Boss BR vs Tascam DP vs Randall V vs Fostex MR

[Kanekutter05]

So I apologize for my non-knowledge in this area...I have been researching theses damn things for about 4 hours now and I'm no closer to picking one than I was before I started researching so here goes...

Me and a buddy just started up a band and we wanna record some stuff now. Neither of us have any recording knowledge, but I found a Boss BR-600 on craigslist for 180 bucks almost brand new, so this got me into researching standalone recording...things. We basically want this to record our practices, as well as record songs that we can put up on our myspace/make a demo we can give to venues. I think our budget (including any mic's and mixers and anything of the sort that we may need) is somewhere around $500...but that can be stretched if something really fits our needs.

Now I've looked all over, and it looks like it comes down to the Boss's BR series, Tascam's DP series, Roland's V series, and Fostex's MR series. I've read review after review and all of them seem to have the same situation. Some claim each one is the easiest to use out of all of them, some claim they are all impossibly difficult to figure out. Some say that each one is extra durable, some say they cant believe how shoddy the unit is built. Some say good sound, some say bad...it just goes on and on with the contradicting reviews. So I guess I'm gonna give it a shot among intelligent people who know what they are talking about and see what the general consensus is (if there even is one).

From what I could sift out of everything, this is what I seem to have so far:

Boss: Nice to have the virtual tracks, but the memory storage is a problem as alot of people seem to have a hard time finding the flash cards.

Tascam: Easier to adjust things because of the faders, hard drive noise on tracks

Roland: I actually couldnt find much that was even readable let alone understandable on this one, but I know Roland typically makes good stuff so I threw them on the list

Fostex: A good amount of people like the setup, but I read about some reliability issues.

So please, anyone with any knowledge about these PLEASE help me figure this thing out lol. I wish I could run down to a music store somewhere and have helpful people help me out but alas there is no such place in Denver that I've found. Also if theres another model that I didnt list here that I should consider that is great as well.

Thank you VERY much in advance for any help there might be out there. I look forward to hearing from you folks. And my apologies to anyone who has read this in the other forum...I just found this one today and figured that this question would be better suited in here. Thanks again

[Bootstrapped]

I noticed you did not mention the ZOOM HD8 or HD16 series in your search. You should really include them in your consideration as they offer and incredible feature set for the dollar and they are without question easy to use.

They also allow you to integrate with your computer to a much higher level in the future if you are so inclided to want to move that direction down the road.

Good luck

Bootstrapped

[Kanekutter05]

Originally Posted by Bootstrapped

I noticed you did not mention the ZOOM HD8 or HD16 series in your search. You should really include them in your consideration as they offer and incredible feature set for the dollar and they are without question easy to use.

They also allow you to integrate with your computer to a much higher level in the future if you are so inclided to want to move that direction down the road.

Good luck

Bootstrapped

Hey thanks for the reply. I actually never saw much of anything on any zoom products. I will definitely check into the in the near future. I appreciate it.