How many of your are still using a multitrack recorder and how many are using computer interfaces such as the Mbox? What makes one better than the other? Are multitrack recorders a dying medium?

I have an old Tascam I got for my 16th birthday. It's an 8 track recorder than can connect to the computer via USB to dump audio files but not as an interface. It only allowed me to record one track at a time and had little no editing capabilities. Although I know the newer ones have much more included, I still find them to be almost a waste of money.

My biggest problem with them is that they are not upgradable or expandable. You can't add plug-ins, you can't use third party software, and the editing capabilities are still limited. What happens after you've had the recorder for a year and there is new technology, new plug-ins, better processors, ect...you have to buy an entirely new recorder.

With something like and Mbox paired with protools the possibilities are endless. You can buy plug in by the shipload and update software 50 times a day if you'd like. I could go on and on about the benefits but will stop there hoping you all will make some good points!

How do you feel?

`

"All-in-One" devices in every field suffer the
same curse. On occasion, they make sense:

1. If the technology isn't too fast changing.

2. If the price is reasonable [aka disposable].

3. If the combining saves space, weight, or in
some cases even accomplishes what seperate
components cannot [the last is more rare and
usually involves *mechanical* devices].

Therefore, even tho I don't own a multitrack
such as yours, I'd agree with your complaint,
and say that common sense will purge them
from the marketplace. But, common sense is
less common than we might wish it to be. If
common sense were really common, devices
like that would not be built ... at least not in
the form under discussion.


`

I agree! Yet somehow people stillll buy them...lord.