Stand alones: Drawbacks.... Editing is no where near as easy as it is on computer. Those little green screens. I have a stand alone that accepts a VGA monitor. My eyes aren't all that good so I NEED a full sized screen. Aside from that my Roland VStudio is a GREAT unit. If you have the time, it's great for home recording. If you have a business, it's no where near fast enough, or very easy to backup or transfer files.

Computers: My beef with them is the constant changes that come with them. OS's change, though Mac is a better way to go in my opinion. Aside from the software itself, you also will need an interface so you can plug in your gear. I had problems with this on my first attempt to go computer recording. One glitch after another. I just got frustrated and went to the stand-alone.

The most important thing you should look for in a recording system is ease of editing, ability to repeat commands, ease of backup and file transfer. Apart from these features, a recording system is a recording system. No system is better than another as they all record with standard rates. A recording system is really just your storage for your raw files. It's the editing that makes one stand out from another.

Now here's the real issue with home recording...

Everyone get's all hyped that they can now exclude the studio for their recording needs. It's cheap, right? I mean you can buy a decent system for under $2000, so who needs the studio?

Here's the difference...

The studio has a mic cabinet with a LOT of choices of high quality mics. This is where your recording starts. A bad mic, or bad placement of a good mic, will result in a bad recording. (Garbage in. Garbage out.) I've tried mic emulators and can tell you that it doesn't improve a bad mic. You can't improve sensitivity of the mic with an emulator, you can't improve it's response. In fact the only thing you can improve, maybe CHANGE is a better choice of words, is the EQ. SInce you can do that yourself, don't fall for a unit touting mic emulation as a solution. It's a crock.

The studio also has preamps. Not cheap $300 preamps, but good, solid, professional pres that can completely change the performance characteristics of a mic. Yes, you can make cheap mics sound better with a really good pre, and good mics sound fantastic. This is also something you can't do with emulation. What makes a professional pre a professional pre is typically the transformer. If you could emulate the transformer, then there would be plenty of pres you could afford, but the transformer is hardward and top pre manufacturers have proprietary transformers specifically designed to make their units different from the others.

This is not to say that engaging in home recording is a waste of time. You will be able to work out complete compositions. Add drums, bass, keys all by programming if that's your desire. It's a great tool for working on your own if you write music but don't have a band to make it a "whole" composition.

When looking for a recording unit the second most important thing to consider is how many inputs you will need. Eight is a good round number, but if you intend to program drums and you're doing it all yourself, you may be paying too much for all those inputs. I have 16 inputs and have never used them all in a recording session. (15 was the max.) If you're going to record a whole band, eight is probably not enough for a live recording. (You'll probably use eight on the drums alone. We typically use six. 2 overheads, 2 snare, 2 kick. With proper placement the overheads pick up the toms nicely, but if you need to mic each tom, you will probably need to add three more mics. We double mic the kick with a sub-kick mic that also picks up a lot of the room. Most recording engineers don't do this but we have a VERY nice sounding room.)

I'm sure you'll have more questions once you chew on all this.

Good advice, Mr. Xarks. I was hoping that you'd be on this one. I don't want to cheap skate, but I am limited on the budget. I am wishy washy, because I have never had either of the 2 in front of me to try out. The Boss you can only put one whole song on disc, and I would like the option of being able to make a 8- 10 song demo for myself to listen to and learn the process. Listening to an idea of an album in its entirety is kind of my hope. Or for those 10 minute songs I wish to put down. I had to put half of one on one little segment on my phone and then the other half on another file on one of my songs! LOL!!! That's all I got right now, is the cell, but it's at least a free idea machine.

I guess I want my cake so that I can devour it too.

Home computer recording:

You will have 2 tracks with a standard sound card, a right, and a left. If you want more than that, you will need some sort of interface to give you more "tracks at once". Of the 2 tracks you have, you can record on one of them, then play that one back while recording on the other. You can do this over and over.
A small mixer will prove to be invaluable, since it will eliminate swapping cables, and general wear and tear on those pathetic little jacks on a sound card. Set it up once, and leave it alone. The mixer should also give you the pre amps you need to go direct into the computer with your guitar, or bass.
A recording program is next, there are freebies to be found, but I've been happy with what is now called Adobe Audition (old Cool Edit Pro) for over 10 years. Almost any computer can record nicely, but editing requires a decent computer, because editing can be a slow and demanding process, and a slow computer will be frustrating. Our band records with an old Gateway 500mhz processor with 512 RAM, and a 250 gig hard drive. it records 8 tracks at once (through the Layla 8 input interface) with no glitches. I would never attempt to edit with it however, it is way too slow for that. I have a nice computer at home for that.

It's a giant experiment, welcome to the club.

I thank you as well, Sir Chester. I will keep this in mind.

