I gotta say I loved my 424 literally to death (R.I.P. 1993-2001). The trouble with analog recorders is that since they are mechanically driven, they will eventually suffer some kind of mechanical breakdown and they are getting more and more rare, so it isn't easy to just send in somewhere to get it fixed. I now have a 464 which is the high end of cassette 4track, one of the last of its kind, and it still sounds awesome, and has a mixer and routing capabilities and preamps for all the XLRs plus the extra stereo channels etc etc just like the 424s plus a bit more channel inputs. They are cool even if just used as a mixer and never even put a tape in them. Even if you eventually go digital, it is nice to get your basic signal recorded onto a slightly overloaded tape to get that warm saturated natural compression that characterizes analog sound (where clipping volume by a slight amount sounds really good instead of horrible)
As it sounds like you aren't looking to spend much I can offer my advice as a long time (like 24 years ago I got my first cassette 4track) budget home recordist: If you want to have fun for a while it's nice and cheap and easy to use, especially if you are just using mics on amps and drums and such. The moment you want to expand beyond that and start polishing up mixes you will have to worry about getting more outboard gear though. Compressors, reverbs, and all that polishy stuff will up your cost of your budget buy studio quite a bit, plus getting it into digital realm means a good computer system, soundcard, interface, etc...
OR (and I much prefer the "OR" path since I love my knobs and sliders, and I love cheap solution gear)...
The budget buy standalone digitals are a good bargain for cheap yet usable recording. It all comes right there in a single unit, or you can use them as interface by USB to your computer. Most have built in effects and editing, some have built in mics, some even have built in CD burners so you can convert to audio CD format and pop one right out of the machine without even going through a computer, or convert to MP3 and dump it onto a computer to put up online.
A downside to these wonderful things is that, unlike software, they are mostly not expandable (unless you call having outboard effect sends, or USB-ing files to a computer hard drive to clear up onboard space an expansion)... but on the bright side is that they usually have the basics covered pretty well so you may not really need to expand it.
A lot of them only record 2 channels in at once too (more channels come on the more expensive ones, you get what you pay for) but if you end up having the 424, you can use that as a mixer for (say 4 drum mics) submixing and then routing into a L-R stereo pair of tracks on the digital recorder.
A couple you might want to look into:
All of these record to memory cards (except the DP-02 which has a big hard drive), all can mix, edit, have multiple built in effects available, and have USB ports so can be used as an interface too, or just used by themselves.
I've listed some of the things that set them apart from each other for your quick referance if you want to look into any of these:
Tascam DP02 (2 chan/8 track, hard drive, CD burner) $400 ish
I own and use this one
Zoom R16 (8 chan/16 track , also for DAW or standalone recorder, comes with Cubase LE software) $400 ish
Boss Micro BR (little hand held thingy. built in mic. 1 stereo input/4 tracks, non-programmable drum machine, battery option) $200 ish
I also own and use this one
Tascam DP 800 (2 chan/8 track, 2 built in mics, EQ and reverb but no other effects, battery option) $300 ish
Tascam DP 400 (2 chan/4 track, 2 built in mics, no EQ or reverb, battery option) $200 ish
Boss BR 800 (8 tracks, 4 inputs simultaneous, built in mic, built in non-programmable drum machine, comes with Cakewalk SONAR 8.5LE software that can edit the drum machine patterns, battery option) $450 ish
I tried all of these and downloaded PDFs of their manuals before I bought my current digital recorder. I went with
the Tascam DP02 because I already use my Tascam 464 for multi channel sub mixing so I didnt need the inputs, and I like the huge hard drive. It was a close tossup between that or the
Boss BR 800 for its built in drum machine (cute but not necessary) and 4 channel input. The Zoom had too cumbersome a menu and display for my liking. Of the cheaper ones, the Tascam DP400 didn't have any effects (despite being so cheap and having mics, I couldn't deal with just level/pan). The Tascam DP800 wasn't bad and I was impressed by the built in mics, but it only had limited effects and for a bit more I could get a lot more with its big brother. That Micro BR is in the list because it is really a cool little tool, it's cheap, and it can serve as an interface. I wouldn't consider it seriously as a studio centerpiece though. It has the effects power and editing features, it just is so limited an interface since its palm sized (it can be loaded with music and used as an MP3 player though if you are into that kind of thing.)
Hope any of this helps.
Cheers and happy hunting.
P.S.
Looking around on ebay can find you one even cheaper as they are all pretty common recorders, (or one of the previous models dirt cheap, like
a DP01FX/CD instead of the DP02 (a minor difference)... I got mine for about $150 bucks what I would have paid $400 for the new model)
