First Multitrack

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batterypowpow

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Hey.
I know very little about the technology for making music. I only started researching into it yesterday.

I'm looking for a multitrack recorder. I'd most likely be using it to record and layer - maybe manipulate - my voice and plucking some guitar strings, recording random sounds and piecing them together... and really just beginning to learn a little about the technology and what can be done, what things are called, how to do things.

I can't play any instruments particularly well so to begin with it'd be used for playing with the equipment and then making some fairly primitive songs.

On a different forum i've been advised on a few things. Either the Tascam 424 MKII or MKIII, Alesis Multimix 8 USB and Tapco Link USB. Though i'd rather be twiddling knobs at this point than clicking a computer mouse.

Any suggestions for either cassette or digital recorders would be brilliant. And any other equipment that i may like to think about (microphones and the like) would be good too.

Thanks.
 
I really like the Tascam 424mkIII as well. I like how it is laid out, it's a simple and effective layout. I also like the Korg D16 which is pretty good for a digital record and it's cheap considering the features it has. It has effects, dedicated guitar and bass input, hard drive, and it has a touch screen with waveform display.
 
A lot of people are cutting their multitrack teeth on the Fostex MD-8.
At the risk of offending analog fans: analog recordings, especially cassette tapes, do not really lend themselves to the task of editing.
 
Since you obviously have access to a computer, have you considered recording to a PC?

A decent sound card, free or inexpensive mixing/tracking software, pre-amp and microphone...you're set.

Just a thought that you may not have considered yet.
 
I have to agree with YH, if you want to fabricate music piece at a time you won't have much fun with analog recorders. If you had a sampling keyboard maybe but really a computer and interface is going to be the easiest way to get anything decent. Look into some game-ish software like fruity loops or garage band.
 
Yeah, I'd go with what Punkin says. Most PCs these days are quite capable of doing multitrack audio and effects, not to mention MIDI and softsynths.

There's some FREE and shareware multitrack audio/MIDI sequencers out there for you to download. Check out Quartz, Kristal, Anvil Studio and hey, I just found another one called Ardour...

I'd advise downloading some free software - it might be just what you need to get started. If you find that all this audio nonsense is not for you, then nothing lost....
 
Thanks for the replies so far. After a bit of thought, i narrowed/re-wrote my original post on that other forum...

"My 2 (just to simplify things) attractions in music are grime, dubstep, techno, electronic etc (put in the computer/software category) and lo-fi, no wave, noise, punk... Kukl, Sonic Youth's "Confusion is Sex", Cat Power's first couple of albums, a couple of Einsturzende Neubauten tracks i've heard (i would put in multitrack hardware category probably just because of the lower quality). For several reasons, for now, i'm drawn to the latter (though i will still be playing with some of the software that's been recommended).

Generally, any sound experimentation is what i go for. Recording my washing machine when it bangs around, singing and growling over that, scraping a plectrum down a guitar string over that, just playing around with stuff. Recording stones being thrown into water.

I know i'll be instantly in love with whatever i get first but don't want to spend too much money on my first thing - i know it'll prob be a cassette multitrack rather than a digital one because of price - but these are just a beginning for me (hence, not wanting to throw too much money at it). I guess urgency is a bit key here. I feel i've wasted a lot of time i could've spent doing this but instead wandered around a little lost in life. So...

I'm intrigued by the 424 MkII and the MkIII. If you've personal experience of either of these please give me your comments on them, or recommend something else if you can, cassette or digital. How much hiss do they produce? What effects do they have?"

My thoughts at the moment are to have some sort of digital or cassette multitrack, and then transfer whatever i record to the PC and manipulate them a little with some free software.
 
Here's a song I did on a Tascam 424mkIII--->
07-20-2007_1.JPG


Here's a song I did on a Korg D16--->
07-20-2007_2.JPG
 
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