4-track recorder

[palmerlouie]

im thinking of buying some audio equip so that i can put backing tracks and other music onto a track and then record my drums onto the rest.....mainly for practice purposes.

i was in a store today looking....and i saw this: www.proaudiostore.co.uk/proddet.php?id=810

the others i saw all recorded to cassette which obviouly wont sound as good. i will then of course need to buy a mic and stand.

im on a strict budget due to this being only for practice etc,,,,,what id really like is something that runs on batteries.....so when i leave for the states, i can use it there too.

any of u UK HOD's know if u can hire pro-audio stuff anywhere???

if anyone has any knowledge about multi-track stuff etc,,,,,,,it would be great to hear it.

thanks.

[palmerlouie]

also....whats du think the quality will be like using only one condenser mic over the drums??

i know the small mini-disc mics you can buy sound pretty cool.....but i want to be able to mix the drums WITH music etc.

[Randy walker]

What's your budget? You could buy a minidisc recorder, a stereo mic and a small 4 channel mixer. The mixer would be around 100.00, maybe even cheaper.
As to the power situation, AC/DC converters are not that expensive, so don't limit yourself to only being able to use batteries.
Here's a mixer for 59.00 http://tinyurl.com/36kp3
It has 2 XLR channels plus RCAIN jacks for inserting a cd or whatever for music to play to, then it also has RCA OUT jacks to go directly back to the minidsic recorder.

Here is a power converter http://tinyurl.com/yh87 from Radio Shack that will convert your European standard to North American standard when coming to the US, 34.99.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ April 17, 2004 02:50 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 17, 2004 02:56 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font>

[palmerlouie]

ok well i already have a minidisc recorder.....if u just mean a portable one that i record from cds to mini disc.

i has one line out socket and a headphones socket.....how could i hook that up to a mixer?

i guess i need to record the backing track first onto one track....then put a couple of overheads up and record those two tracks of drums live while playing to the backing track.....then listen back to all three at the same time.

budget....i can borrow mics and stands so i guess no more than ?180 on a multi tracker or mixer

[Randy walker]

You can line in a cd player into the mixer, and line out both the drums and cd mix via 1 channel or 2 directly into the minidisc.

[palmerlouie]

ok great idea.....thanks randy!

and what do you think the sound quality of the drums will be like with only 1 or 2 overheads??

[palmerlouie]

also....

would the sound be any worse by putting 2 or more tracks of music onto the one line in of the mini disc....??

compared with recording onto the small hard-disk multitracker or a cassette multitracker??

thanks.

[Randy walker]

1st question, depends on the mic and placement, but it will sound ok.
2nd question, not sure what you mean by 1 or 2 tracks on 1 line. By using the mixer, you can adjust all the levels of music and drums going into the minidisc, so it will sound good. I mean it won't be like using a harddisc recording or something fancy, but it will do for what you need.

[hanayalator]

Might wanna check out some comp programs. There's tons of stuff out there right now, and I'm sure you can find some shareware stuff that'll do for practice purposes.

[palmerlouie]

ok...sure, the quality if the mic will make a difference. this depends on whether i buy an average one or borrow a good one.

with the mini disc i meant.....some mini disc players (the bigger ones) have a left and right input.....two channels.....with my mini disc it has only one input and one channel.....just wondered if that makes a huge difference.

and i wont be able to EG anything either will i? due to the music not being stored anywhere.