Alright I haven't posted on the boards in a while but I'm starting over on my studio frm the ground up. Everything I had got stolen by my so-called friend. But anywhoo what should I get I just purchased a zoom sampletrak what next? I really want to stay away frm mac/pc as far as production unless I'm rendering files to mp3. Can anyone give me a rundown of what they would get oh yea getting an sp in late november.

man, i'm sorry to hear that... the same thing happened to me back in the day, my 'friend' took all my stuff (in this case cd and video game collections) and ran off with his fiance to colorado or somewhere

i'd prob get a pt-01 turntable and a tascam 4track if you are avoiding computers. but a computer can be your best friend for organizing your samples if you have a card reader. if you live in the states you should definitely hit your closest guitar center. they sell used stuff now for pretty good prices. saw a 303 out here for 110 the other day, micron for 290 i think also. not bad. if money is not an option and you want a single machine for complete control of your sampling and sequencing needs, i'd suggest a used mpc1000 w/ jjos. if i'm not mistaken someone's selling one at the marketplace here for 350.
but of course the sp is much more fun

the st224 is very nice. http://sampletrak.lefora.com/ is a good forum about it.
good luck

To be honest I'd love you if you would get a tascam 4-track like me. It's got surprisingly good recording quality

Good luck building up your studio, man.

if yr staying away from pcs and macs, i'd recommend a digital 4 or 8 track. going digi is so much easier (and before anyone crawls up my ass, i recorded on 4-tracks for yeeeeears before going digital).

i'd invest in a good quality mixer, too.

and then look for cheap synth modules, and a midi controller.

on the sp- front, i would recommend the sp-505 (no surprise to regular forum cats).

good luck mans. i hope karma swings some good gear your way.

What kind of mixer would u suggest? And yea I had a 505 before and it was really awesome and so easy to use. May get one instead of the 404 and what type of digital recorder? Like the portastudios?

for the mixer, the yamaha mg series are not bad
the digital rec, look at tascam (dp series), fostex, roland(vs series) and akai.

plus one on the yamahas. i've had one for years that's held up great and it was cheap(ish). but most peeps i know swear by their mackies. by the way, there's a whole 'mixer' thread if you use the search. peeps debate dif things.

when i went to digital recording, i went to pc because it was cheapest and 'scalable' (ie: add new ram, new drives, etc.). but for the digital 4 or 8 track all the standard stuff applies: stick to name brands (fostex, tascam, etc.), make sure you can ping-pong tracks without any loss of quality, in-built effects are nice (but not necessary), look for 1/4 inch jacks (not RCA), and try to avoid out-dated data cards like smart media (on the boss 4-tracks) or compact flash less than 4 gigs (cuz those cards are harder to find now).

there are some solid reviews online, or you could (again) use the search in here cuz i know there are cats using hard disc recorders here.

good luck mans.