FD-8 to record a demo

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Keith_H

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I got my hands on a FD-8 from a friend and my band is looking to record a demo on it. It seems like a nice machine (especially to a Tascam 4-tracker like myself) but i'm confused. I saw 8-tracks and I thought I could probably use 3 for my drums (kick, snare, overhead) then I realized it could only record 2 tracks at a time. I've never seen this optical or whatever it's called input but it says with that i can get up to 8-tracks simultaneously. That's greek to me! I do have a little 6 channel peavey mixer and i was thinking about using that to mix the 3 (and maybe more) mics down to 2 tracks but I'd rather not have to do that..any ideas?
 
Basically, it works like this... The FD8 only has 2 A/D converters. To record anymore than 2 unique tracks at a time, you'll need to use external converters.. either spdif to add 2 more unique tracks or ADAT to record 8 unique tracks. I use a Fostex VM200 digital mixer. The Fostex VC-8 is an ADAT converter box that runs about $299. There is also the Alesis AI-3 which runs about the same. The Flying Cow converters from Midiman are spdif converters for pretty cheap...can't recall the avg. though.
 
Yea I saw that Alesis on musiciansfriend after i posted the question, but i sure as hell don't have 300 bucks...I do appreciate the response though!! Looks like I'm only getting 2 tracks for drums...
 
Another option is to beg/borrow/steal a device that has optical spdif... DAT machine, FX box, mini-disk, etc. Then just go through that to the FD-8.
 
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