beginning home studio

[Alan Baxter]

Hi..i see that i am the newest member to this forum and i hope that there is people out there that can give me some good advice.
I live in the Netherlands (although i am Scottish) have been playing in a Comic Rock band here for 10 years which was just a bunch of mates..we made 2 cd's but now we have decided to split. We remain best of mates though. I have still some songs in my head and would like to "do my own thing"at home. I play guitar and sing a bit but would like some advice as to which "mobile" digital recording device would be best to start with (ZOOM MRS-1266 has been mentioned to me for instance). I am a novice at this game but would like to have Drum and Bass backing options and sort Synth sounds if possible so i can lay on my own guitar / vocal parts. Do not want to do this through computor programs as i need it portable..also do not want to break the bank as yet..so would like advice on the unit/speakers etc to get started.
Thanks to anyone who can give me some basic ideas
Alan Baxter

 

[wjgypsy]

I have not heard the zoom recorders, allthough i have heard there guitar pedals suck! But i geuss that they would give you an "ok" sound. if you want a drum/bass machine, go to:

www.musiciansfriend.com

and search for "boss drum machine" and look around.

I know that your new here, but mabye if you posted this thread in the "Recording techniques fourm" you would have got more replys. It's mosty drummers here. But don't worry about it! i made
did the samething once.


good luck mate.


zeke

 

[jake-owa]

Stay away from the tiny DAW craze. I'm sure a hundred die-hard fans will boo me for this. I don't think the little all-in-one studios are the way to go. Flash memory and smart media is fairly expensive and many units record at 32 khz or use lossy compression for recording. You can bet the farm the A/D conversion is crap and don't get me started on the onboard drum sounds or effects.

If you already have a computer get a decent soundcard. It's a bit more work but well worth it. I would even suggest a tape based four track over a boss or zoom whatchamathingie.

Ps, I'll sell you my old computer DAW for $300, email me if you're interested.

 

[PeteHalo]

I wouldn't suggest a computer DAW if you want it to be mobile. As you live in EU I suggest that you get yourself a Fostex VF160 (888 euros @ www.musicstorekoeln.de) and a Marian Marc A (129 euros) or some other soundcard with Adat interface for your computer. This is a pretty powerful yet highly mobile combo which enables you to record easily at home or out of house and let's you work the easiest way regardless of the task at hand.

The ADAT is the keyword here because thru ADAT inteface you can easily hook the recorder to the computer and transfer 8 tracks at a time between those two so you can do the basic tracking with the recorder and use the more sophisticated editing features and effects plugins on computer DAW for the final mixdown. This combo is hard to beat at this price range and none of the competing standalone recorders offer the ADAT interface as standard and for many you can't get it even as an option. Take a look at the Fostex forum and read more about the VF160.

 

[dirk_demon]

Hi Alan,
Nice to see that I'm not the only Dutchy around here!
I have a TASCAM 424 MKII, but I'm still searching for a half-decent drum-machine which will NOT launch me into techno-hardcore-house-heaven... but can actually play some natural-sounding drum-bits. In fact, I think I'll post this one as a new thread...

Groetjes,
Dirk

 

[wjgypsy]

pete, the vf-16 is a daw, but it is not a computer. for the fact, it is the same size as a tape recorder. and i agree on jake's statement: "i don't think daws are the way to go" and if i had more money, i would has not bought a daw. but myne gives great sound. here's some samples: www.nowhereradio.com/zeke/singles

these songs was recorded with the vf-16 (a all-in-one-recorder)
the only things that was outbord was the pre-amp, compresser and a eq.


zeke