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For home recording - Fostex or Tascam?


andyhumb

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Assuming you have a decent computer, just get a couple gigs of RAM, a firewire port, and look into like the presonus firepod or firestudio, or the m-audio profire 2626. Then get something like Sonar LE as a program to work with on your computer and find free plug-ins like the classic series (classic reverb, classic compressor, classic eq) and electri-q eq

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yep, the multitracks are a pain, go for a firewire type dookickie.



allways end doing stuff on the computer anyways, and using a mouse is easier than screwing with those multitracks.



with that said, if you don't need multiple tracks, the little mini hand held recorders like the Sony are allright! way way more user friendly than the multitrack stuff.

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A relatively cheap set up:

 

Reaper or Sonar for the recording program

presonus firepod

2 or 3 x sm57

2 x at3035 condensers

kick mic of your choice

audix i5

 

that should be under a grand. Although, if all you want to do is guitars, you can find decent 2 track interfaces and a couple sm57s and that would be under 5 or 6 hundred

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If you already have a decent computer all you would need was a decent interface and some microphones. Presonus makes some nice interfaces that are not too pricy, but give excellent results. Check out the Firepod, FP10, or Firestudio ones for starters.

 

As far as a DAW, Reaper is ludicrously inexpensive and works better than a lot of other companies' commercial products.

 

You just need a solid amount of RAM, a decent CPU from say the last 5-10 years, and a medium-sized fast hard drive. All of which you probably already have if your computer is less than five years old or so.

 

EDIT: I type slowly, but basically, what Say Ocean said! :D

 

-chris

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If you already have a decent computer all you would need was a decent interface. Presonus makes some nice ones that are not too pricy, check out the Firepod, FP10, or Firestudio ones for starters.


As far as a DAW, Reaper is ludicrously inexpensive and works better than a lot of other companies commercial products.


You just need a solid amount of RAM, a decent CPU from say the last 5-10 years, and a medium-sized fast hard drive. All of which you probably already have if your computer is less than five years old or so.


-chris

 

 

yeah. I have a computer from like 2000 that was a total piece of {censored} when it was new, and only has USB ports but it still records two tracks just fine, so I'm sure any relatively new and decent computer would be fine for 4-8 tracks

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i've got one of the Tascam multitracks, and find it useless!:mad:



have never been able to figure out how to get stuff off of it and onto my computer, or vice versa. pretty {censored}ed up learning curve.



they're a complete pain in the ass! they're trying to do stuff a computer does by clicking and pointing a mouse. but instead they make you do crazy {censored} like hold down 3 buttons at once while poking another.

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has the market moved away from multitrackers and towards interfaces for your home computer? I haven't heard a single guy say "get the multitracker" so I may need to scrap that idea completely

 

 

Basically yes. Current computer technology has got the most basic PCs providing more than enough processing power for the kind of tasks that a standalone 8-16 track could accomplish.

 

There is really no reason to be tied to a piece of hardware like a traditional multitracker, and with all of the plugins and VSTs that PCs can provide, every reason to go that route instead. The Firewire interfaces are often expandable as well. You could go one FP10 for 8 channels in at once, or get a second for the capability of 16, etc etc...

 

Interface + DAW is the way to go, especially if bang for the buck is considered.

 

-chris

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what about ease of use - i don't like the idea of having to push multiple buttons at once on a multitracker just to get it to work - but, are the computer DAW actually easy to use without spending ages on the manual?

 

 

arm the tracks to record -> press record -> play.

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what about ease of use - i don't like the idea of having to push multiple buttons at once on a multitracker just to get it to work - but, are the computer DAW actually easy to use without spending ages on the manual?

 

 

Everyone's learning curve is different, but i personally found PC DAW much easier to use than digital workstations were.

 

There is some tweaking and setup needed to get it to work its best, but once you get the thing installed and recognized, it is basically about 5-10 minutes of tweaking to get the latency matched up nicely to your system and then you are off.

 

Once it is set up, operation of a PC DAW is similar, IMO, to the use of an old tape fourtrack. Only nearly limitlessly expandable and FAR more flexible.

 

-chris

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I use Reaper. It is very cheap for non-commercial use, well priced for commercial use, and beyond both even, without paying anything at all, it is 100% functional and doesn't expire.

I find it extremely well thought out, extremely easy to use, and extremely well-programmed to efficiently make use of your PCs resources.

Basically a whole {censored} ton of digital victory, as far as i am concerned.

-chris

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