Zoom r8 / New to recording.

[Rookworst88]

Hello,

I can say i'm a newb to home-recording, so excuse my little knowledge and maybe dumb talking . I have recorded in a studio with my band and helped mixing etc so I do know a bit about that part.

Now im planning to buy a home-recording system that isnt too expensive and still has decent sound quality. I want to use it to simply create songs for my own use, mostly for Youtube vids with some guitar playing involved (think of covers from mostly metal-bands or just demo-type stuff for my band)

So i've searched a bit for what would fit for me and I stumbled upon the Zoom r8 interface.

Can you, as experienced people, tell me if this is a good choice? The quality should be decent (I'm using a good quality amp + guitar) and for drums i'm going to use guitarpro for making them and then digitalizing them with EzDrummer type of software.

So basically I want to use the interface to record it and do all the mixing on my computer. I think this should be done in Qbase (which should be included).

Will I be able to record it directly to the interface? Or should I be getting an extra mic? Im not planning on recording several instruments at one time. As said, i mostly play metal, if this makes any difference (with the high gain etc ) Will I be able to import my own made midi's into the system and play it on them? You guys think this is the solution for me? Or should I look to other interfaces?

Hope you can help, and sorry for my bad knowledge, but im reading on it!

 

[Captain Ego]

I know zoom... lots of zoom... and the R8 is pale in comparison to its big brothers the R16 and R24... reason being not so much about the extra tracks, but that the R16 and R24 both have 8 inputs and simultaneous recording. That is GOLDEN compared to just 2 inputs on the R8. If I were looking for a new recorder I'd shell out the extra hundred bucks for the 16, it's not really any bigger if space is a concern, just having those extra simultaneous recording inputs is a huge difference especially if you want to record a band playing together, or if you like getting fancy with drum micing (just a simple 4 piece set can have something like 1 outside the kick, 1 inside, 2 on the snare/hight hat area (over/under), 2 overhead (L/R), and 2 on the toms thats 8 tracks to simultaneously record rather than um.... 1 overhead and 1 kick, or a 'room' left and right, or "recorderman" compromises. 2 inputs is debilitating for group play too. 8 is nice. Extra hundred bucks or so. All Zoom stuff is cheap and pretty nifty with all the gadgets they throw in its performance. So the small differences between the higher end Zoom product cost and the lower end ones isn't nearly as big a deal as the extra stuff they throw in for the step-up models. I know you said you planned on doing all your drums the computer way, but eventually you will be hampered by the 2 input interface instead of 8 input. FOr the small cost difference, the advantage is huge in the long run.

The R24 also has sample/looping kind of functions too which can be used the same way for drums, or repetative riffs, as you plan on tracking one thing at a time. All of them can control a DAW, but you can use them just as its own recorder too for a lot of functions, just not as intuitive as the little screen and menu interface obviously not as easy to understand at first as point-and-click and a computer monitor.