Buying a Digital Audio Recorder

[OceanMan]

Hi,

I want to find a digital audio recorder with the following specs.

Must Haves...
- 2 simultaneous recording inputs
- balanced XLR inputs
- 48V phantom power on at least 1 channel
- 24-bit, 48 kHz
- under $300

Would Prefer...
- up to 4 simultaneous recording inputs
- firewire or USB 2.0
- on board physical EQ
- lots of knobs for onboard tweaking
- two headphone outputs
- 96 kHz
- under $200
- quality pre-amps

Couldn't care less about...
- onboard effects
- MIDI or other digital input capabilities
- more than 4 inputs
- how cool it looks
- software bundles

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I've been doing stacks of research on the web for the right recorder for me but I can't seem to find something that fits exactly - at the moment I'm leaning towards the PV6 USB but dissapointed that it only records two inputs simultaneously and have heard about issues with background noise in the mix. The Alesis Multifix USB 8 FX also looks good but again can only record 2 at a time and I probably won't be using this as a mixer without recording.

Cheers
Matt

 

[Armistice]

Neither of the devices you've mentioned are audio recorders - they're mixers. They don't record anything.

What do you want - a mixer or a recorder?

 

[OceanMan]

You're right...

I basically meant a soundcard and some of those double as mixers (or vice versa).

What I've described is what I want, just ignore the word 'recorder'. I'll be recording on my PC.

 

[Armistice]

Interface, you need by the sound of it.

I'm not really up on the various interfaces as I don't record to PC - there are a million recommendations over in many of the threads in the Noob forum, however.

Whilst you can use a mixer as an interface, if that's the road you go down, ensure that you can get mono feeds for each track into your 'puter via USB/firewire.... it's not a given, especially at the budget end of the spectrum. Most recommend an interface, rather than a mixer if you're making a new purchase - assumption is you get higher quality pres and converters, I believe, for the same money because it has less channels.

You'll find a couple of solid recommendations for interfaces, however, that tick all your top set of boxes in the various threads dealing with this topic (and there are several each day - not hard to find) in Newbies..

Good luck..