Sheesh! ...The Recording World! It's too far and mind-boggling for me.
It has become easier, over the past decade, to achieve good results with a modest investment in gear. Today’s home computers, and tablets have plenty of horsepower to keep the average singer/guitarist/songwriter satisfied. Look at Robert, and Ray, and DonP, and others...Ray’s root recording interface can be had for well under $500, and can record up to 8 mic’s at once without any peripherals...12 with external preamps, or line level sources. The only time I need to do that is when I’m recording a drum set....maybe. I can get by with 4 mic’s on a kit, and be ok with it most of the time though. My band usually takes 10 to 16 tracks to record live(depending on how detailed I want to be with drum mic’ing)...we are two guitars, bass, three vocals, and a drummer on a fairly large kit(7 piece, plus percussion, and cymbals). I could get by with Ray’s rig, and a two channel mic preamp, or two.
Robert, and DonP’s interfaces can be had for less than $200, and would easily keep me happy doing solo stuff, no real drums, or really basically mic’d drums maybe.
The finalists in my “dirt cheap, but passable, portable recording rig” quest were my under $80 ART USB DualPre, an old iPad2, and the camera connection kit(USB adapter). It all runs off the available battery power of the iPad, unless I need phantom power...then I need to add a single 9volt battery.
I can use most any mic’s, plug instruments in direct, monitor with headphones, or speakers, and record up to 24 tracks to mix with ease. It all fits in my old lunchbox, and I can take it on vacation in to the woods, or mountains, with an acoustic/electric guitar a vocal mic, and a backup battery pack or two(if I’m at the off grid cabin). It would work fine with an iPhone, but I like the screen real estate on iPad. I’m sure that there must be some Android based programs that would allow a similar set up with an Android based rig, but Apple is definitely a front runner in this arena, has reliable hardware, and plenty of good developers on tap in the program department.
Sorry to babble, but I’m an enthusiast in this arena. I used to record demos for a few local bands, and enjoyed the heck out of it...back when this digital recording stuff was not as commonly available. Now good stuff can be done with the phone in ones pocket, and a reasonably modest investment in some sensible gear.
