Question about multitrack Dat recorders

[liquidsmoke]

I wish they made something like this but as simple as the old 4 track cassette porta studios.

Kind of what Tascam still tries to do I believe. There are probably tons of how to/reviews on youtube you could check out to see how easy they are to use.

[jibberish]

spook, I explained throughout a couple posts how I used my vs-880 with NO WAVE EDITING.
you keep going on about certain things and im showing you how multitracks can do what you want, simple like you want

please go to gc/sam ashe and play with one. 

having the mixer and the recorder together is more convenient.

ok example of a recording.   just like a mixer you plug in inputs,select source,test volumes right?
you know to use the mixer eq's,pan, frq cuts and sends. still the same

only extra thing you do is set the rec/play state of each channel to like record or mute or play heh

hit record...

now stop letting all the buttons scare you, you only use a small core set for everyday use.   rec/play and turning channels on off is about it for most recording or mixdown

[spookstrickland]

spook, I explained throughout a couple posts how I used my vs-880 with NO WAVE EDITING.
you keep going on about certain things and im showing you how multitracks can do what you want, simple like you want

please go to gc/sam ashe and play with one. 

having the mixer and the recorder together is more convenient.

ok example of a recording.   just like a mixer you plug in inputs,select source,test volumes right?
you know to use the mixer eq's,pan, frq cuts and sends. still the same

only extra thing you do is set the rec/play state of each channel to like record or mute or play heh

hit record...

now stop letting all the buttons scare you, you only use a small core set for everyday use.   rec/play and turning channels on off is about it for most recording or mixdown

I wasn't ignoring what you were saying.  You have brought some great stuff to my attention.  I was just thinking how awesome it would be it they built a really simple multitracker for older dudes that cut their teeth on Analog.

I've looked at that new little tascam and it looks cool but I watched a demo on it and there was a ton of monkeying with the menues and what not not that I did not like. And the reviews on Amazon said the same thing.  the 880 looks good though for the prices they are going for on ebay.  I'm going to study them some more.

Thanks

[jibberish]

heh, I know it gets hard expressing exactly what you are going after in threads sometimes. you should see my little amp thread. I have half the puzzle pieces, and it showed.

in this case, I have a yamaha 4 tracker cassette. that's what I started on. I had so much fun doing crazy things with the 2 tape speeds and flipping tapes over to run backwards.  the 4 track just wrote on the 4 tracks in one direction.

that was a mixer+recorder. select inputs, choose whether each track is playing or recording...record..

so shuttling tape back and forth just sucks.when hd recorders came out with non linear recording, bye-bye tape shuttle bullshit

I rocked the hell out of my 880.  it was my central mixer too.  the power supply failed, cant find schematic...iwould still use it for its effects and digital I/o
using it was identical to the 4 tracker,except you could do more.  I didn't do more, I used it like my 4 tracker.

you can ignore everything but the mixer section and the channel records,then it is same as 4 tracker

just remember: your true number of inputs recording at once is the true limits of the machine.. that adat, the vsr-880 recorder, the Tascam dp-24 can all record 8 tracks at once.  some 16channel and almost all  lower sized mixer recorders are  4 or 2, which leaves you way short for recording the band.

but go have a salesperson whip up a quick recording on one at a big box store. you will see the same mentality of 4 tracker will carry you just fine through all the multitrackers. just skip the crazy stuff for now.

[jibberish]

damn,if my 880 worked, I could make videos all day showing you stuff. I so got my money's worth out of that little beast, but I hit the wall with only 4 tracks rcording and only 8 x8 tracks..really not enough to save like drum pieces and solo retakes and misc song pieces parts.
24x256 would work  lol

[spookstrickland]

Is there anything else in the range of the Roland 880 price and capability wise that I should be looking out for?

[RnRJanitor]

Zoom R16 will do 8 simultaneous. I got to play around with one last year, seemed very easy to use.
http://www.samsontech.com/zoom/products/multi-track-recorders/r16/

Otherwise, if you can find a deal on an old Alesis hard disk recorder, that would be the way to go. The HD24 does 24 tracks simultaneous, usually goes for 7-800 used but you see the occasional stupid cheap deal and they're only going to get cheaper as more folks move to DAW solutions.

I was working an event recently w/ 24 mics on stage, and the organizers of the event/concert wanted stems for all 24 mics. After hours of fucking around with pro tools trying to make it work (with a certified pro tools expert next to me), we gave up and pulled the old HD24 out of storage. Fired right up and worked flawlessly. We ended up with 3.45 hours of 24 separate tracks.

I realize it's probably way more than you want to spend. But do some reading about it, maybe there's something similar that would work for you.

[liquidsmoke]

Zoom R16 will do 8 simultaneous. I got to play around with one last year, seemed very easy to use.
http://www.samsontech.com/zoom/products/multi-track-recorders/r16/

Nice. Looks like they are around $400 new.

[moose23]

I'd love one of those Zoom R16s.

