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Multitrack recorder v. Using my laptop

Jakeboy

Asked by Jakeboy,

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Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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I disbanded my band earlier this year for personal reasons and am now getting other choice players together to record. I have a Fostex 16 track recorder that does a good job, but I am seeing the need for better effects and EQ....so...

What is better?

A new fancier multitrack recorder, or should I download Reaper onto my brand new laptop and purchase a new audio interface and record using my laptop?

I will be recording rock and roll as well as heavy blues and funk...bass, drums, vox, maybe harp,nor sax or keys on specific tunes..

Thanks for your opinions. For some reason, I trust you guys. Explicitly.

Heaven help me.:)

23 answers to this question

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jaberwock Inner Circle

jaberwock

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An audio interface would give you the choice of getting better mic preamps, and A/D converters, and also flexibility in upgrading in the future; a multitrack recorder, however sophisticated ( and expensive) it maybe now, is probably going to be outdated in within the near future, given the pace of technological advancement.

You will however have to invest some time in learning how to use a DAW, but the editing, and mixing possibilities that opens up would seem to make it hugely worthwhile.

Jaberwock

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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That's what I was assuming, but wanted some validation.

I will hate the DAW learning curve....but I will love the results once there.

Thanks.

hamerhead Veteran HFCer

hamerhead

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Good luck with your new adventure. It'll be fun.

Another problem with stand-alones is having each button do 20 different things, so you're always scrolling through menus trying to find stuff (after you've paged through the manual 100 times trying to find which button is the right one). If you need to go deep, you'll be pulling your hair out.

The DAW learning curve won't be fun, but if it's intuitive, it's not so bad. And options are endless. PreSonus makes some great stuff.

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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So can you recommend some audio interfaces and soft software? Is Reaper any good?

hamerhead Veteran HFCer

hamerhead

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I had a Roland VS-880 and a Tascam 2488. The Roland got more and more complicated the deeper you needed to get. The Tascam would freeze and lose info regularly. So I went with PreSonus (first their 16-channel board, then their 10x10 I/O thingy) at the recommendation of our band's drummer. The hardware is very well done, high quality stuff. The Studio One software that comes with it seems nice. I haven't used it a lot yet, but it's pretty straight-forward. Otherwise I have very little experience with much else. Pro-tools is still the software king, I believe.

Really it's like guitars - the one that works for you personally is the one to get. Somebody else's favorite may suck for you. Download all of the free trials you can find and see which works best (or can be tweaked) for your approach. Easy is good.

BTW, this is a stupid good deal:

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/72920-presonus-firestudio-26x26-io-24bit96khz-price-drop-200/

I'd have bought it if I didn't already have one.

geoff_hartwell Veteran HFCer

geoff_hartwell

Posted
Posted

BTW, this is a stupid good deal:

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/72920-presonus-firestudio-26x26-io-24bit96khz-price-drop-200/

I'd have bought it if I didn't already have one.

I have two and they rule. Buy it. Go Reaper if you you are a PC and want to go free. If you are a Mac get Logic.

Either way you can watch a few YouTube vids and be tracking same day. Nothin to it but to do it!

jaberwock Inner Circle

jaberwock

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So can you recommend some audio interfaces and soft software? Is Reaper any good?

I've been using the Audient ID22 for the last year or so and been very happy with the results; only two mic pres, but they are extremely good, and can be expanded to ten using ADAT.

Logic Pro X is only two hundred bucks, is fairly intuitive to learn, and has a ton of features.

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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Will the Presonus that is for HFC sale work with my laptop? I think it only has USB ports.....

gorch Veteran HFCer

gorch

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Cubase and Terratec DMX6Fire USB here. Nice clear sound on the interface. It can both analog and digital.

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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Ok, my laptop has 2 USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, and of course an Ethernet port. Does the HDMI port open up any other options?

Is the USB good enough? I am fairly clueless on PC recording, so please bear with my questions....

sixesandsevens Veteran HFCer

sixesandsevens

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USB 2 is almost as fast as firewire. USB 3 is even faster, so you're fine.

Concurrent tracks in and out is the biggest thing you need to know to figure out if that's "enough". If it's like four tracks or less, you should be fine with USB 2, I think. It may handle more, but I'd feel bad recommending it. But you can start reading almost everything you never wanted to know here: http://tweakheadz.com/guide-to-home-and-project-music-studios/ It looks like ass, but it's great material.

Reaper is a seriously bad-assed piece of software. For the record, it's technically not "free" but they give you the courtesy of an indefinite length no-cost trial to decide if it's for you. Eventually it would be nice to kick them the whopping $60 they ask for.

