Adventures with Digital Recording Studios
I don’t exactly remember which machine I used when I recorded my first CD, but it was very similar to the BOSS BR-900CD (probably one model down from that). I remember it being fairly easy to use and mostly straight-forward. I had rented out the machine for a few months before returning it to the store once my wallet had gotten lighter I had finished recording.
Over a year later, it was time to finally purchase a machine of my own (okay technically, it was for my dad’s birthday present, but it was understood that we’d be sharing it). But I got stuck with the TASCAM DP-01FX/CD, and it was simply horrible. For starters, I was only able to record two tracks, maximum. We had set track 1 for the keyboard and track 2 for the microphone, but if we wanted to add additional instruments or voices, the machine wouldn’t register any further tracks. As you can imagine, that was very frustrating. Also, the machine’s CD drive simply didn’t work at all, which meant we couldn’t even record any progress that we had actually made.
Needless to say, we quickly returned it and bought a different machine. Surprisingly, it was another TASCAM, this time the DP-02 (the latest model). I figured that the newest version should have fixed all the bugs of the older one, and luckily I was right to have given it a chance. This one works like a charm, even though it’s very similar to the previous model in terms of operation and settings. However, it runs much more smoothly, the layout is easy to navigate, and the buttons are actually fun to press. Most importantly, all the tracks work. Now I haven’t used any of the special features yet, like the reverb, equalizing, and pan, etc., but I’ve never felt the need to use it in the past, even with the BOSS.
The following are pictures of me and my dad testing it out for the first time:
Please note that I’m not really endorsing any of these products; I’m just sharing my experiences with them. I’m equally happy with both BOSS and TASCAM (that is, the newest TASCAM), but I’m sure I’d still have to go to an actual recording studio for pieces that are more complicated.
