Recording Riffs and "Noodles" ? (before they get lost)

[bassdude51]

I am 67 years old and a total non tech head. I don't even have a cellphone! I know nothing about the latest electronic stuff for bass guitar.

Please give me some advice and recommendations.

Many times when I am "noodling about" on my bass guitar, I'll accidentally come up a bass line riff that I find to be catchy. Worth remembering.

Then, 15 minutes later or 2 hours or the next day, completely forgot most of if not all of the riff. Gone forever!

I'd like to record these riffs so that I don't loose them.

I was looking around on Musician's Friend website at Tascam recorders but I am overwhelmed with choices and what's really practical for recording my accidental decent bass riffs.

Please advise me on something that's simple to use for recording noodle riffs. I usually noodle through an amp and speaker at a low volume and would like a device that's within arm's reach to plug into and record the riff and keep it. Perhaps later burning unto a Cd blank or keeping onto a chip or card or whatever will hold the recorded riffs.

I saw these products.

Tascam CD-RW901MKII Professional Audio CD Recorder
Tascam DR-05 Solid State Recorder
Tascam GB-10 Guitar/Bass Trainer/Recorder
Tascam DP-006 Digital 6-Track Pocketstudio

Help me out with products that you recommend, please.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Of those the GB-10 is probably the easiest. You can plug your bass in and hit record. You can also play along with songs loaded onto an SD card. You can slow recordings down (without changing pitch) to make it easier.

The DR-05 has built in mics, but only a 1/8" input. If you might want to use the mic to record something, this might be better than the GB-10. You could always have a 1/4" to 1/8" from your amp to the recorder. It will still slow down tracks for playback, but there are some other features you lose. It has fewer buttons, so you will have to scroll through more menus to do anything more than the most basic functions.

The Dp-06 is multitrack. If you want to layer sounds, it would be useful for that, but for a single bass track it isn't any better than the first two.

The RW901 is complete overkill, and is probably a worse tool for what you are wanting to do than the others.

If you really want a built in microphone, do the DR-05, otherwise stick with the GB-10.

 

[EastCoastThump]

I am 67 years old and a total non tech head. I don't even have a cellphone!

1. Don't make life hard by underestimating your capacity to learn. If you already have a computer or laptop and can get around on it well enough to start a TalkBass thread, you can probably work out the simple stop/start/record/play functions of a simple DAW. And if your computer is a Mac, you probably already have a DAW in Garageband. (If otherwise, check out Reaper.)

2. If you regularly record frequently, you'll probably want to get comfortable transfering files to your computer for archiving and indexing and fast retrieval. IOW, consider file transfer/naming/indexing to be as important as your chosen recorder's initial ease of use. You can and will learn to accomplish what you need on even a full-featured DAW, but a stand-alone recorder that has a cludgy interface or quirky/slow file transfer or arcane file naming (etc) always has those limits built in.

 

[citizenchris099]

Has OP considered a loop pedal?
My set up I use a loop pedal such as ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DK964NQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 )
to quickly record what I call sketches or ideas (what you're calling riffs etc..)
I then develop them over time using the pedal. Once i'm ready to "track" and add the idea to a larger composition I simply play back the final version from the pedal through my amp and do a DI recording from my amp to a solid state recorder such as ( https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-R24-Dig...pID=51Ht9JnUAbL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch )
That particular pedal i linked is 24 bit so it sounds great and I'm comfortable with it being the "source" for my final recordings. Though playing / recording live can easily be done as well.
With the above workflow at least ideas are not lost.

 

[J Posega]

If you want dead simple, buy a Zoom H1n handheld recorder. It’ll be good enough for capturing ideas. Anything else is really overkill for your needs.

 

[EastCoastThump]

Capturing the ideas is the easy part. The harder part is organizing months' or years' worth of ideas in a way that lets you find them, review them, cut-and-paste, edit, etc.

Ask me how I know.

