Anyone using a 4 track recorder?

[Twinfan]

I'm thinking of picking one up as the next stage of home recording experiments.  The Zoom MRS-04 looks cheap at £99, or there are the Boss and Tascam units for close to double that.

Or should I get an old cassette four track like the Portastudio 424???

[_tom_]

If you have a good computer it'd probably be best to use that if you can!

You can get a program called Reaper which is a free multitracking thing and is great, I prefer it to cubase, as do other people on HC (the person who recommended me it says he prefers it to Protools, and he seems to know his stuff, so it cant be that bad)..

[JJretroTONEGOD]

You can get Sonar 5 Producer edition for £100 or less! unlimited tracks FX, everything, you can even make albums with it, or any demos/eps!

Check on Ebay for analoque 4 tracks, especially BBC 4 track recorders, they are also a bargain.

[Twinfan]

My computer isn't suitable for recording, so I'd rather get a stand alone unit.

Has anyone used the Zoom stuff or anything else?

[Transcend]

My computer isn't suitable for recording, so I'd rather get a stand alone unit.

Has anyone used the Zoom stuff or anything else?

my lead player uses one... we did the recordings on www.hategrowth.net
with it

he did all of the recording etc i just played on the rhythm tracks and some tracking on the leads on forever more

[jt]

:D To be honest i sold my Boss BR1180 CD 8 track digital recorder as to be honest its cr@p & nowhere near as good as the old tape porta studios were [They were also easier to use as well ]

I`ve recentley bought a Line 6 GX Toneport it cost £49. It has all the original guitar amps + cabs from the PodXt its as easy as F**k to use & you get much better sounds onto your computer to boot. [ It also has FX as well ] Highly Highly recommended peice of kit. As Tom has said theres a load of FREE recording software out there. I`ve got Audacity but having heard what Tom has said i`ll try out Reaper as well.

I no its a pain in the arse when you put a Post up & everybody shoots it down but honestly in my expierience avoid the digital multi trackers out there buy a Toneport GX & download free software you`ll get a much better package Honestly.

 :D  8)

[TwilightOdyssey]

For little money you can get more than 4 tracks of digital stand alone recording. If you want integrated amp modeling and a mic as well, I can recommend the Korg PXR series. Mine gave me about 5 years of faithful service and withstood daily abuse before it disintegrated.

[Twinfan]

I'm after something simple - I'll be using my Little Rock amp and a Palmer speaker sim.  I don't need all the Line 6 modelling gubbins as I don't like the tone plusI'll be using a real amp (old skool you see  ;) ).  I'll want to record and master on the unit and just transfer it to my PC for saving/sharing.

The Boss BR600 is looking good at the moment - £199 at my local shop.

[gwEm]

i'm looking into getting a digital multitrack at the moment too in the 200 quid range. to be honest, i didn't find anything that is totally ideal.

the boss br600 is definately good (it has a sensible USB implementation), but i think you can get more for you money.

the problem with some of these zoom units is that they just sample at 32khz, although the up to date ones are 44khz, so its worth checking.

i'm also looking at the:

Zoom H4 (it has a builtin 4 track, and works as a USB sound card)
Zoom MRS8SD (make sure its the SD version, the older version takes smart media which aren't as large, both have MIDI)
Tascam DP-01 (massive hard disk, MIDI and SPDIF out, it is big in terms of physical size though)
Fostex MR8 Mk2 (proper XLR connectors, MIDI and SPDIF out, i was reading the manual, and it seems a slight pain to get stuff off it on to PC although it is possible)

I guess we have slightly different priorities. I'd like one with MIDI and SPDIF I/O, I'd even be happy with just a 4 track. I'll probably end up with the Zoom MRS8SD, but its not ideal. I think the MRS8 compresses the audio with some algorithm and you need to use some propritry software, which isn't ideal either.

[HTH AMPS]

I still use my Tascam 424 mkII for basic demos, I've had that for at least ten years - not bad going eh?

As for quality, I remember when the minidisk 4-tracks came out and they were noticeably clearer than my Tascam, but that was to do with the mic preamps on the actual 4-track.  

As my setup got better, I used to run everything into a Mackie mixer then directly into the 4-track (bypassing the mic preamp) - this was a big improvement.  I also used a Joe Meek voice channel which was a beutifull sounding unit, could probably pick those up for £50 on ebay.

 :twisted:

[JJretroTONEGOD]

My computer isn't suitable for recording, so I'd rather get a stand alone unit.

Has anyone used the Zoom stuff or anything else?

I've used a Zoom portable recorder, and it's very good, I like zoom recorders, they are really good for portible recording. The boss BRs are even better quality though!

[gwEm]

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/mrs8/

i just got one of those cheap on ebay... i'll see how it goes.