Need advice on what setup I should start out with....

[Rambone]

Why?

What's the difference...both are DAWs.
With a computer-based DAW, you have the option of upgrading your converters and software and hardware.

With a standalone DAW....it's all so very proprietary...and you STILL have to export to a computer-based DAW to do any real editing...so now you have to have two rigs.

The thing is....I don't want to have to sit at my computer while i'm laying down tracks. I don't want to spend half of my time searching through submenus and deciphering technerd speak (that is usualy littered all over computer based DAWS). I've already read the TASCAM manual, same parts at least a half dozen times. I could have that figured out fairly quickly.

 

[benherron.rrr]

Get your self a decent DAW and a wait . . . . . . are you ready?. . . . . . . . A BCF 2000, ok its by beringer, and wont be the best quality but . . . for the price its unbeatable. its basically a MIDI controller for your DAW, I use mine for everything from Eq, mixing, recording, effects, MIDI instruments. Its a way so you have the advantage of a computer based DAW and the feeling of actually working with you music. unless you have the budget for a makie etc which are much better but cost a hell of alot more

 

[moresound]

Get your self a decent DAW and a wait . . . . . . are you ready?. . . . . . . . A BCF 2000, ok its by beringer, and wont be the best quality but . . . for the price its unbeatable. its basically a MIDI controller for your DAW, I use mine for everything from Eq, mixing, recording, effects, MIDI instruments. Its a way so you have the advantage of a computer based DAW and the feeling of actually working with you music. unless you have the budget for a makie etc which are much better but cost a hell of alot more

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well...... OK, but it's still a Behringer.

 

[benherron.rrr]

LOL I warned you. At least it has no influence on the sound. just has 8 faders to control volume and 8 knobs to control the panners. cheap and cheerful

 

[moresound]

LOL I warned you. At least it has no influence on the sound. just has 8 faders to control volume and 8 knobs to control the panners. cheap and cheerful

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Well.......OK,but it's still a behringer

 

[The Cancers]

But the op just said he doesn't want to have to sift through the tech speak and the driver setup and the etc...
Having used a BCF2000 I can vouch for the incredible headache that trying to get that thing working caused. Especially with Behringer's nonexistent customer support and (if I'm remembering correctly, it's been a minute) shit manual.
The amount of forum digging and downloading and learning of things entirely unrelated to my musical style (if I did any sort of midi based composition I wouldn't have minded the master class in midi I had to wade through, but I don't, and it felt like I'd crossed a line of diminishing returns as far as time invested vs. time saved goes) I had to go through just to get that thing working halfway as well as I would want a control surface to was, to say the least, really frustrating.
If the OP had a bigger budget I'd be right there with you as far as trying to get him to invest in a control surface.
But he obviously has done the research and knows exactly what he wants.
I say good luck to him.

 

[miroslav]

The thing is....I don't want to have to sit at my computer while i'm laying down tracks. I don't want to spend half of my time searching through submenus and deciphering technerd speak (that is usualy littered all over computer based DAWS).

There's a learning phase with everything...but once your DAW is configured to your liking...tracking to DAW is no different than anything else.
You arm the track and hit REC.

Tracking isn't the issue...it's the editing and mixing...and you will end up doing that on a DAW anyway...so why not just do it all there.
After the first 2-3 sessions...you won't even give it second thought tracking on a DAW.

 

[grimtraveller]

The thing is....I don't want to have to sit at my computer while i'm laying down tracks. I don't want to spend half of my time searching through submenus and deciphering technerd speak (that is usualy littered all over computer based DAWS). I've already read the TASCAM manual, same parts at least a half dozen times. I could have that figured out fairly quickly.

But the op just said he doesn't want to have to sift through the tech speak and the driver setup and the etc...
Having used a BCF2000 I can vouch for the incredible headache that trying to get that thing working caused. Especially with Behringer's nonexistent customer support and (if I'm remembering correctly, it's been a minute) shit manual.
The amount of forum digging and downloading and learning of things entirely unrelated to my musical style (if I did any sort of midi based composition I wouldn't have minded the master class in midi I had to wade through, but I don't, and it felt like I'd crossed a line of diminishing returns as far as time invested vs. time saved goes) I had to go through just to get that thing working halfway as well as I would want a control surface to was, to say the least, really frustrating.
If the OP had a bigger budget I'd be right there with you as far as trying to get him to invest in a control surface.
But he obviously has done the research and knows exactly what he wants.
I say good luck to him.

And if I believed in luck, that's what I'd say too. But like Cancers, I wish Rambone well, most definitely as the research has been done, the mind made up and the decision made, which is surely the right conclusion to the original query. I said it earlier, I'll say it again - there is so much recording stuff out there and they all work by hook or by crook. So each person wondering which way to go will ultimately go with the way they best believe will net them the results they are looking for. Somebody might feel, for whatever reason, great, hooking up an 8 track reel to reel with a 4 track portastudio and sending everything through a 7 channel mixer manufactured on Mars into Logic or whatever. While many would say "You can do this far easier, you know", that's missing the point. For the punter doing it, it is easy. It's quite funny reading the lengths the Beatles went to to get sounds that, had they recorded in the States, they could have got at the drop of a hat. But nearly 50 years on, it's their stuff that continually gets referenced ! :
Sail on, Rambone !

 

[Rambone]

And if I believed in luck, that's what I'd say too. But like Cancers, I wish Rambone well, most definitely as the research has been done, the mind made up and the decision made, which is surely the right conclusion to the original query. I said it earlier, I'll say it again - there is so much recording stuff out there and they all work by hook or by crook. So each person wondering which way to go will ultimately go with the way they best believe will net them the results they are looking for. Somebody might feel, for whatever reason, great, hooking up an 8 track reel to reel with a 4 track portastudio and sending everything through a 7 channel mixer manufactured on Mars into Logic or whatever. While many would say "You can do this far easier, you know", that's missing the point. For the punter doing it, it is easy. It's quite funny reading the lengths the Beatles went to to get sounds that, had they recorded in the States, they could have got at the drop of a hat. But nearly 50 years on, it's their stuff that continually gets referenced ! :
Sail on, Rambone !

Thanks. My mind isn't made up but it's pretty close. i still want to do a bit more research into computer-based DAW's and how i would go about using one. I'm willing to learn but I also don't want to make the recording process more complicated and confusing than it needs to be.