The RAM and hard drive aint bad but 500mhz thats reallllly low,but hey frum what kind of sound/music you going for, if its good whos knows Ill be the first buyer :P

Yeah, 500 mhz is pretty slow, but recording doesn't seem to be as demanding as you would think it would be. The editing is the killer. It does basic stuff just fine, playback and overdub, pan, volume, but no real time effects, plug-ins, emulators, whatever...crash city. After the tracks are recorded, all that other stuff becomes possible, it just takes a real long time.....*snore*
load memory stick, go home.....comfort zone.

http://www.soundclick.com/dhbproject

I want to make solid recordings of the guitar, and eventually I will be buying a bass, and drum kit. For now I will have to deal with whatever drum programs they have on the stand alone, or the Imac. The Zoom has a drum machine, that's programmable. It's 80 Gb hard drive is what gets me. My computer at home right now only has an 80 GB hard drive. I also won't have to worry with crashing with the Stand alone. We'll see. Once it gets closer to Christmas time.

What are you talking about, "500 mhz." I am ignorant on this stuff, especially with the computer. I have a recording out on my Roland, and I have the Peavy mic so I will be covered for guitar for now. Later I will want to upgrade, I'm sure. I would like to get online and share music though, and the computer I have right now isn't fast enough to poop on its own. So I might end up that way eventually. I used to record on a karaoke machine, so I have had to record on crap before. All of it will be a learning curve. I recieved a cd from a guy in Washington state that was recorded on a little Korg stand alone, and he got pretty damn good mixes. The music wasn't what I was into, but He definitely had a good recording down. Tanks for the advice ahead of time here.

Going to put the kiddo to bed, so I will talk to you guys tomorrow. Night all!! She's got to get her beauty rest.

500 mhz = processor speed, an old dog to be sure. My new one is 3.8 ghz....editing time wise, it's about 8 times faster.

A stand alone sounds like a good idea, you can always easily transfer files to the PC to mess with. I was still using my Akai reel-to-reel, and Fostex 4-track cassette, when I was seduced in the late 90's with a demo of Cool Edit. Tranferred some tracks to the computer, started playing with them ....... don't use the old tape decks much anymore, probably should.

some pretty good comments here but Xark is correct about the computer ultimately gives you more of an editing edge and once you get good at it on a computer you can do anything...

Audio does not take up as much processing power as say graphics or video (i should know i'm an interactive designer) but 500 is pushing it a little...With audio you NEED RAM being the first and fore most....i'm always pushing mac so here is a 1500. budget for a full recording solution.

1. Mac with at least 1.25 processor..you can get a used mac mini or a imac that has that and spend no more tha 600 used.
2. Then buy logic which is now 500 for the full blown package and if you purchase a new machine you get ilife and free low end programs like garageband to put together quick easy stuff for ideas...
3. Then go to the maudio site and buy a firewire 4-10..it's like 200 bucks...it has 2 ins 2 outs but with logic or other computer based recording software track overdubbing ...you are only limited by the number of tracks in accordance with how much ram you have!
4. get some RAM...MAX it

so there is a killer full package deal for recording for under 1500 and you can do it for less if you have too...

a good soundcard with a breakout box that handles both 1/4 inch and XLR in/outs: audigy platinum series, E-Mu cards, MOTU.,etc. do a bunch of research on these boxes BEFORE you buy....you won't be sorry...

a good recording program:cakewalk Sonar 7...it has an excellent built in drum program called Session Drummer. easy to use and works straght up or with a midi capable keyboard. lets you drop and drag parts in and out of your project as you go. very easy to set up a basic drum pattern to work with and adjust as you go. very powerful editing tools as well.....but......be warned that this and other programs usually have a steep learning curve so be prepared to spend several weeks AND months learning how to utilize all the features they have. but recording quick on the fly is very easy to do.

a REALLY good mic. preferably a condensor mic. be prepared to spend some bucks on one. don't settle for a cheapo mic. as allready stated...garbage in/garbage out. a good mic will make vocals and acoustics really shine and is definately the preferred method for you amplifier as we as most amp's line outs are too hot and noisy for most computer sound cards. a better way to handle that scenario is to use a processor box like a ZOOM, BOSS, or even better yet a line6 podxt. much better signals to work with and tons of options there as well for guitar sounds.

90% of the time you will only be recording ONE thing at a time so having a bunch of in/outs really isn't all that necessary.

but be prepared to spend many many many many many hours working at the process of computer recording. it's not something you picked up in a few sittings. but you CAN make some really really nice. high end ,professional sounding recordings with a little patience and some real dedication to learning the process.....

BOSS BR 1600.8 HOOK UPS AT ONCE.16 TRACKS.

I am probably going to talk to the wife som more. She says the computer would be good to have, since the one we have now is 4 years old! It has no RAM, as you say. If I go Mac I ill get a 2GB hard drive, and the 20" monitor with the usb ports on the side of the keyboard.