I've been home-recording my music for a few years now using various versions of Cubase. I've been getting itchy feet lately, wondering about other ways to record my music and I read up on multi-track portastudios.

I don't really know a great deal about these and I have three main questions:

1. I understand that using a four-track doesn't limit you to just four seperate takes. I know that two tracks can be played back and recorded as one onto another track. I do know how multi-tracking works on Cubase but not using a cassette deck on a portastudio.
Surely once you've recorded a layer onto a cassette, recording over it again to add another would erase what was previously on there?

2, Once I'd finished a song using the portastudio how can I burn it onto a CD? Would I need to press playback to record the finished song onto Cubase so I could burn it from there? Or is there another way?

3. Finally, can anyone recommend some affordable models to me? Should I get a digital one instead of a cassette one? I don't need anything too high-tech - I rarely use more than 16 layers on my songs. Aa long as it's high in quality...

Thanks in advance!
[Edited 2/4/06 2:36am]

I may be able to help, have you been recording for three years?

Cassette will be the cheapest way to go by far, some 4tracks selling for under $100 now. However, quality will be an issue. Even the best demos on a 4track still have a lower quality than digital models. Plus, sharing music online will be more difficult as you'll have to convert your tunes to digital format.

I've had cassette and digital recorders, but I would definitely recommend you look into PC recording. The cash output will be inline with what you would pay for a good quality cassette machine, you'll be digital (better sound quality) and sharing/collaborating online will be much easier.

I use a software package called Pro Tracks. In addition, I use ACID to build my drum tracks. With a USB interface for your instrument / mics, you could probably start recording on the PC for under $300.

Of course, this is all assuming your PC is only a few years old. PC recording does take some processing power (nothing major - but definitely more than a Pentium 75 )

My computers ancient so that isn't really an option.

Do you think I should opt for a digital portastudio instead of a cassette deck one? Is there a big difference in the sound quality?

Does an 8-track portastudio mean you can record just 8 layers or can you record more than one layer on each track?

I play a variety of instruments and like to stack up my vocals to harmonise with myself... would I be able to do this using an 8 track? If so, would the sound quality be compramised as a result?

abergoust - Longer than that, yes.
[Edited 2/7/06 3:23am]

Go w/the digital. You've mentioned layering several times now. When you bounce tracks (i.e. layering) on cassette, you will lose sound quality every time. So, after bouncing a few tracks, you'll find instrument or vocals getting buried.

With digital, you won't have this problem.

Regarding 8 tracks, you can record using one track, 8 tracks or with bouncing, as many as you need (ex using tracks 1-7, mixing those down to track 8, fill up those tracks again, mix down again, etc until your song is where you want it to be). You could do this w/cassette, but again, sound quality will degrade the more times you bounce the tracks.

MattyJam said:

Matty, I do all of my own writing and producing, I use a vs880, digital recorders are dirt cheap nowadays and there are really no excuses left anymore for not getting some good quality work done. Tape shouldn't even be in the question in my opinion. My 8 track which costed me 1500 several years ago sells on ebay for around 200 and it does everything i ever needed it to do, I did my whole album on it if you want to hear go to www.petesilas.com for samples. If you use all real instruments then you will be able to make your stuff sound much better than mines, i did it all midi. I hate working with musicians and music people, they are so flaky that I can't tolerate them and would rather do everything myself. Anyway, what you are talking about is track bouncing, I've never liked this myself because you lose too much quality. What you do is continue recording previous tracks onto other tracks, it kills the quality and should be avoided. Hypothetically, digital recorders should avoid this problem but it did not work out that way for me, bouncing is bad news. Don't tell me you are so poor you can't even get a digital recorder because anyone can scrounge up a couple hundred dollars. I lived in the basement of a grocery store while I paid off the 2500 for my studio equipment.

My digital 8 track (tascam) has lots of "virtual tracks" which means you can do 99 or so takes on a guitar track for example. You can only play 8 tracks at a time, but you can switch in any of the 99 takes to see which one is best. This is one of the biggest differences between digital & tape.

It's best to get as many tracks (I think at least 16) as possible, though, because even though you can combine two tracks (or seven for that matter) into one, you don't have the flexibility of being able to control them individually once they're combined.

Using virtual tracks to bounce & combine means you can go back & fix the mix, but you need to be creative & plan, and it would be easier to just have more tracks. I thought 8 tracks would be enough, but it's not unless you're doing very basic 4 piece rock stuff.

I mix & burn the cd's on my computer. The Tascam has a cd burner, but my computer's much faster.
[Edited 2/8/06 11:49am]

Firstly, thanks for all your replies. I appreciate it.

Is the quality on a digital portastudio better than what you would get from something like Cubase? Sound quality is really my number one priority. For some reason my version of Cubase will only let me record on Audio and not on Midi, and after about six tracks on Audio I have to turn the volume down really low on each track to avoid bad sound quality.

So I'm basically looking for something where I can record up to 16 layers of really high sound quality, using both Midi and Audio inputs. Do you think a digital portastudio would fit the job?

mozfonky - Like your version of Little Red Corvette!
[Edited 2/9/06 2:58am]

MattyJam said:

Most digital recordings are of similar quality--16 or 24 bit, 24 bit being higher quality. CD's are 16 bit. My computer (at least the program I use to master) records in 16 bit. My Tascam records in either 16 bit or 24 bit.

The difference between machines is going to be quality of the onboard effects, eq, ease of use, disc space, number of tracks. This will affect the quality of your recording, along with your recording methods--mics, studio, etc.

Personally I'd only use my computer if I had a real studio. Since I need to bring my gear around with me, a portastudio (or maybe a laptop) is the only way to go for me. But computers usually offer more tracks than portastudios, unless you're using a real cheap program.

Like I said earlier, getting a 16 track machine (or computer program) would be much better for your final mix than bouncing tracks on a 4 track machine.

MattyJam said:

Thanks Matty, I'm gonna try to do it again mo' better.

andyman91 said:

Okay, thanks... any affordable yet high quality models you can recommend? I saw this on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TAS...otohosting - What do you think?? Also, this may sound like a dumb question but if I record in 24-bit will the quality carry through once I've burned it to a CD?
[Edited 2/10/06 2:52am]

MattyJam said:

That's what I use. I've had it for a couple of years and I like it a lot. There are a couple problems I have with it, though.

1. It runs out of space quicker than you might expect. To back up your files, you need to attach a SCSI type drive. The cd burner made for this machine is very slow, that's why I master on my computer, but I use it to (slowly) back up my files.

I usually record in 16 bit for this reason. 24 is a bit better (even after you mix it down into 16 for cd) because the clarity of each track is slightly better. I find that for demos this doesn't matter so much, and 16 is just fine.

2. The effects are not as good as some machines friends of mine have--not great quality & you can't use many different effects on different tracks unless you record them with it--not always a good idea.

3. 8 tracks is slightly misleading, as tracks 7-8 are always connected as a stereo pair. And like I said, I feel I could use 16 tracks easily.

4. No phantom power or xlr inputs. If you use a condenser mic that needs phantom power (as you should for recording vocals & acoustic instruments) you need a mixer or some kind of direct box.

But if you don't have anything, you're going to love this, especially for 31 pounds! I paid about $900. I've recorded lots of stuff on this, and I think it's capable of pretty professional sounding recordings if you know what you're doing.

I recommend going digital like the Tascam 2488. It sells for about $1100.