Recording Gear

Tascam 38

Otari MX5050B-II

Tascam M520

Roland VS-880EX

(All photos found on the web... thanks to whoever photographed these images!)

Over the years, I've owned a variety of music recording equipment.

Since posting a link to some of the songs I've recorded in the past, I've gotten inquiries about what gear I've used. Well, before digital was invented, the old analogue open reel recorders were the only way to go. But with limited resources available, I have always been only able to purchase eight track gear. No, that's not the same as the old "8-track tape" equipment found in cars in the 60's! It just means eight individual recording tracks.

Open reel recorders ranged from mono "full-track" recorders all the way up to 48 track recorders. When I learned to work in studio recording with Gary Hedden from Hedden West Studios in the 70's, I learned on an old 16-track Ampex recorder and mixed on an old Sphere console. When I bought gear, I purchased a Tascam 38 eight track recorder, an Otari MX-5050B-II two track recorder and a Tascam M520 twenty input, eight bus mixer.

Today, I have a Roland VS-880EX digital workstation which is also 8 tracks. I had a Yamaha 16 track workstation for a short time, but sold it due to lack of time to work with it. I think if I were to buy another piece of recording gear today, it would be a 24 track recorder / workstation or perhaps I'd move to recording on the computer. While I do have Cubase (a 24 track digital recording software) for my computer, I've yet to use it. I prefer to work with workstations as I'm more familiar with something I can get my hands on. But I do see that computer recording is probably the way to go to save some space on my desktop!