Tascam Porta 02 MKII and home recording advice needed!

[SepultuRick]

Hi, i just bought myself a tascam porta02 MkII 4 track recorder. Although kinda simple to use it isn't half as simple as i thought it would be. Its the first bit of recording equipment i have really owned so i have no experience with this kinda of thing.

It has a guitar input socket which baffles me as i am not totally sure of its usefulness. does the same thing as the other 2 input sockets as far as i can hear. Also my guitar sounds horribly fuzzy when i record anything with distortion using the direct recording method. Anybody got any more info on the 2 things i have just mentioned?

Also i intended to use the tascam for a lot of bedroom recording at fairly low volumes but it seems it will only record at medium to high volumes.

obviously i am new to this thing so i won;t be getting the best results out of just yet but does anyone have any tips for me please? either regarding this sepcific tascam product or just low budget bedroom level guitar recording in general. thanks

 

[SepultuRick]

Re: Tascam Porta 02 MKII and home recording advice needed!

bump

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Tascam Porta 02 MKII and home recording advice needed!

Well, I do not own that tascam but I do have a nice 4-track and my advice is to keep away from direct input... I never got any good sounding results using that technique. Always use mics if you can. It's a little more tricky but once placed correctly you'll sound better micing your amp than just playing your guitar directly into the recording apparatus. (you can't believe the difference that made when recording acoustic guitars)

As far as volume goes, record as loud as you can (not always easy with parents/neighbours/etc...) but lower volumes mean you'll have to crank the trim and then you'll encounter more hiss...

This is the little bit I can do to help since I have no experience with the specific piece you're working with... hope it's useful to some degree...

Good luck!