Cheap 4track Info, Can ne1 help?
Cara 745
I'm a poor college student who is interested in investing in a little 4 track
to record my ideas this summer and in the school year. I want something
straightforward and simple to use and reasonably priced. I want to be able to
record multilayered guitar tracks at the very least, or just create some tapes
to jam along with. How much money do I need to spend and what other equipment
do i need (mic, headphones, etc).
thanks for any help,
Josh
p.s- if you feel like emailing me my email is martzolff324@hotmail
Z
if you're just going to record one track at a time almost any 4-track
will work. From there its the features you want: eq, punch in punch
out, xlr inputs . . .
the best idea would be to go middle of the road say a Tascam 414 MkII
That gives you a little eq and xlr inputs with some flexibility in how
you record. You can punch in and out and the price isn't too bad. If
you need cheap you could try used or a porta 2 but you lose a lot of
features with the porta 2
you probably want head phones and there are a lot of options there.
The standard is a set of sonys for $100 but you might look into the
ones Chris G likes for about $20 They're open ear but have a good
reputation for sound. I'll leave that open for Chris to fill in the
blank, I think they're the Koss Pro 4D or something like that. . .
Get a mic, a shure sm57 if you're gonna do no vocal, or a sm58 if you
are gonna do vocals and a 20 ft mic cord xlr-xlr. if you buy a deck
without xlr inputs get a transformer. Those basics will get you
started . . . good luck and have fun!
Chris G.
Z <tid...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3947927f$0$95...@news.execpc.com...
> On 13 Jun 2000 22:48:36 GMT, car...@aol.com (Cara 745) wrote:
>
> if you're just going to record one track at a time almost any 4-track
> will work. From there its the features you want: eq, punch in punch
> out, xlr inputs . . .
>
> the best idea would be to go middle of the road say a Tascam 414 MkII
> That gives you a little eq and xlr inputs with some flexibility in how
> you record. You can punch in and out and the price isn't too bad. If
> you need cheap you could try used or a porta 2 but you lose a lot of
> features with the porta 2
>
> you probably want head phones and there are a lot of options there.
> The standard is a set of sonys for $100 but you might look into the
> ones Chris G likes for about $20 They're open ear but have a good
> reputation for sound. I'll leave that open for Chris to fill in the
> blank, I think they're the Koss Pro 4D or something like that. . .
>
> Get a mic, a shure sm57 if you're gonna do no vocal, or a sm58 if you
> are gonna do vocals and a 20 ft mic cord xlr-xlr. if you buy a deck
> without xlr inputs get a transformer. Those basics will get you
> started . . . good luck and have fun!
Actually I use the Radio Shack Pro-25 headphones which are made by Koss but
no longer sold by Radio Shack. Koss still makes them and sells them direct
from their web page though, but I don't have it handy to look up the Koss
model.
However for $99 Koss makes some even better studio phones called the Koss
Pro-4AA (that was probably what you were think of eh Z?). These are close
ear headphones and have been used for many years in pro studios. They have
an excellent reputation. I've tried them out myself and they really do
sound lovely.
Chris G.
Z
wrote:
>
>
>Actually I use the Radio Shack Pro-25 headphones which are made by Koss but
>no longer sold by Radio Shack. Koss still makes them and sells them direct
>from their web page though, but I don't have it handy to look up the Koss
>model.
>However for $99 Koss makes some even better studio phones called the Koss
>Pro-4AA (that was probably what you were think of eh Z?). These are close
>ear headphones and have been used for many years in pro studios. They have
>an excellent reputation. I've tried them out myself and they really do
>sound lovely.
>
Well that's what popped into my head, but I think the Pro-25s are
Koss's KTX-Pro which is what I was thinking of 19.99 on line which was
more of the budget that I was thinking he was in. I considered buying
them just as another way to check my mix. I'm actually using a pair of
Aiwa headphones that really suck. Not even at all.
Chris G.
Bingo! Yeah that was it, I just double checked on the Koss website where
they are under the "portable stereophones".category.
Yeah, these are definitely great headphones and I highly recommend them for
recording purposes. They are not good for tracking things like vocals with
a sensitive condenser mic because they are an open ear design and thus you
get a bit more leakage of sound from the headphones into the mic. Also they
are not the best for using with loud instruments in the same room. By that
I mean like moving around a mic on an amp while monitoring through the
headphones. For those purposes closed ear headphones (even cheap closed ear
headphones) are better.
However the KTX-Pro (which are the same as the old Radio Shack Pro-25) has a
high level of detail that will alow you to hear all kinds of little
anamolies in your mix that you wouldn't hear even with some reference
monitors. They also have an amazing amount of bass response for open ear
headphones and are very rugged despite their fragile appearance. What
really amazed me is that I had thought my old Sony MD-30 consumer headphones
(closed ear) had pretty good bass response until I bought the Pro-25's on
advice from many people on the rec.audio.pro newsgroup. I was just amazed
how deep the bass was. It's not a hyped bass either but a real
representation of how much bass and sub-bass your mix has. So in essence
while you wouldn't want to mix everything with them, they make a very nice
set of reference monitors to double check mixes with.
If ya need some really good closed ear headphones, the Koss Pro4AA are very
good.
Damn...I should be a Koss salesman....hehehe.
Chris G.