That said, when I started using it years ago, it was not as easy as garage band but maybe on par with logic or something else like that. I like how customizable it is and I've got like a preset that pops up a new project with four tracks and hits record on the first one. I have a looper with three indepdendent loops so I almost always want to capture the jam I've got in its entirety and then each of the individual loops.

tripp2k Outer Circle

tripp2k

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Reaper is a good one for PC. If I can figure out enough to lay audio and midi drum tracks using Toontrack products (coming from zero prior studio experience), I'm pretty sure just about anyone can :-)

My teenage daughter picked up GarageBand on her own and enjoyed recording herself singing and playing acoustic guitar. You said PC so GB is out. If you have a Mac, give GB a try.

For interfaces, I use Line 6 UX-2 and UX-8 and both include the amp/effect/cab plugin which seems to be used quite often on pro recordings (or did). The UX-8 is used for recording a mic'd drumset.

scottcald Veteran HFCer

scottcald

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USB 2 is almost as fast as firewire. USB 3 is even faster, so you're fine.

Concurrent tracks in and out is the biggest thing you need to know to figure out if that's "enough". If it's like four tracks or less, you should be fine with USB 2, I think. It may handle more, but I'd feel bad recommending it. But you can start reading almost everything you never wanted to know here: http://tweakheadz.com/guide-to-home-and-project-music-studios/ It looks like ass, but it's great material.

Reaper is a seriously bad-assed piece of software. For the record, it's technically not "free" but they give you the courtesy of an indefinite length no-cost trial to decide if it's for you. Eventually it would be nice to kick them the whopping $60 they ask for.

That said, when I started using it years ago, it was not as easy as garage band but maybe on par with logic or something else like that. I like how customizable it is and I've got like a preset that pops up a new project with four tracks and hits record on the first one. I have a looper with three indepdendent loops so I almost always want to capture the jam I've got in its entirety and then each of the individual loops.

I disagree with the USB 2 assessment. Firewire in my experience is much faster than USB 2 in practice. USB 3.0 though is about the same as Firewire. USB from what I've read was built for short bursts of high speed transfer, not continuous transfer which is where Firewire excels. But, I don't think the OP has Firewire if I recall. Realistically, if you're only doing a couple to 4 tracks at a time, it won't really matter what you use.

Either way, if it hasn't been said, use a dedicated external drive for your audio data. It will be a better experience and help everything work better.

sixesandsevens Veteran HFCer

sixesandsevens

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I disagree with the USB 2 assessment. Firewire in my experience is much faster than USB 2 in practice. USB 3.0 though is about the same as Firewire. USB from what I've read was built for short bursts of high speed transfer, not continuous transfer which is where Firewire excels. But, I don't think the OP has Firewire if I recall. Realistically, if you're only doing a couple to 4 tracks at a time, it won't really matter what you use.

Fair enough on the USB part. I've never pushed either to the limit when recording and was speaking in terms of the published specs, so I'll happily withdraw my claim. :)

I agree on the external drive. Ideally SSD since (in myexperience) it's life-changingly fast compared to a traditional hard drive.

scottcald Veteran HFCer

scottcald

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I disagree with the USB 2 assessment. Firewire in my experience is much faster than USB 2 in practice. USB 3.0 though is about the same as Firewire. USB from what I've read was built for short bursts of high speed transfer, not continuous transfer which is where Firewire excels. But, I don't think the OP has Firewire if I recall. Realistically, if you're only doing a couple to 4 tracks at a time, it won't really matter what you use.

Fair enough on the USB part. I've never pushed either to the limit when recording and was speaking in terms of the published specs, so I'll happily withdraw my claim. :)

I agree on the external drive. Ideally SSD since (in myexperience) it's life-changingly fast compared to a traditional hard drive.

No worries, no claim staked, just offering my experience with each. Yeah, I can't wait until SSD is cheap like regular drives.

Jakeboy Veteran HFCer

Jakeboy

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FireWire is not an option. When using an external drive, do you mean loading the DAW on the external drive and simply hooking that to the laptop or do you mean storing the audio data after recording to Reaper on the laptop?

Please excuse my ignorance. I believe I will order the Roland Octa Capture as my AI.

scottcald Veteran HFCer

scottcald

Posted
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FireWire is not an option. When using an external drive, do you mean loading the DAW on the external drive and simply hooking that to the laptop or do you mean storing the audio data after recording to Reaper on the laptop?

Please excuse my ignorance. I believe I will order the Roland Octa Capture as my AI.

Just the audio data. Keep your DAW on your main drive, but just have it save files on the external. I don't know Reaper, but it should have a preference as to where to save files. Just point it to the external there and it should always record to that drive.

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