Topic: Newbie...need info

[kid djembe]

Looking to get myself into the taper world. I have several friends that tape using DAT and MD. They recommended I look into a Digital recording setup. I'm looking for advice on the hardware first. I plan on patching into friends mic's until i figure out my own mic setup. In a perfect world I can then download the shows into my MAC. Any mac taper/users out there that can guide me. Looking to keep the digital hardware around or under the 500$ range unless someone can convince me otherwise. Any help appreciated. Peace.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

If you're willing to spend $500 the Edirol R-1 looks nice. It looks like they are hard to find though. Also it's new, so it hasn't been tested fully in the taping world.

If you want tried and true, the Creative Nomad JB3 is the standard right now. I see more JB3's than DAT's now.

JB3's are discontinued, so eBay is just about your only bet on getting one. Most are used. Ideally you could score one in the Yard Sale section of this site from another taper.

If you can hold out there are a few other options for you. M-Audio looks like they are coming out with a nice small 24 bit flash card recorder with a digiatal input. Also Marantz just came out with the PMD-671 which is another24bit  flash card recorder. It's pretty big though so if you want to stealth shows I wouldn't go with the Marantz unit. I think the Marantz deck is just hitting the market (and like the R-1 is hard to find since it's just out).

Have fun! Shouldn't be to hard to do that. Someone else want to chime in?

MIKE B