Can Someone Point Me In The Right Direction Here? Options

[Percussion_Is_Fr...]

Let me give you a little background so your advice can be somewhat personalized... I'm 21 years old, been a musician since I was 6, I love music, its my life. I play piano/keyboard, drums, and guitar mainly, with a little clarinet left over from high school concert band. I've finally landed a good job and saved up some money, and am in the process of putting together a digital audio workstation to record/create music.

My goals are as follows: I'd first and foremost like to be able to sit in my room, laying down chord progressions on my keyboard or drums, then put on headphones and solo or sing over them, as put my drumset in there too. I'm also interested in getting into electronic music, I really like Fischerspooner and the Faint, that sort of thing, and would like my set-up to allow me to be really creative in that respect. Thirdly, I would like to be able to record my four-person band (standard setup... drumkit, bass, guitar, keyboard, vocals).

Here's where I stand so far: I got a used dual 1.5gig powermac G4 with a gig of memory, two 40 gig harddrives. I've got a general midi keyboard (Casio WK-1800). I'm planning on getting Logic Express, although I'm not 100% solid on this (and any input there would be appreciated too). I figure I'll get some sort of active monitors, I'm not really worrying about them yet.

Here's where I need your help. I'm new at this, and am having trouble understanding the specs of the various interfaces available. Essentially I want to get the least expensive interface, be it firewire or USB, that will allow me to record my band effectively. I've never recorded with a band before, so I'm not sure if I need to be able to get us playing live, or if we could have the drummer and bassist lay down their tracks together, and then add guitar, vocals, keyboard on subsequent takes. Would that work? If so, I could get an interface with less inputs
I'm looking at the MOTU 828mkII. I'm assuming that would allow us to play together, but I don't like the actual appearance/set-up. (I want to have something that looks like a mixing board, with faders, etc., though this isn't a necesity, just a sort of recording-studio fantasy ) The Tascam 1884 would be ideal, but its out of my price range.

So that brings me to the Tascam US428. At 300 bucks, its very affordable. Its got the tactile controls that I like, and I'm assuming it would work with logic express. I just can't make sense of the specifications, they're in a highly unfamiliar language to such a newb.

SO help me guys, I'm just exploding here waiting to make music, help me clinch this decision and order my sheit!

[Riverdog]

You could easily record an entire band using nothing more than a "2 imput" interface if you're band members are good at playing individually...

The 828 is only an "input/output" interface - It can be mixed from an external mixing board or you could mix down to stereo using your internal mixing system in some type of software like Logic Express...

It sounds like you have a lot of flexibility in what you may be interested in doing... Understand as well that as your cost goes down for interfaces - so does your capability...

The US428 would be a good choice for recording if you're interested in recording two audio inputs at a time... Again if your band members can handle this - That would be the most economic value... But understand that you only have two inputs in to record and 4 outputs out to play back... That does not mean that you can't "mix" more than for tracks of sound to an output...

I hope this helps... Perhaps if you were more specific on what was confusing we could offer more help...

Comments?

[Percussion_Is_Fr...]

OK let me streamline my question a little bit.... with the Tascam US428, will I be able to have two members of my band record simultaneously onto separate tracks and hear eachother on headphones while they're doing it? Any problems I should know about with this unit? The only thing that worries me is its very low price tag; as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. But if there's nothing majorly wrong with the thing, I'm pulling the plug and ordering one this weekend.

[Riverdog]

- The answer is "yes" for both...
The US428 may only have one (I believe) Headphone output... But, I would think that would work well for what you're trying to do...

Remember that when you record though that you will have two "mono" channels... If you try to record a "stereo" guitar effect - You'll have to use both channels to get the true effect in there...

As for your "any problems" question...
Please take this with a grain of salt... But, I too was extremely excited when this unit first came out - Only to get it home and realize that it had no drivers for Mac... This was RIGHT when it came out... Since then, I believe drivers are available and some people are getting good results with this unit... I also know through using Logic Pro 7 that it has a specific interface for using this unit with Logic... AND - I took the liberty of checking the Tascam site last night for you and there is an environment for it in Logic as well...

It may be a good buy for you - But You'll need to decide that for yourself...

Good Luck

[Geeser]

I realize this is an older post but in case others came across it like I did you might want to know. The US428 has 4 inputs. A/B & C/D that can be recorded on simultaneously. It will also record 2 midi tracks at the same time.

In my application I use a Yamaha QY-70 in stereo to lay down drum/bass/accent tracks in midi and I play a stereo guitar on A/B and my friend plays a stereo guitar on C/D. The equivalent of 6 tracks on our first take.

It takes a bit of a learning curve on the Tascam but it's a solid little box. I use it with Cakewalk Sonar. I don't use the mixer part of it preferring a dedicated outboard mixer. The jog wheel and easy hookup alone are worth it for me.

[morten75]

the built in mic pre-amps aint the best on the 428.youll be cranking that volume up to 11 to try and get a decent signal!