Reasonably Complicated Newbie Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter MikeD
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MikeD

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Ok, here's my dilemma:

I am looking to begin doing some home recording. The location of my experiments will be my garage which is more of a game room than anything else (never park in it).

I am basically a one man band...i play acoustic and electric guitar, bass, drums, a little bit of piano/keys, and sing. Currently, I have a laptop, but it's only a PIII 750, 256 MB Ram, with the crappy original soundcard.

I am torn over whether to go computer based or digital multitrack standalone. I know about the flexibility of computer based systems, but the problem is that I would likely need to buy a new computer, (not that big a deal though, I could go on EBay and get a P4 emachines for like $400) but more importantly that I can't leave a computer in the garage when it is 100 degrees outside here in New Orleans. Thus, I'd constantly have to haul everything in and out of the garage. Are the advantages of the computer based system worth the pain of constantly moving everything?

If I go standalone, which should I consider? My budget on that would be $500-1000. Also, I am relatively new to recording, so any general advice for a newbie would be appreciated.
 
Considering your circumstances, a standalone would be more appropriate. You could also use a PC inside your home to further edit and take advantage of the tools available.
If you go standalone...get digital.
 
hey mike...im in the same deal you are in, one man band. I bought the Fostex MR-8 with the two mics, the sm-57 and the sm-58. I works ok, but i jumped into it way too early without reading up on better options. I was on a low budget (lower than yours) so the MR-8 looked good. It is user friendly and has a lot of problems..example the dreaded flash card! Stay away from those. My friend has the Fostex VF-80 (8 tracks)which comes with an optional cd burner and has phantom power with the 2 XLR inputs (which is great). So you may want to look into that. or maybe go up a step and get the VF-160 it has 16 tracks and a cd burner...you probably arent going to need more than 8 tracks. so i would suggest the VF-80 for you, then get yourself some good mics. I am only referring to Fostex because that is all i am familiar with...their may be better products out there...more knowledgable people will be posting. hope i helped.

later
rick
 
If you need to record real drums then the VF160 is definetly the choise here. You can use the built-in CD-RW to move tracks from VF160 to computer for further editing and mixing. For software I recommend the inexpensive n-Track Studio from www.fasoft.com.

Even if you don't do live drums the VF160 will be better choice than the VF80 in the long run thanks to it's much better expandability and connectivity (= ADAT interface) to other recording gear or computer that you might buy later on.
 
Check out the N-track forum and the users forums at www.fasoft.com. N-track rocks.

Also check out the Korg D1200. Great for solo / small groups and it has a USB port. The preamps and D/A converters have an edge over the Fostex, but the VF160 has lots of features. It has been criticized for its odd EQ setup, though. If you intend to record straight and mix / master on the computer, the VF160 EQ issue won't interfere.
 
With a USB audio interface, you should be able to use your laptop for some pretty basic, yet decent recording.

Check some of the products by M-Audio, and Edirol for this purpose. You will have the portability you need, with better sound than the built in soundcard.
 
I think that, maestro_dmc suggestion was very good.
 
If you go the laptop route, make sure that it is USB 2.0.

spin
 
I've run 24tracks on a 450 w/ less ram... so I think a USB solution sound pretty good... but I'm not sure about using Edirol interface, I know at least some of them are not full-duplex (which means you can't hear the track you already laid down while adding more.)
 
gorbyrun said:
I've run 24tracks on a 450 w/ less ram... so I think a USB solution sound pretty good... but I'm not sure about using Edirol interface, I know at least some of them are not full-duplex (which means you can't hear the track you already laid down while adding more.)
Click to expand...
All USB1 devices cannot duplex while recording at 96khz/24 bit my understanding is that it is a USB bandwidth limitation, not a problem with the device itself.

I haven't tried it with my UA-5 but there might be some work-arounds that would work, such as using the laptop sound card as the output device while tracking, so that you are monitoring off of the laptop headphones port and the USB device is not having to duplex.
 
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