Digital Recorder Questions

[GreggBummer]

Hello,

If this is covered in a thread I haven't found yet, I am sorry for the repetitive post.

I am planning a home studio set up. Nothing fancy, just enough to sketch out some ideas. I am considering a Fostex 8 Track Digital Recorder. My question is: If I record multiple tracks to the recorder can I download each track separately to my audio editor (Samplitude or AudiaCity) so that I may edit them individually? I would like to record to the Fostex and then edit the file (track by track) on the computer. Is this even possible?

If not, then I may look at a USB digital mixer or breakout box and go direct to my computer. Is there an advantage to doing this? I am interested in the Fostex Digital Recorder (or something similar) because it has a degree of portability. I would like to record my bands rehearsals or shows in addition to using it at home for songwriting.

Thanks in advance for your advice and experience.

 

[GreggBummer]

Any help at all on this? To be more clear: I am trying to compare a self contained Digital Recorder/Mixer like a four or eight track deal to recording through a computer interface. Does anyone have any experience with this.

I am looking to record myself at home in addition to recording my five piece rock cover band for demo purposes or myspace. I am looking to spend no more than $250

Thanks in advance.

 

[fretlessrock]

In general, the lower the $/track ratio, the lower the sound quality and the less flexible the format. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but that is my general experience. As for the capabilities of a specific device, well, first specify the device! You should be able to figure out if a specific piece of gear allows you to extract individual track audio by reading the mfgr lit or contacting their sales dept.

Things to look for to ensure that you are comparing apples/apples:

Max simultaneous recorded tracks (i.e 8 tracks max, or 8 at the same time?)

Connectivity. Those older Roland units are cheap, but they don't have an easy way to extract recorded audio to a computer.

Support. Does the device use standard I/O and is it well supported by the manufacturer or third party applications.

 

[GreggBummer]

Fretless,

Thanks for the advice. I am still educating myself on this. I think that I need to justify to myself the cost of having multiple tracks to input... something I can't really do. I think that I am going to pick up a one input interface and work with that. If the band decides that it wants to record, we can just plug the mixer into it and do it live.

I am going to do some more research and see what is out there... there is more than one way to do this.

G

 

[four2oh]

You can find the older Roland VS-880 and VS-1880 pretty cheap these days on ebay or craigslist, but like Fretless stated, the interface isn't the easiest to use (step learning curve), but they do work great once you figure it out. I use a Roland VS-1880 often for live recording of our shows (take 8 direct outs from the soundboard). It's reliable and haven't had any issues, other than the crappy interface.

I then dump the Roland VS-1880 to my computer using the Presonus FireStudio Project. Love it! You can pick up the older model, Presonus FirePod FP-10 pretty cheap these days as well.

another idea (if you don't want all those channels, or something with a smaller footprint) is to use a 2-channel field recorder like the M-Audio MicroTrack or something similar. easy to just grab a stereomix off the PA board of your practices/shows.

 

[mambo4]

I used to use a Roland VS880 (from 1998) to do my at home recording. It did have some cool feature (the FX expansion is nice) and I got some good use out of it.

cons:
marketed as an 8 track with tons o 'virtual tracks',
but it was really just 4 tracks input, 8 tracks out max.
programming the needed setup took some time with the manuals
File transfers to PC were not directly possible. I had to 'record' the digital I/O into my PC while playing back the recording on the vss.

It really had more features than I bothered to use.

Now days:
At rehearsal, I just use a Zoom H2. Not true multi track, but easy as pie to use super convenient for rehearsal/gig recording.
At home It's just a mackie soundboard straight into the PC sound card (m-audio delta). No reason for a digital recorder at all.