Excuse the clutter in the photo, but I'm pretty stoked about my new Zoom tracking station. The new piece of equipment here is the B3, which prompted me finally to put it all together in an efficient way.
The B3 on the left handles my bass, and the G3 on the right handles guitar. The Yamaha MG102c mixer feeds a Tascam DP-008, which is a trusty old bit of kit that I know quite well by now. (If I want to record more than 8 tracks, I simply save a copy of the song under a different name, bounce everything down to one track, and then have 7 more at my disposal. All tracks then can be exported to a desktop DAW for mixdown..)
The Zoom units are on a steeply angled lipped shelf that's screwed into the tabletop from below. I left enough clearance to pass the Tascam cabling, as you see. The mixer is mounted on a short mic boom using a special Yamaha mounting bracket and a mic flange screwed into the tabletop (not visible). The table itself is a cheap end table from Wal Mart, and measurs 15"x15".
The headphones are covering the XLR inputs for channels 1 and 2, where I connect a pair of Audio Technica AT2020 condenser mics. The mixer provides phantom power and has onboard compressors on channels 1 and 2.
I'm going to get some black Duratex and coat everything, and I still have some work to do with cable management. I may also find a way to add casters to the legs.
Until now, I've mixed directly out of the Tascam, but now I'll be moving the mixing process to Reaper on a PC, using Yamaha HS5 nearfield monitors.
The Sony MDR-V6 phones are quality, but I find that they are a bit crispy, so my tracks tend to be a bit too warm. I'm going to find some other cans; during mixdown, I'd rather cut treble than boost it.
The convenience of having the instruments plugged in and ready to go is fantastic; I don't have to shuffle cables at all, just pick the instrument up and play. Over time, as you get all your levels dialed in, there's very little to do but hit record and go.
I highly recommend the Zoom products. As awesome as the B3 is for bass, I would say the G3 is even somewhat better on the guitar side.
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