Portable studio

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leavings

leavings

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I'm looking for something that I can bring with me on tour to record shows. Ideally I want something small and cheap with RCA ins and outs so I can feed directly from the PA system, and I would like at least some capabilities for setting input levels. Format and other features aren't too important as long as it can get the job done.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Let me know,
Peter
 
You just want a 2 channel L/R mix off the mixer? What do you ultimately want to do with these recordings???
 
I'd like to have recordings of some of the best shows for feedback and just to enjoy, and I would put some of the live tracks on the website. Also, a lot of music festivals are interested in hearing live recordings so they know how you interact with the crowd.

Peter
 
Gee,... how'bout a Porta-studio?!

There are probably at least a dozen genuine Tascam Portastudios to choose from, and almost all of them will do the type of recording you've described,... with only one exception I can think of: the MF-P01,... so avoid that one.

That leaves all the other Tascam Portastudios to choose from,... models and features too numerous to mention. Search "Ebay/Tascam" for further info, or "Tascam" on any of those new online music equipment retailers (musiciansfriend, etc). Find the most high quality USED 4-track Portastudios as: Tascam 244, 246, 464 & 424mkII. Find the most high quality NEW 4-track Portastudio as the Tascam 424mkIII.

Also, I beg your pardon, but you've detailed the most basic & rudimentary recording possible, which [IMO] would include almost every other recorder out there,... including your standard home-console cassette deck and Minidisc recorders. I'd suggest some nice Technics dbx cassette decks (Ebay/Technics cassette), or any Sony Dolbyc/HX-Pro stereo cassette recorder, (Ebay/Sony cassette or new/retail). Also, the Sony MDS-JE510 & MDS-JE320 are a couple of the nicer Minidisc recorders, (Ebay/Sony Minidisc).

The way you describe your recording needs, pretty much leaves it wide open.

I'd offer these parting shots,... search Ebay for "Tascam 234", for a leading design in 4-track cassette recording, that's a "Syncaset" and not a true "Portastudio".

If you want something that goes way beyond cassette and Portastudio recording, I'd suggest searching Ebay (again) for "Tascam 34B". There are all sorts of vintage 4-track/Stereo reel recorders, too numerous to mention,... but the bulk of them I'd recommend would be "TEAC" and "Technics". Note: Almost all reel/reel recorders would be Ebay items, with only a couple exceptions.

That's enough ideas to keep you busy for a while, and to commit at least a couple hundred dollars to,... (heh). A lot depends on your sound quality requirements, portability requirements, and budget. :eek:

Good luck!!
 
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I dont know how much money u want to put in this. A Terratec Phase 88 sound card ($299) has 8 ins and out (all are RCA) and also one MIDI in and out. I have this card and I love it. If you have a laptop with a docking station that will accept PCI cards, that would be all you needed. If you dont have the laptop, you would have to have a PC. To me, that is portable enough because I do lug my PC around when Im recording elsewhere. I am however going to be ordering a laptop in the next few days. Like i said, if you have a laptop or go purchase one for this application, make sure you get a docking station for it that will accept PCI cards.
hope this helps.
Jeremy
 
another option might be - and a bit more upmarket would be to find a
used alesis adat and a mixer. so you could feed 8 mics to the 8 alesis tracks,
then come back home and on a pc mix the 8 tracks and get everything perfect to your hearts desire and then even burn a cd of the event.
frankly i'm not happy with any portable solution. never have been.
reason is - once electronics are involved , its always at the worst moment a device wont work. so if you are serious about doing this you might want to think about a back up plan. for example you COULD (money permitting)
go out to an adat AND a personal computer laptop AND a portable standalone digital recorder or say an old tascam 38 which you can sometimes pick up for a few hundred bucks.
if you dont mind cassette noise - and cheaper - pick up a couple of cassette based multitracks like that syncaset mentioned earlier.
also yamaha used to make a 8 track on cassete format.
lots of choices i know. but consider a back up plan.
if one device goes wrong your out of luck.
what some big boys do is record events/gigs to multiple computers in case one goes down or multiple tape machines.
 
Sure,...

there are many solutions.

If you want to go beyond basic stereo recording, there are numerous 4-track cassette Portastudios, (detailed above), as well as a handful of 8-track cassette Portastudios (Tascam 488/488mkII & 688), plus a cassette-porta-Yamaha MT-8X.

A cassette 8-track Syncaset (Tascam 238/rackmount) would require an external mixer, which is a fine setup, but if you're into a separate mixer & recorder, the Tascam M-30 mixer and 38 1/2" reel recorder combo is an excellent choice.

If you want 8-tracks simultaneous recording in a self contained Portastudio format unit, there's the wonderful 1/4"-reel Tascam 388,... second to none in it's class.

There are numerous digital 8-trackers, but most of them record only 2-tacks simutaneously,... my favorite of which is the Fostex FD-8, but there are many others, too numerous to mention.
 
I left it wide open intentionally because I didn't have any clue what sort of response I was going to get. Thank you all for the info.

I'm primarily looking for something I can use on this tour. I plan on getting a laptop down the line and already have the hardware and software I would need to make that a portable studio. What I need now I just something cheap that I can jack into the PA system and then jack back out to my desktop when I get home.

I looked at some of the TASCAM portastudios and they seem fairly adept and reasonably priced for my needs. I'm going to see if I can find a good one on ebay...

Thanks,
Peter
 
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