beginning recording

[peter groome]

I teach guitar and need some recording equipment to produce demos for my students. I need to be able to record guitar,say playing a tune, then I want to record the same tune over a backing track. Then I want to transfer the finished product to cassette tape. It needs to be inexpensive and easy to use. I am an idiot with technology and beginner doesn't comeclose to describing my abilities!

 

[XLR]

What gear do you already have in the way of mic's, preamps, mixer, computer & soundcard, playback monitoring? Are you sure you want to end up on cassette and not CDR?

Tim

 

[peter groome]

I have no recording equipment at all just too many guitars and amps. I'm leaning towards the Tascam/Fostex recorders because they look user friendly. Cassette tape is my choice of end product. This whole thing is to record say a guitar solo and then demo it over a backing track for a students use. I already have the backing tracks in tape and CD form. So the watchword is simplicity and being able to get things down quickly and then get on with the teaching. Thank you for your interest in my problem.

 

[Erockrazor]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/240893/

I think giving this Tascam 4 track a look might be a possibilty. My friend bought this package and I was actually fairly impressed with the results he got from it. Also , reasonable price and comes with the essentials to get started. IMO it would be a good thing for your applications. Good luck finding what you want.

(ps-not advertising for musicians friend at all , just find it to be a good source for searching products)

 

[mikemorgan]

If you record your backing tracks in mono onto the left side and solo work on the right, you could get by with a smiple stereo cassete player capable of recording in stereo. Most home decks will do that. All you really need is a cheap mic adapted to a RCA plug to record your solos. Then your students would hear backing tracks left, and solos right. They can pan L/R from there.

 

[Dani Pace]

I use a Yamaha MT120 for exactly the same thing you are wanting to do. It's small, portable, simple, already on cassette. Save yourself some cash, Pawn shops are full of 4 track cassette (Tascam, Fostex etc...) and they work fine for the purpose you have described.

 

[XLR]

Hey, to each his own! Use whatever is practical.

I use recording in my own teaching for both in-lesson and student take-home use. I've used multitrack cassette recorders quite a bit in the past for the same thing, and wouldn't recommend cassette myself compared to other things that are now available and just as easy. Even if one doesn't have access to a computer and a lot of audio gear during lessons, a small simple flash card recorder will give much better sound quality (no annoying cassette wow and flutter) and flexibility of use than cassette. I don't miss the wasted time cueing up cassette tapes to find starting points, or the mess of having a big rack of cassette tapes in the studio.

I have a simple recording setup in my teaching studio, separate from my "real" recording studio. I use a windows laptop, a Tascam US122 to go into it, an MXL603 mic on a stand out of sight a few feet away, and computer desktop speakers for playback. It's all pretty invisible to the student and I can record or play back with a single click. When I want a student to take a recording home I burn a quick CDR, or FTP it to my site and give them the file link (that's actually the easiest for me). Anyway, it's all simple and trouble free and allows for very good sound quality. And students get kind of excited about having a CD of their playing, or being able to hear themselves online. Alternatively, many homes don't have cassette machines now.

Good luck with your search.

Tim