eight-track recordings?

Can I get a good recording out of an eight or four track portastudio type thing?
Should my band just fork out to record demos or pay once for an eight-track?
Andrew

I use a Tascam 4 track Portastudio (424 mk III) all the time and it is really good as a scratch pad.

I write songs and as I have been moving around a lot for the past 15 years don’t have a band to call my own. Consequently, I want to be able to multi-track my self playing a whole bunch of different instruments, mix them together and see what it sounds like.

The Portastudio reaches its limits when you want to mix 4 tracks to 2 tracks and bounce them back to tracks 1 and 2 on the Portastudio enabling you to record and mix another 2 tracks. This can be done quite easily using a stereo VCR which has a better dynamic range than a tape recorder and is cheaper than a DAT (indecently I use really good cable & tape). The sound was OK, but sadly only OK and if you then wanted to mix to a master (another bounce) the sound quality was noticeably degenerating.

There is also the option of bouncing multiple tracks together freeing up space for more tracks. In theory you can get like 12 tracks out of a 4 track. This is not only destructive (i.e. the originals get recorded over) but is also a pain in the ass as you are stuck with the pre-mixed stuff which has to be mixed before you have listened to all of the final tracks, useful eh ! Also this approach limits (severally) the use of stereo guitar / drums all that good stuff!

Moral of the story is, if you want to do 8 track work, get an 8 track machine. People will bang on about how Sergeant Peppers was recorded on a four track and this may well be true. I however do not have (unfortunately) all of the other resources, like a professional orchestra, the best engineers money can by and all the time /money in the world to throw at my projects so……..

I am currently checking out computer recording as an alternative to a Korg D1600 which is very pricey (about $1600) but will do everything I want. When I have saved my pennies I’ll expand my horizons and have fun learning how to work these new technologies.

When all is said and done I will certainly keep the Portastudio after I get either the computer kit or the Korg as it is very good at what it dose and Id be heart broken if anything happened to it.

Have you thought about using tools and materials that you already have, instead of paying for new gear? That way, if you're not satisfied, yuo can still go out and buy the gear, but you may also be surprised by the results.

I have had some success using just my trusty old Pentium I 166 (souped up with 256 RAM, mind you) and a demo version of Acid Pro 2.0. It takes a bit of tinkering to get completely used to it, and you can only record 8 tracks in the demo version, there are absolutely no effects (not even fade in/out, volume level increase/decrease). However, I've just recently discovered GoldWave, and I think that the two programs combined can be very powerful.

Just a thought...

You can find Acid Pro around the 'net, but beware, my friend recently downloaded version 3.0, and it doesn't allow you to record tracks longer than 2 mins., whereas version 2.0 allows you to record as long as you have hard drive space/RAM. I'm not sure if you can find v2.0 around (I had already downloaded it about a year ago, when it was brand new).

Hope that helps.