The Oboe BBoard

The Oboe BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Re: digital recording devices

Author: Craig Matovich
Date: 2006-11-30 19:38

The MicroTrack specs look decent for recording practice session and demos.
Price under $500 is pretty attractive. You might consider a couple other choices if you also desire really good performance recordings or perhaps aspire to release CD of your work using this recording setup.

I've been doing digital recording for a while and would suggest if your budget permits and if your portability needs can deal with a small dedicated digital workstation (about the size of a laptop computer) take a look at those. Korg, Tascam, etc.

Three reasons for this:

1) The wiring in the very small portables and its low voltage attendant electronics pose pretty serious limits to signal levels before things distort.

2) RCA jacks work pretty well for low signal levels, balanced quarter inch (TRS) jacks much better for hotter signals, and even better are XLR type inputs of the kind studio grade condensor mics use. They require Phantom Power usually around 40v to operate normally, but then give very clean signals and hotter levels which can overwhelm small circuits.

So setting the stage to buy good mics in the future would be a compatibility issue I would consider. Good mics make a good oboe sound great. Poor mics make a great oboe sound poor.

3) The workstations I refer to also have on-board CD burners and produce CDs in formats PC and Macs don't support without extra software programs.
They offer more than two channel recording so that adds flexibility for recording especially in studio settings.

If you are not interested in CDs and only files you can load onto an Ipod, this point probably does not matter unless the extra recording tracks are of interest.

I have an 8 channel and a 16 channel system and love having the workspace for trying various takes without loosing previous takes.

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics