Need advice on buying recording equipment!

[Jeemag_USA]

Ok, I am at the point of being in a position to go out and buy some decent recording gear. Long time ago I used to have a Fostex 4 track recording deck, but obviously things have come a long way since I last bought anything like that.

I have some idea of what I want, I really want it to have a built in hard drive, I am not too keen on flash disks and stuff like that and also it must have a cd burner incase I need to use it somewhere where I don't have a PC handy.

I can pick stuff up pretty cheap here, but I don't want to spend any unecessary amount of money on more than I may actually need. For example I had an offer come through the door today for an 8 track Tascam recording deck with built in hard drive and burner and monitor speakers and two mics, headphones and 100 blank CD's for $699 (about 350 pound) I don't know much about Tascam though, but I do know there is a Boss and a Fostex of similar size in the same price range here.

Can any one with some experience guide me on what I should look for, what most important to have on a deck, what is too much i.e. should I not buy a 16 track deck if I don't really need. My main concern is somewhere shortly down the line I ened up finding what I bought is not enough and then I need to go out and buy something else.

Something tells me I shoudl lean towards Boss, because of reputation and the extra drum effects and stuff that come with their packages. But I also read in some reviews somewhere that people were having issues with the Boss hard drives crashing and so on, so not sure.

Any ideas, I will mostly use it for myself and for recording bands of friends, in live and studio situatuions?

[K dragon]

i use a Boss BR-900CD

but your gonna want to go up a model or two from my one, its okay but i wish i had something a bit more advanced.

i mean i only have six tracks although it boasts eight its really 6 as 7 and 8 are one track which is needed to bounce the track.

so a model or two up i would say.

but from my linited experience i would say boss is a good reliabl recording unit.

mine was about 400 pound.

[Deemac]

Have you considered recording on a computer based system instead?

Software like Sonar or Cubase would give you hundreds of tracks if required and very powerful editing facilities with lots of additional tools like plugins and soft synths. You'd need a resonable audio card to get sound in and out etc. Worth checking out as an option and far more flexible in the long-run.

The downside of these all in one boxes, as K Dragon has discovered, is that you soon outgrow their fixed capabilities as your experience developes. The upside is you have all the facilities in one easy to use package if your just beginning with recording.

[Jeemag_USA]

Have you considered recording on a computer based system instead?

Software like Sonar or Cubase would give you hundreds of tracks if required and very powerful editing facilities with lots of additional tools like plugins and soft synths. You'd need a resonable audio card to get sound in and out etc. Worth checking out as an option and far more flexible in the long-run.

The downside of these all in one boxes, as K Dragon has discovered, is that you soon outgrow their fixed capabilities as your experience developes. The upside is you have all the facilities in one easy to use package if your just beginning with recording.

Yes I have been using computer based systems for long and weary, I know my limits with them and I want to combine both, a lot of the computer based systems and associated USB and midi hardware for attaching mics and guitars are not of good enough quality. What I am wanting to do is build the roots of a track on the comp and then transfer the track onto a proper recording deck so I can record my own instrument work over the top.

This is the on you have K right http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/pro..._sku=103230090 thats one of the ones I was looking at, that one and its 12 track cousin, also there is a Korg round the same price. How are the sounds that come with the Boss 900, have you messed much with the drums and stuff, is it easy to program, I was wondering how hard that stuf was to use without a PC screen, setting up drum tracks and so on? It doesn't look like it has a midi in does it? And also can you hook the 900 up to a PC and control it through the PC itself?

Here are some of the decks on offer around the same price - I don't really have a problem with bouncing tracks, I am pretty used to doing that. I will probably build a large part of my tracks on PC and by time I get to the recording deck I will likely only be needing to record vocal, guitar and bass parts so would only need 3 or 4 tracks then.

TASCAM
KORG
FOSTEX
BOSS

[K dragon]

yep, thats the one i have.

programming drums is a bit of a to the point i just used the automated ones, where you can set style and tempo. its not great for drums. not sure about the midi in.

i think you can hook it up to the pc but not to work in unison with a music programme. but it can read music to the hard drive.

also the br900 tricked me a little, it comes with one of those bloody memory card sticks, and i can barely fit two simple songs on it....not good.

i had to buy my eletric drumkit because the drum synths are so boring and generic, in short the drum synths and sounds are crap. the guitar effects are okay but when it comes to a nice simple reverb or delay it takes ages of teaking for the right sound, the presets are nice but if your wanting a good machine i would go a model or two up, save the cash that bit longer if needed because with nearly all musical equipment, there are a lot of good features and a lot of sneaky bad ones that rear their head after a month or so.

this has been david j hobbs review of portable recording units for caithness.org. LMAO!

