dikiw@mmintl.UUCP (Diki Wozniak) (12/03/85)
I have recently spent some time talking with a drummer that I used to play in a band with to find that he has gone totally electronic. He no longer even uses cymbols! I'm going to be playing some music with him soon, should be an education. All this has convinced me that it might be time for some new equipment, though I have no plans to rid myself of my '66 Fender Mustang (MY BLUE GUITAR), I thought that a multi-track tape recorder might be a nice toy. I noticed that several were snapped up in the recent net buying spree at Manys. Questions: Is it worthwhile to pay an extra $500. for the new full-blown tascam unit (PortaStudio 246) over say the Tascam Ministudio? Prices at the local shop (La Salle Music) are $1000. and $500. respectively. Are these units so limiting that I will soon want to move on to something bigger regardless of which I get? What about the Fostex (X-15 about $800) and the Korg 4x4 ($500.) I am interested in using the eqipment mostly for one-track-at-a- time studio type recording of guitars, vocals, synths, in a rock or jazz rock mode. I can imagine using it also for the occassional live studio session, with a three piece band....where I now achieve less than optimum results with a regular cassett deck. Would I be better off going to 1/8 inch reel to reel 8 track? I am thinking here of the Fostex system advertised rather heavily now in several mags (MIX, G.P.) How much better is the sound quality (15 ips must do something for ya, huh?). I have rented time in comercial 8/16 track studios so I don't think I would be overwhelmed by the complexity of the equipment (Just the cost, $3600.) KEYBOARDS, MIDI, and COMPUTERS Sounds fun huh? I friend left a Roland Juno 106 at my house for a while. A nice unit. Six notes at a time is not enough I guess, sometimes I would get "dead" notes on my right hand when playing a four note chord on my left and lead in fifths and thirds. A minor point. What else is nice in under $1000. range? I imagine that the main use of a computer in relation to Midi would be to sequence one or more instruments. (I am not interested in notation) Is a dedicated sequencer a better bet? Which hardware/software com- bination would work best. I don't presently own a computer of any variety and am not too interested in solutions based on 8 bit machines. PC clones would be the most useful in other respects, how do they stack up against Amiga, Mac and ST for USEFUL midi stuff. I bet that there must be some real gurus out there, so any advice or comments would be great. Please don't bother to flame me, I know I don't know a lot 'bout these new fangled 'tronics. (I think my digital delay is the end-all!) Aloha