I am an idiot and need recording help

[granchton]

I've made lots of recordings with the camera of memory card type TOY eight track recorders.  I'm proud of the performances but not the recording quality .

 

So, what would be perfect for me is something that works as simply as the toys I have just described but sounds decent.  The idea for using an interface with a PC and all other good stuff that goes along with that way turns me off.  I know I would just be spending all my time and energy on working with the gizmotron and would not have any juice left for the music.  I know this sounds stupid but it is true.

 

I have gone so far as purchasing some of the newer models of that type of recorders I'm used to using and they simply do not sound better than the same thing they were making 10 years ago

 

.  If it isn't possible to get a decent sounding recording without the extravagance a interface PC, cake walk, world war two what ever are just as soon not become involved.  I do not mean to sound sarcastic.  I just wanna have fun making decent sounding recordings.  For me it is not fun to twiddle with the computer 99% of the time and play and sing 1% of the time when doing recording.

[witesol]

I'm having a slightly difficult time understanding some of your sentences, especially the first describing the gear. Perhaps working the past 21 days has me slow.

As I understand it you need an effective recording device that isn't hard. You've not been able to make satisfactory recordings using the inexpensive recorders. Right?

 

There could be a simple system that works well. But, i don't know why you would expect something from 2013 to sound amazingly better than something from 2003.

 

Some of the the recorders have a learning curve yes.

I don't think you'll want to hear my honest opinion. But I will render it anyhow. Phil can chime in with his wisdom and tact as well as anyone else too.

 

My opinion it's that the recorders are more than capable of making fine recordings. Recording is a vocation, an art, a studied pursuit. Experience, ears, and lots of what I call free aspects go into making a great recording. The least of which IMO is the recorder itself. You have decent performances you are happy with. Most everything before the recorder is more important than the recorder itself. Are the "toy recorders" as you call them, label quality? No. Are they a handicap in your situation? No. Can I make a great recording with a cheap recorder? Yes. That's besides the point other than to say there is no fast food route to a great recording. Your engineering skills matter a lot. Your acoustic space yes. Mics? not that much given you have $100+ mics. Mic preamps? Not really. Plug ins and effects? No...the stuff that comes on almost any recorder can work fine. Your monitoring environment? Yes...you make all your mix decisions based on what you hear.

 

How much recording or mixing experience do you have? Do you know how to dance with a parametric eq? Compressors? What space did you record in? Was it treated acoustically? Describe the group? What mics? Where did you place mics and what mics? Was it live or overdubs? How many tracks did you arm to make these recordings?

 

Ok, advice and questions aside, maybe you'd be better off with a regular a along mixer and some sort of recorder. Sort of an old school/new school setup. The problem is you still have to mic stuff and engineer a recording.

[granchton]

I used a boss br 600 and many others like it.  They do not sound good.  I need something like them that sounds good

 

I liked their ease of use.  They have no dynamics, no headroom.  If you normalize in your PC you can bring it up to commercial volume level but the recording still sounds like paper.

 

I did not know why.  If I buy another one I'd like to know what specs to look for.  Like I said I am an idiot when it comes to the technological side of things.

 

24 bit is better than 16. Uncompressed is better than compressed data or something like that. Maybe I should just forget it.  I do enjoy doing it though.  I have over 280 recordings on different web sites.  And recording, at least my attempts at it have become my surrogate band because I don't do that anymore.  If anybody could give me some information I sincerely would appreciate it.