Post by bod on Feb 21, 2010 17:42:26 GMT
Hi all
I'm wanting to be able to do some recording at home, on a budget, and despite having spent huge amounts of time online trying to weigh up of the options I still don't know which way to jump. And to be frank, I am sure that this is at least partly because I have no experience of the things I am reading about. So I thought I'd come here, do some "thinking out loud" and see if anyone with more experience cared to offer comment.,so please do pardon me while I ramble on a bit...
Budget: tight -if I could get all I need for under a ton that'd be good, but from what I can see it doesn't make much difference which way I try to go I'm likely to wind up spending somewhere around £150 unless I'm very lucky.
Aims: in the first instance all I really want to be able to do is lay down some rhythms and stuff which i can then use as a backdrop for lapstyle dobro, be able to play around and explore a bit and see / hear how different things fit together or don't.... That said, of course, it'd be nice to be able to explore a bit further if I get into it...
Requirements: this might be where it gets tricky/more costly.... my guitar is acoustic, and so (of course) is my squareneck "dobro" ... I do have access to my son's tele (and, come to that, my other son's keyboard) but I do want to be able to record my own instruments... short term I am quite happy to stick a budget soundhole pickup on my guitar to do so - sure, it'll make a nice acoustic sound like a cheap electric but that is ok, but I guess I'm still going to need a mic of some sort in the not too distant ...
So, then, to my inexperienced eyes...
the Tascam US 122l (or 144) look fairly promising - plug right into my pc or laptop, solve the issues with existing soundcards and re. laptop are fairly portable should I want to take it to a friends... input for guitar, xlr for mics, comes with starter software...seem to have some scope for expansion (e.g., better mic down the road)... just starting become a little cheaper 2nd hand now that the mk2's are out, I do keep coming back to these but for all I know they might be sh*te,....
Tascam DP-004 looks kind of neat,more self-contained, more portable, more like tha old tape 4 tracks that so many seem to recall with great affection probably a tad more expensive, more straightforward (?), but perhaps less able to cope with expansion if wanted (?)
Boss BR Micro - to be honest, I'd not given these so much attention until Bottleneck Bob posted his 'first song' the other day, I was kind of impressed with what the inbuilt mic could do (nice song, Bob & Angie, if you're reading) , also seems like Boss managed to fit an awful lot into a small package but I've read that they are kind of complicated as a result (?), look like they might be very fragile (?), very portable (clearly), seem to go for about the same as the Tascam US 122l 2nd hand
Older Tascams - e.g. 414 mk (whatever) - supposed to hold their own quite well even today, but also not much cheaper (even today) than the newer kit mentioned above...
Zoom H2? seem to be a little more expensive, seem to be a different kind of thing(?) - more for bands?? I dunno, but they seem well-respected, mayve I should look closer (H4 is way out of my range)
I realise these are, in some respects quite different devices, but for my present purposes I find it hard to see that much in it, hard to see how to choosebetween them, but that could well be because I don't have relevant experience - any thoughts on how I should be thinking about all this / what questions I need to ask myself / comments / hints / cautions or whatever anyone?
Ta
(apols for the ultra-long post, I had been going to cut it down but all of a sudden it is time to take the dogs out again!)
I'm wanting to be able to do some recording at home, on a budget, and despite having spent huge amounts of time online trying to weigh up of the options I still don't know which way to jump. And to be frank, I am sure that this is at least partly because I have no experience of the things I am reading about. So I thought I'd come here, do some "thinking out loud" and see if anyone with more experience cared to offer comment.,so please do pardon me while I ramble on a bit...
Budget: tight -if I could get all I need for under a ton that'd be good, but from what I can see it doesn't make much difference which way I try to go I'm likely to wind up spending somewhere around £150 unless I'm very lucky.
Aims: in the first instance all I really want to be able to do is lay down some rhythms and stuff which i can then use as a backdrop for lapstyle dobro, be able to play around and explore a bit and see / hear how different things fit together or don't.... That said, of course, it'd be nice to be able to explore a bit further if I get into it...
Requirements: this might be where it gets tricky/more costly.... my guitar is acoustic, and so (of course) is my squareneck "dobro" ... I do have access to my son's tele (and, come to that, my other son's keyboard) but I do want to be able to record my own instruments... short term I am quite happy to stick a budget soundhole pickup on my guitar to do so - sure, it'll make a nice acoustic sound like a cheap electric but that is ok, but I guess I'm still going to need a mic of some sort in the not too distant ...
So, then, to my inexperienced eyes...
the Tascam US 122l (or 144) look fairly promising - plug right into my pc or laptop, solve the issues with existing soundcards and re. laptop are fairly portable should I want to take it to a friends... input for guitar, xlr for mics, comes with starter software...seem to have some scope for expansion (e.g., better mic down the road)... just starting become a little cheaper 2nd hand now that the mk2's are out, I do keep coming back to these but for all I know they might be sh*te,....
Tascam DP-004 looks kind of neat,more self-contained, more portable, more like tha old tape 4 tracks that so many seem to recall with great affection probably a tad more expensive, more straightforward (?), but perhaps less able to cope with expansion if wanted (?)
Boss BR Micro - to be honest, I'd not given these so much attention until Bottleneck Bob posted his 'first song' the other day, I was kind of impressed with what the inbuilt mic could do (nice song, Bob & Angie, if you're reading) , also seems like Boss managed to fit an awful lot into a small package but I've read that they are kind of complicated as a result (?), look like they might be very fragile (?), very portable (clearly), seem to go for about the same as the Tascam US 122l 2nd hand
Older Tascams - e.g. 414 mk (whatever) - supposed to hold their own quite well even today, but also not much cheaper (even today) than the newer kit mentioned above...
Zoom H2? seem to be a little more expensive, seem to be a different kind of thing(?) - more for bands?? I dunno, but they seem well-respected, mayve I should look closer (H4 is way out of my range)
I realise these are, in some respects quite different devices, but for my present purposes I find it hard to see that much in it, hard to see how to choosebetween them, but that could well be because I don't have relevant experience - any thoughts on how I should be thinking about all this / what questions I need to ask myself / comments / hints / cautions or whatever anyone?
Ta
(apols for the ultra-long post, I had been going to cut it down but all of a sudden it is time to take the dogs out again!)
