Any suggestions for a 4-track?

[Jonny Unitus]

I'm completely new to recording but have been playing guitar for three or so years now...can anyone suggest to me (from their own experience) a quality four track? I'm into instrumental acoustic stuff mainly so a 4 track is all I need.

My budget is around €400/£300


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated - as for digital or analogue, I'm unsure...recording seems so baffling at the moment!


Thanks

 

[scrubs]

The only cassette 4 track I ever owned (and still do) is a Marantz PMD 720. They're hard to find now, but it was a great little unit. The Tascam 400 series are fairly popular and still in production, I think. For demo stuff, they're probably sufficient. Owners of these units will surely chime in on this.

As for the digital units, they have the advantage of onboard effects, and easier synching to your computer. This means you can record tracks on the outboard unit, dump the tracks onto your computer for mixing, burning cd's, ripping mp3's for internet posting, etc. I think this is useful.

Another option (assuming you have a decent computer) is to just go straight to hard drive recording. Something simple, like the Tascam US-122 or M-Audio MobilePre would allow you to track straight into the computer and go from there. That's what I do now and it works great. The recordings sound better than cassette, I don't have to deal with outboard effects (expensive), and making cd's is super easy.

 

[Jonny Unitus]

Thanks scrubs

 

[Mark7]

How about this?

 

[tonyoci]

My personal recommendation is a ZOOM PS04 or MRS8 (8 track). In Jan I looked hard and this (PS04) was far and away the best choice for me.

It's main advantages are a) 4 tracks but each track has 10 Virtual tracks that allows you to record up to 40 and mix together b) Some very solid guitar effects c) a high quality internal mic.

The main downsides are that it uses Smart Media and records at 31250khz, not 44.1 which, to some but certainly not me, is lesser quality.

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/models/ps04/pdmodel.html

This is the forum I frequent that has many experts and examples of songs recorded with these units

http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/index.php

The internal mic is highly recommended by users for recording acoustic guitars.

Please PM me if you have more questions.

Tony

 

[andyhix]

tascam 424mkii or iii. Great machines.

 

[motorhead]

zoom digi 4-track

Hey Jonny:

I just bought a Zoom PS04- it's really cool, and the guitar patches are actually quite decent sounding. There's one for sale somewhere on here for $125. Can't go wrong!

 

[shiatzu]

tascam 424mkii or iii. Great machines.

agreed. i've got the mkii and it's excellent. i have 2 friends with the same model and they'll agree with you as well.

 

[FALKEN]

yes for starting out a cassette 4-track is MANDATORY!! you will thank us later!! go with the latest tascam model with a built in mixer -OR- a cool option is..fostex or tascam, dont remember which one, makes a 4 track that does not have a built in mixer. it just as RCA ins and outs, so you have to buy some adapters and an outboard mixer. but this particular 4-track retails for $99 US I believe. if you already have a mixer...

 

[Dani Pace]

I have a Yamaha MT120 cassette 4 track. It's small, easy to use, built in EQ, efx loops for each chanel, bounces tracks nicely (can easily take 10 tracks down to 2) all the basic stuff needed for putting ideas down, and it records pretty decently. I use it a lot when writing songs and for recording from remote locations (much easier than moving the PC.) The only problem I've had is Chrome tape is getting hard to find (around my local anyway.) I got mine used for $90 US. Cassette units like this are easy to find in pawn shops and the used gear section of music stores. Good luck.