New guy and questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter RotundRoland
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RotundRoland

New member
Hi all,

thought I'd introduce myself and ask a few Q's.

I play guitar and write songs in my spare time. In the past I've owned a Zoom MRS-802 and currently have a Zoom MRS 1044.

After a break of a couple of years, I have come back to the Zoom to find that it is severely dated, does not have USB/SD capabilities, and some of the buttons have faded to nothing. I also find it clunky and generally want something better.

I am considering the Zoom R16 and the Tascam DP24. Bearing in mind that I never ran out of tracks on my 10 track, would anyone have a preference as to which model? The other problem is that neither of the above have native drums, so I am also after a good (budget) drum module.

In terms of what I need: I just write on guitar in my garage, so need something that's easy to record. I usually go with about 3 tracks for guitars, one for Bass (I use guitar with an Octaver to replicate Bass), one track for durms and maybe 2 for vocals (using an SM68 mic). For the drum module I need basic backing drums to keep me in check, but also would like to easily add fills and different beats without going through the algorithms (which I found tiresome and complicated on the old Zoom machines). I would then be mastering down and exporting to laptop to share or whatever.

I have no intention of using a PC/laptop for anything other than reading a card or stick, or maybe to download and import some samples, but I'm not very technical.

Hope this is the right forum! Thanks in advance
 
I am curious as to why you are closed off to the idea of PC / Laptop Recording? I used to have a dedicated console DAW and i ~thought~ it was the cats ass and i too, had zero interest in getting a computer for recording. I didn't mind all the transferring of data between the console and a PC to get to a hard copy and i assumed it was just normal.

When i migrated migrated completely to a PC based daw i saw the light. The likely hood of me ever going back to a console based DAW is incredibly thin. for the price of that Zoom16 you can get a laptop and an audio card exclusively your 7 or 8 tracks.

Also not to mention most PC based DAW's will let you utilize midi drum loops and stuff like EzDrummer and Superior Drummer and, friend, i'll tell you, that frustration you had with adding fills in and stuff at any point on stuff like your zoom, is basically gone. the only frustration i experience with stuff like that is the time spent going through a midi library or tapping on out on a controller.

I know this isn't an answer you were looking for but i really urge that you reconsider a computer. they are in now way as limiting as a console based DAW.
 
Thanks for the reply. I don't have a laptop, and I guess I don't know enough about software to have looked into it. Would I just need any laptop with a soundcard? Don't they all come with one as standard, or are the standard ones not good enough? It would be easier I guess.

So, can you recommend me a laptop that's man enough for the job, and the most user friendly software for 300 GBP?
 
Hi there and welcome. Learning a DAW isnt super hard and you can get one for free. Now the free ones like Pro Tools First have certain limitations such as track count, but in your situation you don't really need a ton of tracks. The downside with Pro Tools First is you need an ilok. Which is about 50 bucks. You would also need an audio interface such as the Presonus Audiobox which runs 99.00 new but sell on ebay for as low as 35 bucks. Not trying to spam here at all, but I have 2 free ebooks on DAW recording and a whole Pro Tools Tutorial for free over at my blog. Home - Mission Musician. Maybe watch the Pro Tools video and see if getting into a DAW is right for you, before you decide to do it. Or go look up some videos on youtube,

I used a Roland VS 1880 for years before I finally made the switch to a DAW. DAW's are a little more flexible in my opinion. But you can make great recordings on the desktop units as well. Also, a full version of Reaper (another DAW) is only 60 bucks.
 
Yeah, there's a learning curve with DAWs, but like ShanPeyton said, its worth it! Look at Reaper - free to download and try out, $60 to register.
 
Ok thanks for the replies, will certainly look into the links provided.
 
