recording for dummys

[douglas225]

i am interested in purchasing a compact starter type recording equipment that can be either burned directly or uploaded onto a CD. It would need to be portable and easy to use, set up, etc.. I have no experience with recording - NONE.

i would use it for recording jam sessions primarily, but i also have a desire to lay down some music. it would likely start out being no more than probably 3 to 4 tracks...acoustic, electric(maybe), bass, vocal....

i have been looking in musicians friend and found a few things, but they seem to be all over the place in price and options. i would like to spend as little as possible since this is my first attempt and if i like it, i would be upgrading, not to mention, i just dropped my guitar savings on my new OM03R.

thanks in advance.
doug

[Denis]

i am interested in purchasing a compact starter type recording equipment that can be either burned directly or uploaded onto a CD. It would need to be portable and easy to use, set up, etc.. I have no experience with recording - NONE.

i would use it for recording jam sessions primarily, but i also have a desire to lay down some music. it would likely start out being no more than probably 3 to 4 tracks...acoustic, electric(maybe), bass, vocal....

i have been looking in musicians friend and found a few things, but they seem to be all over the place in price and options. i would like to spend as little as possible since this is my first attempt and if i like it, i would be upgrading, not to mention, i just dropped my guitar savings on my new OM03R.

thanks in advance.
doug

What's your budget?  I just got a Tascam DP-01FX 8 track digital recorder.  They make a DP-01FX/CD with a built in CD burner? 

They also make a scaled down DP-01 which has not built in effects, no phantom powered XLR inputs or CD burner:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/241106/

$300 is not expensive for this type of gear.  All you'd need is a CD burner in your computer and a USB cable...

[douglas225]

thanks for the reply. that is actually one of the ones that i was looking at.

what do you think about the Fostex MR9 recording package? that would keep me at 300, but includes mic

[Denis]

thanks for the reply. that is actually one of the ones that i was looking at.

what do you think about the Fostex MR9 recording package? that would keep me at 300, but includes mic

That's a nice deal but the problem is the memory.  128MB CompactFlash card won't hold tons of stuff.  I actually got the DP-01FX on Ebay for an awesome price.  Look around, they are not anymore expensive:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/TASCAM-DP-01-DP-01-DP01-NEW-WARRANTY-DEALER_W0QQitemZ7361775458QQcategoryZ41480QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Comes with a free mic and headphones (gotta send in a coupon then they ship them to you) but instead of flash cards, it's got a 40GB hard drive.  They are authorized Tascam dealers so you get full warranty as well.