 

[Skybone]

Something like the DP006 or the Boss BR80 would be ideal for situations like this.

Minimal setting up, "plug in & record".

 

[Snaxster]

I am 67 years old and a total non tech head. I don't even have a cellphone! I know nothing about the latest electronic stuff for bass guitar.

Please give me some advice and recommendations.

Many times when I am "noodling about" on my bass guitar, I'll accidentally come up a bass line riff that I find to be catchy. Worth remembering.

Then, 15 minutes later or 2 hours or the next day, completely forgot most of if not all of the riff. Gone forever!

I'd like to record these riffs so that I don't loose them.

I was looking around on Musician's Friend website at Tascam recorders but I am overwhelmed with choices and what's really practical for recording my accidental decent bass riffs.

Please advise me on something that's simple to use for recording noodle riffs. I usually noodle through an amp and speaker at a low volume and would like a device that's within arm's reach to plug into and record the riff and keep it. Perhaps later burning unto a Cd blank or keeping onto a chip or card or whatever will hold the recorded riffs.

I saw these products.

Tascam CD-RW901MKII Professional Audio CD Recorder
Tascam DR-05 Solid State Recorder
Tascam GB-10 Guitar/Bass Trainer/Recorder
Tascam DP-006 Digital 6-Track Pocketstudio

Help me out with products that you recommend, please.

My cellphone is my audio note taker.

Whether with bass or not, often I vocalize music or instructions in the notes.

Periodically I transfer audio notes from my phone to my laptop, then organize them there.

It works well, I already paid for it, and I don't have to learn to use any new gadgets to get the job done.

Edit: Now I see that you don't have a cellphone. Maybe this will be your reason to get one!

 

[patrickj]

Apple / iPhone music memos app

 

[seamonkey]

All great suggestions above.
But I'll say it just doesn't get much easier than a cell phone today.
Apple is probably easier than Android. And 10 zillion people can help you figure out something for you.

Cells phones connects to wifi, and bluetooth, and then you can listen to it later, like during a car drive.

Sometimes listening back in the car, or while working in the yar, you missed some really cool riff, other times you find the riff you had just wasn't as good as you thought.

Make a quick audio note to remind yourself of what to listen to. Or leave yourself a voice mail and it will convert your voice mail to text. "Hey - at 9:30 today I just recorded this cool riff idea ..."

Everything uploads and downloads to "Cloud" web services if you're willing to pay. It gets backed-up in case you want to put your riffs in your will.

 

[redwingxix]

Another vote for cell phone recording. It's always there with you, so even if you aren't playing at the moment and something comes to you that you want to preserve you can just whistle, hum, or sing it while your at the store or wherever and then you've got it.

 

[bearfoot]

My vote is the DP-006, Tascam. These are laid out much like the old cassette recorders, combined with *some* menus. Mostly knobs and buttons. The DP-006 will give you 2 mono, and 2 stereo tracks on each composition, and unlimited bouncedown if you go down the rabbit hole. (I'd have killed for a DP-006 in the early 90's!)

I believe the DP-006 also has a tripod mount, and what are now the common built-in microphones that have become the boon of "prosumer" level recording.

 

[DirkP]

Another vote for a looper. One that uses sd-cards. The Jamman Solo XT and the Jamman stereo from Digitech are quite good. Might be fun for you to improvise second lines above your ideas. It is always in your chain, so if you have an idea just kick it with your feet and you record it. How many posters ignore that bassdude doesn't have a cellphone!

 

[caledoneus83]

I'll vote for a looper with SD card... there are plenty of options there that are pretty easy to use and affordable.

 

[Adg672]

Think a handheld/portable recorder is the way to go, super simple - press record and go, captures it digitally which you can later transfer to your computer etc. Has your amp got a DI or line out or have you got any mics you could use? Some of the handheld have built in mics if you’re not too worried about sound quality and just want to get the idea down.