A few of my buddies and I are thinking of all throwing in some cash and picking up an 8 track (or a 4 track) recorder. This Boss one looks decent.


http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/en/BR-8/

Anyone ever used one of these? Or any 8 track or 4 track?

I don't like the format (100 mb zip discs? really? is this 1998?) or the lack of inputs on that there machine.

you obviously have a computer. have you considered a firewire (or usb) interface and some simple recording software?

No, but I would consider anything that works, sounds good, and is easy. and cheap. So far, we just record with one cheap mic that I bought for $15, plugged into a computer. So you can guess how good the quality is. The software we use is simple and free (Audacity). It's pretty limited, but it does what we need it to, and it was easy to use.

How does this firewire thing work? Ideally, we would like to record the drums, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards, and vocals in one take. back up vocals can be layered on afterwards if needed. What do you recommend?

i think your cheapest/best recording option is buy a mixer with USB capabilities and use free recording software

like so

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=637172

this thing looks perfect. might end up getting one of these or something like it this weekend. thanks

why you sonofabitch

oh my shit. i didn't see your thread.

posted on the same day??? Must be recording season.

after reading your thread, it looks like you are after different equipment and have different needs than i do.

seems like we both got great answers though. we're buying our mixer this weekend, closing ourselves off to the world for at least 5 hours, and not coming out until we have at least 3 finished tracks.

yeah no shit. Either way I got some good answers.

ok, so we ended up renting a digital, 8 track mixer with a usb interface and 5 high end mics (rather than buying all the shit). But the thing is, we can't figure out how to get what we are playing to show up on the laptop. The mics are all plugged into the mixer properly, then it's obviously plugged into the laptop, but we can't figure out how to get the software to recognise the mixer. I have tried it in ableton live and the program that came with the mixer (Cubase LE 4). Is there something in the preferences that I should be looking for to get the mixer to show up in the software??

pc or mac?

try restarting with everything connected and see if it recognizes it on reboot.

but before you do that, check your input/output selections within cubase and live.

We used my laptop yesterday, which is a PC. Today we are going to try to hook it up to a mac.

I'm pretty sure it's all hooked up through the usb to the computer properly. The thing that we are having problems with is actually getting to the point where we can hit record on within the software, and start playing it recording everything. I've looked all over in the preferences and the options of abelton and cubase and I can't find where select the mixer (or the inputs).

Is there an easier application we could be using? Or am i missing something very easy and obvious in the software we have tried so far? When we try it with the mac, we have the option of using garageband as well.

check your system preferences in os x as well, sometimes i have to go in there and select my digi 002 as my in and out.

K, I will try all this stuff. Thanks for all the help.

Don't thank me unless it works. I'm much better at trouble shooting when i'm looking at the gear that's fucking up, but trying to macgyver your situation through a computer screen is frustrating at best.