for anyone who wants to record music well and cheaply

[AllenLowe]

been wanting to expand my digital horizons to 8 tracks, but have stayed away from the little multi tracks that record at 16 bits (hate the preamps, and do not like 16 bit). Been waiting for a good cheap digital thingy to become available. Just picked up the Zoom R16 8 track recorder along with a Macki 800R (a strip of 8 onyx mic preamps) and I'm in recording heaven. The onyx's are warm and clear, the R16 records at 24 bit, my living room has perfect acoustics, and I'm ready to go. No offense to anyone here but I will never have to be a slave to another recording engineer's idea of how my music should sound (sold my much more expensive Edirol and my Mackie board to get these).

I also bought two mics from an amazing guy in Vancouver BC who takes Chinese capsules and makes great cheap replicas of Neumann 47s and Neumann 87s - and I picked up an RE20 for ye-loud brass players. That along with my Shure sm94s and my Shure sm81 for rhythm has allowed me to record great sounding trio things for my current CD. Find the right room, mix down properly, stick to good condensers, be judicious about reverb, and you too can sound like Roy DuNann, I kid you not.

of course, it was not without some irony that I told a friend that I finally had equipment that sounded as good as my old 1980s and 1990s analog multi tracks.

sigh......

PS: the Zoom retails for $399 and you can get 'em on Ebay for around $300 - works well also as a digital interface, with USB

Edited September 7, 2010 by AllenLowe

[jazzbo]

Congrats! I know you'll be using them and smiling!

[Elissa]

B&H says the new Zoom H1 ($99) will be in soon.

[AllenLowe]

sounds like a two channel?