4 Track Recorder

[phunkjam]

Hey fellow players,
My band is finally coming about getting some of our stuff down to get out to people and get other opinions about our stuff and such. Anyway, do you guys have any recomendations for a 4 track recorder. It doesn't have to be fancy. Just your plain old recorder with a few equalizer knobs and such would do.

[CS]

I bought a four track last year and before I recommend it I will give you some basic problems you will encounter.

First many 4-tracks will only record 2 inputs at one time. This means the kit and band are out. So, you can get a mixer but you will be recording anything through the mixer to 1 or 2 tracks. You could record a click/guide track and
record the bass/drums to stereo (tracks 1 and 2) and add the guitar on 3 vocals on 4 and overdub the guitar solo on the vocal track (drop it in on the bit the singer dont sing on)

The mixer highlights the second problem, cost. If you have large amounts of wonga spare,fine, but most of us dont and you did specify a four track which aint state of the art anymore. Other costs will be at least 3 drum mikes and DI boxes unless you already have them.

I bought the Tascam 424 mkIII because it was cheap. I also bought it because the mixer will record 1-6 inputs to 1-4 tracks in various combinations. I normally work alone in my loft (sad git) but last Tuesday I had a bassplayer friend and his son drummer come up for a session. I had the kick on 1 the ride/snare on 2 the bass (his Jazz/ my Hartke)on 3 and my g**t*r on 4 (sorry) the results were rather good (modesty) but there was only 3 of us. I could have had another live instrument and juggled the tracks but there isnt a lot more you can do.

Happy hunting.