a digital 4-track the size of a nintendo ds

[The Weakest Suit]

Has anyone tried out one of these?
i bought one a couple months ago and really like it. the interface is very similar to the roland vs-880ex i've been using for the last year to record on, which is nice. it converts files to mp3 or wav when you are done recording and usb's directly into your computer without having to load any software on your computer. i'm still learning to become proficient with it, but for $229 (what i paid for it), i find that it's definitely worth the money. thoughts?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Looks like a nifty little travel gadget. Even has a built in mic so you can quickly record a vocal melody or lyrics. There have been many a time that I came up with some awesome melody that was SO good it would change the world, end hunger, cure cancer and make women want to have dirty sex with me, only to be completely forgotten a day later.

[Spud]

You too?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Maybe it's for the best, Spud. It would un-align the planets and fame would just turn us into horribly wealthy assholes.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Well, sidestepping the dueling Jesuses, I have one of those gizmos. I haven't used it to its full potential yet, but rather as a scratchpad and to record several jams with. It sounds pretty decent, and is definitely amazing for its size. The best uses I've gotten out of it so far were to slow down a Smiths track to try and figure out a guitar part, and as an mp3 player which I downloaded the last fight onto, then played through my stereo via game console. I'll probably use it more to load up the fights onto, as I don't have an ipod, and listen to the fights on my morning walks. Neato!

I know that Leaf was using one of these, and submitted a fight or two that he had recorded on it. Sounded good, too.

[The Weakest Suit]

Well, sidestepping the dueling Jesuses, I have one of those gizmos. I haven't used it to its full potential yet, but rather as a scratchpad and to record several jams with. It sounds pretty decent, and is definitely amazing for its size. The best uses I've gotten out of it so far were to slow down a Smiths track to try and figure out a guitar part, and as an mp3 player which I downloaded the last fight onto, then played through my stereo via game console. I'll probably use it more to load up the fights onto, as I don't have an ipod, and listen to the fights on my morning walks. Neato!

I know that Leaf was using one of these, and submitted a fight or two that he had recorded on it. Sounded good, too.

here's a funny thing i noticed about mine. i bought a 2.0 gig card for it, but the instructions say the highest it takes is a 1.0 gig. and sure enough, only 1.0 gig has been formatted. it completely ignores half the storage potential on the card.
i haven't taken advantage of the slow down feature yet, but i did record my purple tongue entry on it (using a nintendo ds for the guitar sounds, and one of the premade drum demos), as well as switcheroo (playing guitar and singing into the built in mic) and god's thumb (acoustic though a pick up and a couple vocal tracks thorough my normal mic). i plan to try a full band song on it when i get enough time (hopefully for either MoB or Nur Ein Round 0).

[Leaf]

I use mine all the time. I used it today to learn tunes while riding on a a three hour ferry trip. The quick consumption of batteries is irritating, but it's pretty cool as a guitar practice thing-ga-ma-jig.



Hi.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Just starting to play with this. Instant gratification!

Well, okay, I'm just running gibberish vocals through all the guitar FX patches, but still... nifty, deep little toy. And they're showing up on Craigslist at more reasonable prices now.

[fluffy]

Aw, that's adorable.

(Although, shouldn't this be in "help and how to?")

[ken]

It seems like for a few hundred dollars more you could buy a decent laptop and have almost as many features and more. You probably already have a laptop you could use instead of this...

Ken

[Rabid Garfunkel]

On the one hand, yeah, it's gear-itis to the N-th degree.

On the other hand... 95% of my gear is 2nd/3rd/Nth hand, bought or scrounged, very used. This is a handheld 4track with a ±4 second boot time, with drum machine and passable FX, that's the same size as the Moleskine notebook I carry in my back pocket everywhere.

Combine that with a Yamaha QY-10 sequencer (also bought Nth hand), and I've got the capability to more than sketch out things at a minimum cost of weight and space, wherever, whenever.

Demos and recording ideas (and sampling found sounds) on the fly, it's a great rig.

[jb]

I want a laptop that has two built-in combo XLR/TRS jacks, and an S/PDIF jack, and a 1/4" headphone out, and comes with ASIO built-in.

This seems like something Sweetwater should carry. Wonder if you could do a case mod that does this. It would be straightforward in a desktop, but much niftier in a laptop. Image not having to carry around a frikkin' audio interface EVER. That would be so wonderful. Just plug your mic and guitar right into the laptop.

[signboy]

What a great idea. The Line 6 Toneport is just about small enough that you could fit that into something...

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm sure this technology will be available with a cell phone soon.
Oh, when it is, Fluffy will relive this thread, or at least this post.

[Spud]

Revive? Is that the word for which you are looking?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Perhaps.

[fluffy]

I am pretty sure I will not.

Also, Apple laptops all have built-in S/PDIF (in the form of TOSlink hybrid minijacks). Only two channels in each direction though (although I think the S/PDIF and analog paths are separate so it's theoretically possible to make some sort of weird freaky adapter which would allow you to get two digital and analog channels in each direction). Still, for actual multitrack recording you're better off getting an external FireWire-based interface or the like (or, heck, even a Tascam USB dealie, although then you have more latency to contend with).

Having XLR built-in to a laptop is kind of a silly idea. Where would the jack go? If you don't want to make the case extremely thick it'd have to go on the lid or bottom or something and even then it wouldn't make a good electrical connection and would take space away from more important components and so on. Also I don't trust recording interfaces which are built-in to a case where noisy processors and GPUs and such live. No, make mine external.

[jb]

Well, if you're going to assume that it's done stupidly, well then of course it won't work.

Maybe it's insulated. Maybe there's a lid that flips up. Maybe it's like my Vaio, which uses the hinge for the monitor as a place to stick the power cable and the power button on the other side. Maybe instead of shit-ass little speakers, there's a bunch of faders for a mixer. I think there are plenty of laptops that are thick enough for an XLR jack. Ken has one. They tend to be cheaper models, not all miniaturized like mine and stuff. But desktop-replacement laptops tend to be thicker.

Anyway, I want it.

BTW, there are several four-track apps for iPhone already.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I am pretty sure I will not

That's not a no.

[fluffy]

Well, if you're going to assume that it's done stupidly, well then of course it won't work.

Maybe it's insulated. Maybe there's a lid that flips up. Maybe it's like my Vaio, which uses the hinge for the monitor as a place to stick the power cable and the power button on the other side. Maybe instead of shit-ass little speakers, there's a bunch of faders for a mixer. I think there are plenty of laptops that are thick enough for an XLR jack. Ken has one. They tend to be cheaper models, not all miniaturized like mine and stuff. But desktop-replacement laptops tend to be thicker.

Good point. Even having something like a slanted bevel could make for enough room to have a couple of XLR ports which don't shove other compoents out of the way.

BTW, there are several four-track apps for iPhone already.

Huh, I hadn't seen any of those. I'm guessing they only record one channel at a time, right? (since the iPhone hardware only has a single channel for recording)

[ujnhunter]

awsome... http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/fourtrack/

downloading now... this will be super useful to me... i've been using Jott or reQuall or YouNote until now... this will be the best $10 in my pocket.

[Spud]

cool@fourtrack. Now if it could just bounce... I understand they are working on it.