[moncur]

One of my mates has a digital 8 track by Boss. Cost him an arm and a leg and has been used twice in 7 years. The instruction manual is similar to the size of war & peace and its all in english although to read is like learning a new language! also the memory card can only hold 16 minutes worth of one track.

Although i appreciate that the price of technology has since come down a heck of a lot, id sooner go for a zoom 16-track. one of my mates has one and seems like a fun piece of kit with built in hard-drive and cd burner. and the price is good too!

[Chobbersjnr]

recently bought a BR1600 boss for a friend & OMIGOD it's brutally awesome IMHO worth the extra spondoolics.

What could you get that for stateside Jeemag?????

In my experience one is always looking for more & if, for not that much more you can get a 16 or even a 24 track beast then go for it because you'll soon get frustrated when your 8 tracks are maxxed & you've bounced into stereo 10 million times

the Tascam 2488 is purdy good as well although I'd be more inclined to go with the boss units. Apparently the BR1600 has the GT8 & the GT6B built in along with sampled drum loop capabillities & the loops sound awesome

[Jeemag_USA]

recently bought a BR1600 boss for a friend & OMIGOD it's brutally awesome IMHO worth the extra spondoolics.

What could you get that for stateside Jeemag?????

In my experience one is always looking for more & if, for not that much more you can get a 16 or even a 24 track beast then go for it because you'll soon get frustrated when your 8 tracks are maxxed & you've bounced into stereo 10 million times

the Tascam 2488 is purdy good as well although I'd be more inclined to go with the boss units. Apparently the BR1600 has the GT8 & the GT6B built in along with sampled drum loop capabillities & the loops sound awesome

The BR1600 is $1299 which is about 740 pound. I didn't realise the BR900 used flash cards, I am not into that at all, if I buy something it has to have a pretty hefty sized hard drive in it, thats why I am leaning more towards the Fostex 16 track wihch has the hard drive and burner, but it does not have an drums or anything, but thats not a big problem because I can do all that on the PC. The 1600 comes with a 40gig hrad drive which is much more to my liking, I might have to save extra pennies I am thinking. Whenever I think of good gear Boss always comes to my mind first, even drum machines and stuff like that, I might just need to save a little longer and maybe go for the Boss 1600, I do trust Fostex but from my own limited experience of them I never found that their equipment was very robust, I mean drop it and its knackered like, not that I would want to drop a Boss either :P

[Chobbersjnr]

Zoom is the anti-christ of home recording OK!!!!!

[Jeemag_USA]

Zoom is the anti-christ of home recording OK!!!!!

So is that good or bad then

[K dragon]

im pretty sure you can buy boss units with hard drives but i man its totally up to you. hope your purchase does you well.

[moncur]

Zoom is the anti-christ of home recording OK!!!!!

You know a heck of a lot more about equipment than me so il take your word on that lol. As anyone who knows me will tell u, I can never be bothered organising a recording session. I tend to enjoy gigging more. Just that we used the zoom for a live recording and it seemed easy enough to work.

[K dragon]

that was the huge metal matress behind you in the newmarket then lol

[Jeemag_USA]

im pretty sure you can buy boss units with hard drives but i man its totally up to you. hope your purchase does you well.

Yeah I think after the 900 they all have hard drives, messing with the flash disks would be something that woudl drive me nuts. I tend to start projects and never finish them so I would need a lot of space to keep stuff to work on later

[theboysintheband]

I bought a Boss BR1600 and I'd highly recommend it! I have no where near used it to its full potential as I've never had the time to suss the whole thing out but it is definately capable of much much more than I've used it for! the effects available are ridiculous!

[Jeemag_USA]

I bought a Boss BR1600 and I'd highly recommend it! I have no where near used it to its full potential as I've never had the time to suss the whole thing out but it is definately capable of much much more than I've used it for! the effects available are ridiculous!

Thanks man, thats what I am wanting to hear, people that have used it, so I think i am heading in that direction. I did read an online review that said the effects were so good the person didn't use any of their pedals, and the only little downfall was one of the bass effects woudl drop out on a low string or something. Cheers.