daw vs. stand-alone?

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phillymac

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Hi,

I'm interested in doing some multitrack recording and I wanted to know which is better for someone who is a beginner to it all, a daw system or a stand-alone digital multitracker? Two products that I'm interested in are:

Daw: aark direct pro 24/96 or lx6

Stand-alone: Tascam 788 portastudio

which would you prefer to someone like me. I feel that I'm computer inclined enough to learn a daw but is it easier to learn than a stand-alone (when I look at them, they remind me of a small scale computer as well). Also, which one will become outdated faster. I would like something that I don't have to upgrade every year. How is the quality of either one, which one will cause me the most headaches, etc. I will mainly be doing synths and samplers nothing live (except when using a mic for vocals)

p.s. does the aark direct pro requires a mixer? The company's website said that there isn't the need for one, if that's true how do you monitor your sounds?

Thanks
Phillymac
 
First you need to let us know exactly what you want to do. Are you planning on starting your own little recording studio, or are you just wanting to record your own music?

Also, do you already have the computer? And if so, what is it? Be specific, processor, memory, hard drive, *motherboard*, and so on.

Basically, if you have the computer then you can do some great things with a nice soundcard and it will probably sound better than a standalone system purchased for the same price...but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this setup for somebody who is going to record others...it can be very problematic and distracting at times.

As far as difficulty...if your computer is operating properly, then the learning curve will probably be the same in both cases. However, this is never the case for very long. If you record with a DAW, you MUST be willing to learn your machine inside and out. There will be headaches, and solutions won't always come easy.

As far as your long term profile is concerned...the tascam will of course still work 5 years from now....and really, as long as your computer does what you want it to right now, it'll still be good 5 years from now as long as you don't want to upgrade to the latest software/hardware. See, computers are never good enough in the first place, which is why you'll never see people spending big bucks for a "vintage computer system."

In regards to your mixer with the Aark question... if you're planning on mixing in your multitracking software, then you do not need an external mixer. You'll just take a stereo pair out of the Aark into your monitoring system.

YOU WILL NEED PREAMPS! Either the preamps built into a mixer (often poor on cheap mixers) or standalone preamps. You need a preamp for every single analog line you run into the Aark.

Slackmaster 2000
 
thanks for the reply, I can tell you that I do want to start recording my own music foremost. I am a aspiring producer (r&b, hip-hop) and would like to practice my craft in creating music, then recording it, then later collaborate with other artists and put together some quality sounding tunes. Nothing major but again nothing shabby.

As far as my computer goes, here is my specs:

Processor: AMD Athlon 700 T-Bird
Memory: 128mb ram
Hard Drive: Maxtor 20.0 gig 7200 (thought about having a second drive for music only)
OS: Windows 98
motherboard/chipset: amd slot a/via kx133 chipset (i notice on other forums that via chipsets are not compatible with some products) I check the aark website and they approved this model chipset along with the kt133

as far as preamps goes, the aark direct pro 2496 has built in pre's where the lx6 doesn't (line only). These models now come bundled with full version of cakewalk pro 9 for under $600 (lx6 about $400)

But then again I hear good things about the tascam 788 portastudio as well. But, by next year they'll be introducing another machine, probably better sounding, or more tracks, etc. You know, something that will have back in your local music store upgrading to the newest thing because now your model is obsolete, or they quit supporting that model, etc. So as you can see, I look at the pro's and con's of about everything I decide on doing before making an investment like this. It's just which format that is going to benefit me in the long run (in the next 5 years as you proposed).
 
phillymac,

I'll hit you with some of my experience with both DAW's and standalone recorders.

I've used Roland's V studios, tascam's portastudios and many other standalone tape and digital recorders. I've come to the conclusion that they all have their own "sound", especially the Roland units. I use roland as an example coz they're the most widely used standalone units and because you can almost tell a roland v-studio recording right away, it's good but not-so-good. As an R&B, hip-hop producer I didn't like the "sound" it added to my tracks. So I tried the DAW.

I feel that ultimately the DAW is more powerful both control and featurewise. Standalone units don't record MIDI, so the DAW immediately has an upper hand. Most audio interfaces, such as the Aark you mention, have much quieter Analog/Digital converters, and recreate your sound more faithfully than a stand-alone unit.

I'm not against stand alone units, I still use one for scratch ideas, but I doubt anyone can name a pro studio that uses standalone recorders.

While a DAW takes some getting used to, in the long run it would be more beneficial since you can always upgrade software and sound cards, but when the standalone unit is obsolete well... you get my point...
 
thanks for the reply, I believe I'm going to go the daw route first and see how that goes. By the way, you said you're into hip-hop and r&b, so what kind of gear are you sporting? Right now I have an asr-x pro and yamaha mu50 sound module. What gear would you recommend to get some tight ass beats and sounds?

Phillymac
 
My gear includes:

ASR-X
Akai MPC-60
Korg Trinity
Yamaha ProMix01 Digital Mixer
MADD sample CD's

I would recommend you get a couple of sample CD's to get phat kicks and snares from, and other samples.
 
Well, I finally took the dive and invested in a aardvark lx6. So I'm going to go the daw route first (hopefully, my last). I got it at a good deal at Mars ($360 including full version of cake pro 9). Does anyone else have an lx6? How do you like it?, sound quality?, ease of use?, compatibilty?, or do you wish you could have purchased something else?

Phillymac
 
Son, I never tried the lx6, but holla at me and let me know if you think it's hot.
 
You DO NOT need PREAMPS for an Aardvark DirectPro 24/96!!! Trust me.
 
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