A thread for the ongoing saga of my new recording setup (and your advice).

i'm tempted by this one: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/R20--zoom-r20-16-track-recorder-interface-controller-workstations. reviews make it sound like it would work well with my recording style (quick and dirty).

Thanks, I might pull the trigger on the H6 (again).

Weekend recording diary:
I spent all weekend recording drums for a brass band record in my upstairs studio, where my computer and audio interface is. I don't quite have room for a kit up there, but just enough room to record a bass drum and snare drum/cymbals separately. I dragged up the foam topper from the guest bedroom and a bunch of couch cushions to reduce the parallel walls boing, and used three mics for each drum.

It was somewhat intense recording loud drums in a small room for a long time, especially when I needed to crank up the headphones to hear the track properly in some sections, as well as engineering myself (stepping over to the computer constantly in-between takes). But I can't imagine this particular 9-minute medley getting done in any other way, I'm so glad no one else was there.

There were some hilarious home recording snafus along the way (realizing that one of my track groups had a wrong mic input setting, so I had to redo everything I recorded on that group), but it's done and I'm very satisfied with the results.

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I've started to ponder taking my home studio to the next phase of evolution. Currently I use Ableton Live as my DAW to record a few hardware synths and the Roland TR-8S. I find myself flipping through a few different audio interfaces (Expert Sleepers ES-8, the TR-8S, and M-Audio M-Track 8) to make this work as no single one is really doing the trick for me. Ideally I would like a single interface that covers all my needs, so I'm starting to look at mixers like the Tascam Model 16/24. The idea would be to have something that can record all main tracks, synths + multi-tracked drum machine at once, and hopefully add stuff like eq, compression, effects bus. I like that the Tascams have midi ports, which would help me sync everything up, but I think they may have other limitations that might put me off of them.

So anyway, does anyone have a home setup that tackles some of these issues? What would you recommend? I'd like to keep it well under $1000 if possible.

I am all audio (no MIDI at all ever, sorry) and for me the Alesis MultiMix 8 is doing everything I want. Home recording, mobile recording, live use, submixing for full-band tracking... all of it. I've had a few other interfaces but this is the one that works for my needs.

Note, I am going from the mixer to 2-track. Once something has been laid down there is no opportunity to separate and/or fix individual elements. That requires a step or two up in price and complexity. Fortunately I don't need that capability, but if you do, you will find it a more complex challenge.

Yes, I definitely want a way to multitrack as much as possible so that I can refine my parts once I've laid them down. I tend to do a lot of editing, automation, and effects in Ableton once I get the initial tracks recorded. I also need a way to keep all hardware instruments in sync with each other and with Ableton.