Multi-track recording question

[gospel]

I am learning but have one question that keeps coming up. If you are using a external digital multi-track recorder that has only 2 inputs (I haven't seen many that are under $1000 that have more, maybe I just haven't looked enough) how do you record 4 tracks simultaneously?

[Roel]

You can't...

I think. You mean, for example, they say it's an eight-track recorder and it has only 2 inputs, right? Well, the real deal is that you can play back 8 tracks at the same time, but only record 2 tracks at the same time.

Make sure you check the number of tracks you can record simultaniously... For example, my VS1880 can record 8 tracks at the same time, but there's a total of 18 tracks I can play at the same time... This is ok if you record on your own, and just do everything in overdubs. It sucks if you want to do a live recording with more than 8 tracks. Simply because you can't... (But I don't care all that much since I haven't got 8 mics. )