small and good and cheap box?

[dobro]

A buddy of mine is looking at all-in-one digital recording boxes and asking me for help, but I don't know anything about them because I'm a computer recordist.

He's looking for about four tracks of 44.1/24-bit recording facility. Basic mixing capacity - EQ, compression, reverb, I suppose. An onboard CD-burner would be cool.

Does anybody make a box with only four tracks?

[Treeline]

The closest thing to four tracks I know of that still has the 24/96 thing going on is the Tascam 788.

There are little Tascam handhelds, but I believe they record on a compressed format - not the same thing at all.

Is he sure he wants 24 bit? Fostex has a little unit with an onboard CD/R for about $700. 16/44.1; useful but the eq gets criticized.

Korg has a D1200 w/ onboard CD Burner for about $900, which might be the best bet of all. Again, 16 bit, but with pretty nice digital / analog converters and a decent eq.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Dobro:

"Cheap" won't work too well for a decent SIAB.

However, I suggest your friend look at the Yamaha AW16; it gets good reviews.

I use the Yam 2816 and burn CD's with quality sound.

There is a "learning" curve -- depends on your friend's prior experience with recorders.

For the quality you get, the price of the above two units is quite reasonable.

Cheers,

Green Hornet \
PS Dobro: 4 tracks isn't much, especially for CD work; the units mentioned above do 16 but 8 tracks is about all most will need unless it is an esoteric arrangement.

GH