Hi Don,

I know of several different young performers who are using dedicated digital recording systems like that Tascam.

All but one of them use the dedicated digital recording system for tracking and then transfer those tracks to computer for final mixing and mastering. One of them use Macintosh, the rest use PCs - and one notable power trio goes from start to finish all on the dedicated digital recording system.

This seems to be a good work method, especially for the concept of recording their small combos, as the dedicated digital recording system is typically a lot easier to set up and run, capturing their performances as they play them live, in other words, not very much single track tracking session work, at least to begin with, they simply mic things, hook up direct boxes if needed and then can leave it all connected in the garage or basement "studio" between sessions, transferring files to the computer for mixing via USB sticks or CDR burns.

Advantages for the average musician who does not want to become a geek like me abound here. Built in mic preamps, no physical routing of cables from mic to pre and from line out to line in and then the often confusing selection of which channel goes where inside computer software as well as not having to deal with the things that go bumb in the night that stop the PC from recording today as it did yesterday, etc. etc.

These devices have a place. Every one of these young local performing groups is able to produce their own CDs, both for sale at gigs and also for internet publishing of their work - and if they do their part, the sonic results are rather good, too.

The dedicated digital recorder certainly represents a very viable alternative to all-computer based studios.


--Mac

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