[spookstrickland]

Zoom R16 will do 8 simultaneous. I got to play around with one last year, seemed very easy to use.
http://www.samsontech.com/zoom/products/multi-track-recorders/r16/

Otherwise, if you can find a deal on an old Alesis hard disk recorder, that would be the way to go. The HD24 does 24 tracks simultaneous, usually goes for 7-800 used but you see the occasional stupid cheap deal and they're only going to get cheaper as more folks move to DAW solutions.

I was working an event recently w/ 24 mics on stage, and the organizers of the event/concert wanted stems for all 24 mics. After hours of fucking around with pro tools trying to make it work (with a certified pro tools expert next to me), we gave up and pulled the old HD24 out of storage. Fired right up and worked flawlessly. We ended up with 3.45 hours of 24 separate tracks.

I realize it's probably way more than you want to spend. But do some reading about it, maybe there's something similar that would work for you.

Those Alesi hd24's are great, If I could afford it that would be the first on my list.  I've gotten to use a few of them in the studio and they are amazingly simple and powerful all at the same time.

[neighbor664]

My brother has a Zoom R8. I haven't tried it myself, but he likes it.  Even my 3 1/2 year old nephew can use it.

[jibberish]

Zoom R16 will do 8 simultaneous. I got to play around with one last year, seemed very easy to use.
http://www.samsontech.com/zoom/products/multi-track-recorders/r16/

Otherwise, if you can find a deal on an old Alesis hard disk recorder, that would be the way to go. The HD24 does 24 tracks simultaneous, usually goes for 7-800 used but you see the occasional stupid cheap deal and they're only going to get cheaper as more folks move to DAW solutions.

I was working an event recently w/ 24 mics on stage, and the organizers of the event/concert wanted stems for all 24 mics. After hours of fucking around with pro tools trying to make it work (with a certified pro tools expert next to me), we gave up and pulled the old HD24 out of storage. Fired right up and worked flawlessly. We ended up with 3.45 hours of 24 separate tracks.

I realize it's probably way more than you want to spend. But do some reading about it, maybe there's something similar that would work for you.

what a wonderful example of the true ability to just hook up, turn the thing on and do your shit.  dedicated machine for a dedicated purpose..

I think you are on the right track [bada bum tshhhhhh!][canned laughter]
now shop till you score.  alesis has been in the thick of this since the adat days, great company. Yamaha and roland have also been in the thick of it since day 1. I heartily recommend any of those 3 brands used. korg, Tascam, I guess zoom has been around enough to have some resale cred.

[jibberish]

holy crap dp-24 $459 new

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841544-REG/Tascam_DP_24_DP_24_24_Track_Digital_Portastudio.html

[liquidsmoke]

holy crap dp-24 $459 new

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841544-REG/Tascam_DP_24_DP_24_24_Track_Digital_Portastudio.html

Want.... must.. buy.. new.. amp.. and.. cab.. though..

[liquidsmoke]

Old thread but fuck it.

We are tracking everything on my Tascam DP-008EX. No latency.

It has a metronome but we started by recording a track of metronome from my iPhone for each song. Next I layered two tracks of rhythm guitar followed by a track of leads. Then a track of vocals, a track of bass, and finally we are now working on drums using a condenser overhead and a dynamic for the kick each on it's own track. All of these tracks will be put into Protools for minimal fixes, EQing, mixing, and mastering.

Today while tracking drums the unit stopped and gave us an error message which we believe is because of a corrupted SDHC card. It's said that some of them are crappy and we are going to switch to something from Tascam's tested and recommended list by SanDisk, Panasonic, or Lexar.

Otherwise the only problem we've had is buzzy hum from my bass and guitar rigs that I could not get rid of. We should be able to eliminate that in Protools from the guitar tracks. The bass is raw(direct) and will be digitally amped. It was recorded while using batteries in the Tascam to eliminate noise. My outlets test good but the signals are dirty no matter what. Tried the same outlet for everything connected, lights off, doesn't help.

[jibberish]

when the true earth ground gets further and further away from where you are using the juice, the chance for the common/ground floating from true "0" gets greater as the circuit back to ground is getting complex and bigger. this becomes its own little 60Hz AC voltage

also, you can pick up 60Hz garbage as RFI. motors are the worst for generating RFI(radio freq interference) so sometimes a fucked up fridge motor can spike up the mains power with rf crap. or huge draws like ac units induce 60Hz hum right into the air as an electric field. it is a jungle out there....

[liquidsmoke]

Is there any type of device I could plug everything into when I record to avoid this? Relying on Xnoise in Protools to clean up tracks is lame.

[jibberish]

maybe a UPS. those have battery backup and a bunch of filtering. I would imagine you could go hard core and unplug the ups from the wall like a power outage then record from battery power if all else fails when using the ups normally.

also do a physical look-see of your general recording area.   if you go outside and notice that greater Madison's main power high tension lines go by 1/4 mile away, or the building next door has a giant air conditioner on the roof, or you have a bunch of ac stuff running, you may be screwed.