What to buy?

[Tony Gring]

HI There, I've been checking out this site for a week now and it's great.So now I'm registered and here's the first post. I know this question has come up before so please forgive the redundancy. I need some direction on what to get for home recording. My recording experience is zero. I play guitar, write songs and gig with a blues/rock band. my goal is to record probably track by track by myself mostly.Original songs to demo to the band and maybe OF the band.Probably won't need much simutaneous track recording capability.
I don't have a "studio" so I'd need something I could set up fairly quickly and simply in my living room. Hence the idea of something that didn't require many extra outboard boxes appeals to me, but I realize that may be a trade off with ease of operation. I'd prefer to be able to record, mix and master all on one unit but again realize there may be a simplicity trade off. Here's what I own right now- Crate 8 ch. powered PA head with digital reverb/delay built in, Boss DR-550MkII drum machine,Boss GT-3 guitar effects processor, SM-58 and Audix OM-6 mics, Teac W-488R dubbing cassette deck. My budget is around a grand. Here's some of my considerations: Tascam 424 Mk3, Yamaha MD4Sor MD8,Boss BR-8, Korg D-8 ,Roland VS-840EX. I would really appreciate all input. I want to make the right choice. I'm also well aware,being a guitar gear head, how much of a money pit recording can turn into. Hence, the right gear to start being so important. Thank You. Tony Gring

 

[monty]

If you live in Santa Barbara you will have to come to the minicom or be banned from this site.

 

[The Green Hornet]

Ola Antonio:

Well, man, you can certainly look at many boxes to do some recording.

All of those you mentioned in your post are nice machines; I use the MD-8. Whatever you decide to buy, get at least 8 tracks; bouncing tracks is an art and if your are a beginner, using one or two tracks to put down a vocal or a drum loop, is better than bouncing; you will have total control of all single recorded tracks as to EQ and reverb; if you bounce, you have control of the bounced track (s) and can't tweak all of the instruments you bounced.

I've never had much more need than 8 tracks; however, 12 or 16 tracks might come in handy if you get into high-powered stuff.

Roland products are nice; however, the learning curve is way too long for this day and age of "quick computer stuff." Roland ought to take note of this comment.

The Yamaha MD8 is pretty easy to plug in and record but it does not come with FX, so you would need an FX box to add dimension to your vocals, etc. There aren't many pros out there who record without reverb.

The MD8 also has some difficult parts that I haven't figured out yet but there is a growing amount of info on this site and others.

So, look, evaluate, listen, and go for it.

Green Hornet

[This message has been edited by The Green Hornet (edited 07-15-2000).]