My home recording dilemma

[Venomboy]

I have a Roland VS 880 EX that I've barely used. It has a 2 or 4 gig interntal hard drive. I also have an external hard drive for it as well (9 gigs I think). I don't have a CD burner for it.

My drummer has a PC with Cakewalk. He has an old school outboard mixer and a crappy soundcard that we've been recording some demos with. Both he and I are looking for something a little better. We both like to mic our stuff and he typically uses 4-8 mikes for the drums when recording.

Here's my dilemma:

Do I keep the Roland? I could use it to lay down ideas and riffs for myself. I could get an external burner on ebay for $50-$150 (not all makes are compatible with the Roland). I'm sure we could record everything on it but I'm afraid of running out of room and constantly burning CDs to clear everything off.

I was considering another all in one unit: Boss BR1600CD. 40 gig drive, USB, build in CD burner, the works. Or maybe another manufacturer's unit like a Tascam, Fostex, or Yamaha all in one. Or maybe one of the bigger but slightly used Roland's off ebay like the 1600 or 1800 series with a fatter hard drive.

Or do I go the computer route? I have a PC laptop at home that's not very fast. And I don't really like working on a PC. I was considering a G4 PowerBook since I'm a Mac guy. If I go the computer route, will I need an outboard mixer? My friend has the TASCAM FW1884 that looks interesting. If me and my drummer and other musicians I play with all have the same software, we can trade tracks, correct? If I have the stand alone unit, we all have to use the unit, correct?

With either an all in one or PC based system, will I need a mic preamp? What's the advantages/disadvantages of having/not having a mic preamp? Do outboard mixers have built in preamps? What do mic preamps cost?

Thanks!

[Jack Napalm]

Re: My home recording dilemma

I have recently started trying to record some things with Sonar/Cakewalk 3 and can't stand it. I have a fast computer with a gig of RAM, SCSI hard drive and 2 gig processor. Every time I try and record something I get drop outs. I'm still learning but I have come to the conclusion I want a dedicated unit for recording. Hands down the PC is the best for editing. I have been looking at the TASCAM 2488 and the Yamaha AW16G. There seem to be other good units as well.

[Matt Crooks]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Originally posted by Venomboy:


1. If I go the computer route, will I need an outboard mixer?

2. If me and my drummer and other musicians I play with all have the same software, we can trade tracks, correct?

3. If I have the stand alone unit, we all have to use the unit, correct?

4. With either an all in one or PC based system, will I need a mic preamp?

5. Do outboard mixers have built in preamps?

6. What do mic preamps cost?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. No. You can but you don't have to. You can mix completely in the computer.

2. Yes.

3. Yes.

4. Yes.

5. Unless it's specifically a line-level mixer (and you'll have to search to find one of those) yes.

6. That's like asking how much a guitar costs. You can get a rack unit from Nady that has 8 preamps in it for about $100. You can get a unit from Groove Tubes that is one mic pre for about $3,000, and that's not the most expensive out there.

[Shotgun]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Originally posted by Jack Napalm:
I have recently started trying to record some things with Sonar/Cakewalk 3 and can't stand it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I use Sonar 3. You shouldn't be having dropouts with that rig. Maybe take a look at cakewalk.audio on Usenet, or http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/kb2003175.asp if you haven't already.

Keith

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My home recording dilemma

the dropouts could be caused by the soundcard. What kind of card are you using?

As for the initial question, can't you replace the hardrive in the roland? I believe that they are standard drives and can be swapped out.

[metallicarocks]

Re: My home recording dilemma

I personally hate going the computer route. I've done it once, and will never do it again. One crash deleted hours of work. I will never trust them. Granted, we should have backed up the files, but I want a unit that I can depend on and a computer is not one of them.

I would highly recomend getting a manual setup. People will argue that a digital recorder is a computer. Too true, but at least the digital recorders turn on within 30 seconds, and do not crash. They do not delete files, get viruses, give you the blue screen of death, or tell you that the program has done an illegal operation and will now shut down, terminating all of your efforts. I'll tell you what, nothing screws your day over more than losing a track that you've worked on for hours. The really sad thing also is that in the first track, all of the energy is there. When you do it again because you have to, all of the energy is gone and you'll never play it like you did then. Computers suck.

[countandduke]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Check out the aardvark pro q10. Their in www.musiciansfriend.com From what I have read they kick all forms of ass!!!

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: My home recording dilemma

I would go the PC route...it took me forever to make the change too. After I did I couldn't understand why it took me so damn long to do so.

Also with an good PC/App and Sound card combo..you can surf porn with it when your not recording...try that on a stand alone recording device [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[MOSHWITZ]

Re: My home recording dilemma

whoooooaaaaa.....isn't this an RBUS jack
in the back of your unit?


all you need is a RPC-1 card for your comp.
and the RBUS cable. it will give you
8 in 8 out of your comp,and your 880ex will act
as your A/D converter + effects [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
i use a roland VM-3100pro digital mixer w/RBUS
listen to any of my mp3's i have posted, they
were all done through the Roland with the RBUS/RPC-1 into the comp.
and works great with any software and is 24/96khz .

[Jack Napalm]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
the dropouts could be caused by the soundcard. What kind of card are you using?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's very probable that is the cause. It's a higher end Sound Blaster, an Audigy card, but definately not made for recording.

[Infernal Death]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Originally posted by Jack Napalm:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
the dropouts could be caused by the soundcard. What kind of card are you using?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's very probable that is the cause. It's a higher end Sound Blaster, an Audigy card, but definately not made for recording. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This could be the cause but there are also some other possibilites. One main factor in causing dropouts is the used chipset on your motherboard. Older VIA KT133 chipsets are known to be extremely horrible for audio application because of their architecture they easily cause dropouts and klicks. It's always best to avoid those boards. (nowadays no problem but many people still use those boards, which is fine for everything but audio recording).

As for the main topic.
I prefer working with a computer. It's just more powerful and better than any stand-alone unit. You have a big display, more cpu power, more software to upgrade to.
The biggest downside with computer of course is stability. (That's why the Mac was THE computer in the past to go concerning audio recording) Although i think today it's much better with Windows2000 and WindowsXP there are still some problems especially with audio recording since this is a very sensitive task.
If you go the computer route be sure to know yourself around on a pc or have a friend who does. It's extremely important to proper configurate your computer. Avoid VIA KT133 chipsets (not a problem since today they are very old, that is if you plan on buying a new pc)
The best thing is (if you can afford it) to buy a complete PC just for recording. The less software and hardware is installed in the computer the less potential problems you have.
I use a dedicated pc for recording and have installed only the graphic card and soundcard and my recording software. Nothing else and it works ok.

Flo

[Venomboy]

Re: My home recording dilemma

My short term solution is to use my drummer's setup and record some demos. Then do the same thing with my setup and compare notes. Then make a final decision. Thanks for all the input!!!

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My home recording dilemma

Actually, the Audigy series does not work well in the recording realm, especially with some software packages. I have an Audigy 2 platinum and it would refuse to work with Sonar. It would constantly freeze and crash. It would work with Cubasis, but the latency made it unusable. My old Soundblaster live worked much better. I switched to a pci MAudio Omnistudio and everything works. It was the card in my case. A properly setup computer work station is the best way to go. You have the most options at the least expense. You can get screwed on any format if the machine goes down and you didn't properly save your work.