatar would be a pic of you and a penguin... What do ya think? You live in alaska, right ? Anyway I think that would rule!!

[Prism]

Ummmmmmmmmm....heheheh.....wow, okay.... nice picture!
I'm actually in Washington State, although I wouln't mind taking a trip to Alaska. I wanna get some aurora photos.

(why are we talking about avatars and penguins and stuff in this thread anyway?)

Isaiah

[mikemoritz]

my 2 cents....any digital recorder under 700$ is probably not worth the money. Depending on music of course. If you wanna go acoustic and vocals, you'll probably be ok. Bandwise, you're gonna want more tracks. With 700$ the most you're gonna get is probably 8. For that money, the computer route is your best bet.

Mike

[BrettB]

I do not exactely agree with the comp thing. The combination VS-studio's en PC also works great, and VS is more reliable and portable I think.

[frank_1]

Computer recording is defenatlly better then a stand alone recorder. Ok, so a DAW is not very portable... It can be, just grab some blanket or bubble rap and find a big bin to put it in... What's the problem?

[BrettB]

The standlone is defenitely easy when you have to record on different places like I do, or to capture live gigs. Also, The multitracker never crashed. My PC in contrary...

[Folksinger]

I have to recommend getting a DAW

basically because you get a lot more for the money, PCs are cheap right now, you can upgrade way cheaper and easier, and when you weigh in other costs (eg a CDR for a roland VS..$500, a CDR for a PC $69, try replacing the hard disk in a hard disk recorder, or sending a mini disk to a friend), amount of memory, ease of working and mixing down and effects and etc etc... not to mention you'll have a hard time uploading mp3s, checking e-mail and posting to forums and designing CD jackets and mixing video and writting up promo material and lyric sheets, burning various types of CDs and and and and and and...., The PC or MAC is a better investment by far for the dollar.

But of course, it does depend on exactly what you want to do, that is the first question.

finally... I find my desktop portable enough... South Florida to north of the Arctic circle.. yes I'm from Alaska, and I'm not there now (-40 about now). I record mostly live shows, takes no longer to set up than anything else if you are organized... in fact, I plan to rack mount it in a flight case and then, hey, plug and play! And I manage to keep my PC stable through gutting windows to a shell (ha) of its former self. Wsh my PARIS system would run on LINUX but you can't have everything. But I reccommend (though I haven't used) some sort of ghosting/image program for sure. The key perhaps is that I have multiple boot partitions, and the audio partition has a gutted windows with nothing on it except my audio software and hardware... a lot fewer conflicts that way.

but there is a lot of info on what I have and what I do on my website, just so I don't have to explain here...check the archive section for the DAW report or tour journals and I'll have the latest journal on the BB page finished soon (theres a half finished one up now).

peace
Folksinger
www.pan.com/folksinger

[gmgmusic]

I've seen different PC systems but never used them. I bought the Korg D1600 digital harddisk recorder. ($1600.00) The thing is AMAZING for the price. Very easy to use, packed with professional features and effects.

That's my 2cents.

[musicsdarkangel]

My friend has the Boss BR-8 and for its price, its a rocker.

I'd recommend getting a digital recorder, i should have, doin it on computer for me is too complicated. You need too much also. I dunno, just my opinion.

But let me tell you, the BR-8 is pretty damned good.