Hello everyone Homerecording.com BBS, my name's Glen and I've recently started venturing into the realm of home recording. Right now I'm looking for something (anolog or digital, or even USB interface) for recording 2-4 people. At the very least I want to be able to record 4 tracks at once, and thus, I am stuck. Originally I found the MBox, which seems cool because of it's compadibility, portability, and Protools, but then I've been wondering, what kind of stand alone stuff is out there =\. I'm looking to spend about 500 USD. Let me know if you need more specifics...thanks in advance, have a good day.
This is probably percieved by most as the bottom end of technology on this board, but you could go with a 4-track cassette...some of them record 4 tracks at a time (I own a Yamaha MT-50 that allows this)...you could buy a good used one for approx $100 on ebay and have the other $400 for a mic(s), effects, etc. My MT-50 has the mixer already built into it and and a gain switch (I guess you could call them pre-amps) on each channel/track (so it killed a couple of birds with one stone, I didn't have to buy these separately). I mix down to my computer using Cakewalk Pyro 2004 (less than $50) to make MP3s or CDs. Of course (you said you wanted to record 4 tracks at once) if you need more than 4-tracks (to complete the song) then this won't work for you. (you could do the bouncing thing, record three tracks, bounce the three to the empty forth track, and start on the initial three tracks again, but that defeats your original criteria for 4 tracks at once...I never got into track bouncing, but I have respect for those who can do it well).
Another reasonable option is something like the Yamaha MD4S 4 track minidisc recorder. They typically run under $300 used and many times the seller will include a number of DATA MD's along with the sale.
As easy as a cassette based unit, with objectively better sonics.
There are some other advantages like editing features, erasability, etc.
