Just adding a little extra feedback about the Focusrite system.
I'd been using a Tascam DP-008EX 8-track recorder for a couple of years. It was pretty straightforward to use, and quick to set up. I wasn't altogether impressed with the results I was getting though, so thought I'd try moving up a gear.
I bought a Focusrite Scarlett interface pack - including interface, microphone, and software, and set about trying to download and install the software on a laptop. It took me two days of intense frustraton, wrestling with the near-impossible-to-follow instructions, to do that.
But never mind, eventually it was there. Time to make a recording.... Hmmm. Well, long story short, I never did succeed in making a multitrack recording with it, and now the hardware sits in a cupboard, unused, and hated with a deep loathing. I felt that the software could hardly have been designed to be more user-unfriendly than it is. I thought those guys must have really worked hard at being impenetrable.
Now OK, I know what you're thinking. Just call me dim. I know hordes of people use this stuff to make 50 recordings before breakfast, and here am I almost unable to even open the box. There's something wrong with me, clearly. I admit it. But my point here is just to raise a note of caution: not all people can use a Scarlett Interface Audiotorture Thingumabob. Something like a Tascam multitrack recorder, on the other hand, despite its limitations, is so simple that even I can use it.
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