Best recording equipment for small band

[hnsk]

Hey guys,
first of all let me tell you, how sorry i am for noob post like this, but i really need an advice.

Because of my friend's vacation in USA, I gave him a task to buy us some recordign interface, so we could record our songs at my place, while having rehersal. FIY we are from czech rep. and monitory difference between buying stuff like that here and in USA is like 50% in general.


So i just made a quick search and i thought that Lexicon Omega Desktop Recording Studio could be just what we need. But after that I realised, that it can support only 2 mics, so imho 1 mic for drums isn't enought.

So I now, that there must be plenty of people asking here same question, but as a noobie I just have to ask - which interface would be best for us?

Right now, we are at count of 3 people - drums, bass and guitar both with vocals. I would like to to record it together. So would you recomend to buy some cheaper interface and mixer, or some fancier interface, which can work with more channels, or to record one instrument at time? Unfortunately we can't afford to make bad decision right now

Your help will be much appreciated!!

Thanks.
Honys

 

[ConorC]

Hey Hnsk, I would suggest the Zoom R16. As a stand-alone recorder you can record 8 tracks at the same time, and you can record 16 in total, as an interface you can only record 2 tracks at a time. You can easily transfer your recorded channels to a computer very easily and load them into any DAW, although it does have some fairly decent mixing tools built in if you don't want to do that. It saves everything on SDHC cards so it's easy to swap in more storage. It has one channel with phantom power, another channel with a Hi-Z input so you can connect an instrument direct. All inputs are mixed XLR/1/4 inch jack inputs. It's easy to use and you can also use it as a control surface. It retails at around €400. not sure about the price in the US. It's great piece of equipment for the price.

 

[mjbphotos]

For bang-for-the-buck, its hard to fault the Tascam US-1800 - it's got 8 mic preamps, two hi-Z inputs and sells for $300. The PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL | Sweetwater.com is an excellent choice for $500.