What do you want to do ?

Are you looking for something to write music with / something to practice your chops with / something to act as a musical scratch pad ? If the answer to this is yes (exclusively) you may want to thing about a 4 track portastudio or similar (i.e. Tascam 424 mk III)

Do you want to use it to make a demo of your band playing?

How good does the quality have to be? Do you want to record real drums?

You can get away with a 4 track analogue unit providing you don’t mind the finished product being on tape. Sergeant Peppers was recorded on 4 tracks! However, four tracks are also a total pain in the ass when, with out spending a great deal more, 8, 12, 16 tracks are in reach!

How many tracks do you want to record and simultaneously and how many do you want to play back simultaneously? If it is just you doing over dubs, well two inputs is enough however if you want to do other band related stuff, well you are going to want a whole lot more inputs or a separate desk.

What sort of mics are you going to use, do you need XLR inputs do you need to be able to supply phantom power?

Another possibility is using a PC however if you can afford a standalone DAW than that is a good place to start as you don’t have to worry about latency and a gazillion other things that can make for a miserable recording experience.

The specs on the Boss unit are horrible (not to mention the many horror stories I’ve heard about it) and Zoom kit is very bottom end! Save for a little longer dude, you wont regret it ! I used to have a Korg D1600 and that was very cool. You will get a better piece of kit (than either the boss or the Zoom) getting an older D8, D12 or D16 on ebay (second hand). If you can afford it the D1200 and the D1600 are very nice.

Check out http://www.korgboards.com for much more info.

[Edited by Dr_simon on 07-08-2003 at 07:55 PM]