Yes I am finnaly stepping into the Digital world,and I could use some advise. I was wondering if a $300 machine was worth buying,or should I wait and get something for $1000 or more? I am not a Professional Musician,but I do like my projects to come out clean. Any advise would be helpful...Thanks...The Reverend
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Seattle
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Re: Digital Multitrack Recorders
Mon, February 13, 2006 - 6:00 PMI just got back into home recording after a 10 year layoff and picked up the Yamaha AW16G. It's a studio in a box type set up, but the recordings come out great. Highly recommend condensor mics, but the system basically rocks for about $800. If that's too much, the only difference between that and the cheaper model is the number of tracks. Drawback is that you can't mix down as effectively as on pro tools, etc., but I think you can dump onto a CD, import to P-tools, and mix it that way. It's great for ease of laying down tracks. Hope this helps... -
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Re: Digital Multitrack Recorders
Mon, February 13, 2006 - 9:12 PMIt would be helpful to know what you already have. Since the subject of your post is "Digital Multitrack Recorders," I assume that you already have a mixer, mics, etc.
If indeed you're just looking for a multitrack tape machine, you might want to consider looking at used Tascam DA-38s. These were state of the art ten years ago and now nobody wants 'em anymore. I think the original list price was about $3500; now you can find 'em on eBay and Craigslist pretty easily for $200 - $250. I have four of them (three ganged together for 24 tracks, plus once machine kept as a spare, which I've never needed). I have been totally happy with them - they're pretty bulletproof. If you're okay just working with 16 bits at 44.1 or 48kHz, you can't beat these machines for the price.
They also provide a nice transition path (gateway drug?) to the DAW world - I have a MOTU card which provides 24 tracks of TDIF (Tascam digital audio format), so it's really easy to move tracks between DA-38 and a computer.
The other obvious option for you would be to skip the tape machine entirely and get a PC with an audio interface card. You have a staggering number of choices here. The downside here is that computers are evil, and at some point you will find yourself debugging your PC when you'd rather be working on your project. The upside is that if you don't already own much by way of EQs, compressors, etc, you can get by entirely with software plug-ins.
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