I have both the Zoom R16 and the Tascam DP24......got the Zoom first.....then went to the DP24 for more tracks. I also use Reaper as a DAW. I advise the Zoom because it serves nicely as an audio interface with 8 inputs.......phantom power and is also a controller. The Tascam does none of that. For future use if you go to a DAW and for the price.........you can't go wrong with the R16. The R24 is very similar.........just more tracks and has a drum machine. As many here are saying..........don't overlook going right to a DAW..................but having been where you are.........do what feels most comfortable to you. Then see where it goes after that.
 
Thanks Mickster and arcaxis. I've decided to go for the R16 and a drum module, purely because I don't have a PC/Laptop and were I to get a new one of the appropriate spec it would be way more expensive. I am still quite old school and like the dedicated multi-trackers. That way, if I decide later on to get a laptop and DAW then I can still make use of the R16 as an audio interface.

Cheers guys
 
I'm sure you'll be very happy with the R16. As I mentioned........the R24 is pretty much the same recorder with a decent drum machine built in. It too can be used as an audio interface and a DAW controller and since you mentioned that you would be picking up a drum machine as well.......you might consider getting the Zoom R24. You can find them on-line used for a good price normally. Just a thought and worth checking into. Good luck and let us hear what you produce when the time comes !!!
 
I'll just echo what others have said. The downside of standalone recorders is that they become dated. What happened to your old Zoom unit will happen to the new one too. A P/C setup is modular and can be upgraded as you go. And editing ability on a DAW far exceeds what you can do on your standalone unit. It really is the way to go. There is no downside that I can see.

I still have a Roland VS880ex in perfectly good condition that was quite expensive back in the day, and that I will probably never use again because it's 16 bit technology. DAWs were quite a bit more primitive when I bought it sixteen years ago. Still I wish I'd made the leap then.
 
Go PC/laptop. There are audio interfaces that come bundled with DAW's (AudioBox + Studio One, for example). It'll make your life easier in the long run
 
If you go with the Zoom, a fine animal, you can track with it, then go to a PC and mix. What is even kind of cool with the Zoom, it will act as a and interface and controller for your DAW, so you get a type of mixer. Plus, you can buy two and daisy chain them for a total of 16 inputs.

The Zooms are not bad machines, just hard to mix with them past channel volume control.
 
Sorry i am getting back to this so late. But it sounds like OP has it fugured out but now i have some questions.

So this Zoom thing. If i am understanding what i am reading correctly, you can effectively use it as a stand alone console DAW, and say record a drum kit and a bass for instance. Then when that is done i would have the ability to connect it to a computer and manipulate what i just recorded from with a PC based daw such as Reaper with the physical faders of the zoom as the controller?

Am i understanding that all wrong?
 
Thanks - I went ahead and bought the R16 because I got an ex-display model (still boxed with the plastic protectors on) for £50 less than new. I thought I read somewhere that the R24 didn't have the same DAW interface capabilities, but that's my mistake. I can use my old MRS 1044 for drums until i research properly which drum machine to get.

I'm sure I will have more questions once I get it, but for now I will await arrival and get my writing head on.
 
Yes that's what I thought. I don't think I even touched the surface of my MRS-802 in terms of mixing (my mixing capabilities consisted of getting the levels right and then recording to the master track for export). It's my birthday money so nothing lost if in a year or two I have to sell the multi-tracker and get a laptop with software!
 
ShanPeyton said:
i would have the ability to connect it to a computer and manipulate what i just recorded from with a PC based daw such as Reaper with the physical faders of the zoom as the controller?
Click to expand...
That's how I understood it, so if after a while I was not satisfied with the stand alone mixing/editing capabilities of the Zoom, I could still feed it in to Reaper for some better control. From what I've read, most of the other multi-trackers do not have this feature. Of course you are limited a little as to your source recording i.e. The reaper software would essentially only recognize your recorded track as a sample, as it wasn't initially recorded within the DAW suite?

Do correct me if I'm wrong though.
 
Interesting. I like the idea of it acting as an audio interface and it's portability. I'd half consider it for an interface upgrade at some point. The portability is a nice perk! Glad Op got it for a decent price.
 
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