FireHawk

Not necessarily true. If your doing a lot of midi and vsts you will need an audio interface. I know this from experience of a horrible week without an interface.

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Edward1892

what about this one? saw it in the 1st post, does anyone have it?

http://www.thomann.de/gb/line6_pod_studio_gx.htm

lockwolf

Its good if you only plan on recording guitar and want a meh sound. The main reason people buy it is for Pod Farm which, despite Line 6 having the ability to make good effect models, is meh at best compared to some of the free amp sims on the market. I shelled out $300 for Pod Farm on its own and its taken a back seat to some other stuff.

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GaryBillington

If you read the first post, you saw this:
A review like that would be enough to make me keep looking around for something else.

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ChemicalFire

You could use a USB keyboard I know, but you don't really need something like the Focusrite for making Electronic music surely?


Unless of course you wanted to record crap in there. Maybe for doing headphone output I guess too?

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FireHawk

DAWs seem to be able to process MIDI better with an audio interface. On my old computer I could only do like 5 VSTs with ASIO4ALL, but when I switched to my Lexicon (interface I had at the time), I could do ALOT more. The audio interface seems to relieve the CPU a bit.

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Born Headless

Hey, I took the time to read through the OP but I still have a few questions. I know these days most home recordings are done via DAWs rather than multitrack recorders due to accessibility but I'm stubborn and wanted to go the traditional route. I went out and bought a Tascam DP-008 before I researched anything and I'm not very happy with it. It's very cheaply made, I find half the features useless, and the level seems to be very low (my recordings are extremely quiet compared to a normal song... not sure why).

So, I guess I came here looking for a recommendation. Let me tell you my needs. I'm looking to be a one man band. I plan on recording guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I have decent gear and a small PA package (a powered mixer with 2 12" mains/monitors) as well as dynamic and condenser mics. I just want a good recorder. I don't need features (not many), just quality. I'm gonna be recording each instrument individually. I DON'T need drum machines, bass sequencers, a boatload of effects (just some reverb for vocals and drums), the ability to record multiple instruments at once, built-in modeling amps (I'm going to use mics to record my actual gear), etc. I just need the best sound quality, at least 8 tracks, and the simpler the better. Oh, and I think they all have it but I need playback features so I can track with my headphones on.

So, any recs based on that? The biggest problem I have with my current recorder is the level. It has an OL (overload) LED that flashes when your recording is too loud and I've tried to get it as load as possible without that light flashing and it's probably half the volume of a normal song.

EDIT: Don't worry about budget as long as it's not ridiculous. Several hundred dollars is okay.

DOUBLEDIT: Does the multitrack recorder itself effect sound quality? Or are they all the same with different features and quality just comes from your gear and mics? If that's the case I may stick with what I have... Maybe someone could explain my level issue?

GaryBillington

There's a reason you DP-008 feels cheaply made - it's a cheap piece of kit. As with all things in life, you get what you pay for.

I prefer to use a multitracker as my DAW as well, like you I prefer to keep it simple and don't require all the amp models and VSTs a lot people use these days. Unfortunately, to get a high quality multitracker you're going to find a lot of that is included. It doesn't mean you have to use it.

The reverb you want for vocals and the headphone output is standard functionality on all decent multitrackers, but if you're wanting to record drums, I'd say the more inputs you have, the better it will be. Also, if you're recording drums, that can easily use up the 8 tracks you think is all you need if you want to create a professional sounding mix.

I'd recommend the Tascam 2488 I mentioned in the multitracker article at the top of this thread. It has enough inputs for you to record a drum kit (something I have no experience with, if you need specific help with that ask a question in the chat thread and one of the other guys will help) and has a selection of reverbs, as well as plenty of other effects if you realise you need them in the future. There are 3 different models of it, the 2488, the 2488MkII and the 2488 NEO.

From what I know, the MkII is rated the highest of them. It was an all-round improvement on the original, but the NEO added additional mixing capability which made it harder to use with no real improvement in the potential quality.

With the issue you're having with the LED showing clipping whilst recording, this simply means you have the input level set too high. On all multitrackers I've used, this is easily remedied by reducing the input level. I 've not used the DP-008, but it will have a similar functionality. It will be easier to manage on better equipment though.

For a louder final recording, it just depends on the levels & compression etc. you use when mixing. A basic piece of kit like you currently have won't have the same capability as better equipment, so I'd expect an upgrade to go a long way towards resolving this issue.

Using a good multitracker won't affect your final product. If you use quality kit properly you it is possible to create a professional sounding mix - there is very little that can be done with software that you can't do with a higher end multitracker, unfortunately the one you have is very basic so you will only create a basic sounding product.

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Slashiepie

^^ helpful advice, but i will reiterate something: if you cant get a recording sounding good on your cheap gear, you probably wont be able to get it sounding right on better gear. If you let yourself get into the mentality that better gear will incredibly improve your recordings you will be buying lots of stuff and always being disappointed.

Try to milk and understand the gear you have as much as you can and then decide yourself what you need according to your experience.

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GaryBillington

That is true as well, although the better equipment will provide ways of improving the recording, you still have to learn to use it.

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Born Headless

Thanks for the responses, appreciate it. One more thing though: Does the multitracker itself affect sound quality? Note I'm NOT referring to all the features and mixing options. I just mean in general. If I leave my gear and mics set up the same way and just replace my current multitracker with a better one will it sound virtually the same or better (without mixing and trying to adjust everything)?

ChemicalFire

If the new one had better pre amps, then yes, technically.

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Spanner93

Does anybody have a suggestion for an interface for a bass guitar, preferably with software as I don't like reaper. I'm currently using my guitarist's shitty behringer ucg-something-or-other thing and whilst it will record to my pc it is about 95% hiss.

Any suggestions?

Thnx

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ChemicalFire

Really it depends on your budget. I'd always blindly recommend the Saffire 6 but it depends what you can afford.

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Spanner93

Preferably under 100eur as that was the tax refund I just got.

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Spanner93

Sorry for the double post, but it also has to be compatible with windows 7 64-bit.

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ChemicalFire

All interfaces are, it's the software that might have issues.

And for €100... well it's gonna be tough to get good quality for that.

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Spanner93

Sorta narrowed it down to 2, doesn't exactly have to be pro quality but definitely better than the hissbox I have at the moment.

anyhoo:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html

or

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/line6-gearb...CFeEntAodfAUAow, but the gold edition for the same price locally.

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lockwolf

So, since the amount of idiocy on these, we should add the UX1 and UX2 to the list of "Not to buy". The UX1 has no phantom power (despite several posts of people saying it does) and the UX2 is just crap minus Pod Farm.

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