Hi,
I would like to start recording myself playing along to CD's and play along's like the Tommy Igoe ones
Would i be able to play the tracks through head phones and record my drums all on the zoom H4N or would it need to get more technical.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks
Steve
As New Tricks has stated, the Zoom R16 sounds like it would be right up your alley. It's the recorder I use and I've posted several threads (along with a short review of the R16) on how I use the device.
Having a mixer and then playing your MP3's through it, while putting up a couple of mics on your kit and then mixing all that to a stereo recorder (like the Zoom H2 or similar) is essentially what you're doing, but it's a big PITA trying to do it yourself. What you really need have is a recorder that will allow you to record separate tracks at once.
Using the R16 by itself, you can record up to 8-tracks at the same time which is it's big selling point. Alot of the cheaper recorders only allow you to record on two tracks at once which doesn't help you at all.
So what I would do with the R16:
a) Take 2 channels and record your MP3s there as a stereo track (or just a mono track if you don't care about it being in stereo).
b) Plug in a few mics to the remaining tracks (should be six or seven) to record the drums while playing back the MP3 tracks in your headphones.
c) After you're happy with your recorded performance, now you can mix those tracks down to a stereo recorder and dump it to CD (that's a whole separate process).
Of course, you can record 8-tracks at the same time, but you can actually record up to 16 tracks on the R16 (24 on the R24), which makes this device super-cool. There isn't anything else like it in its price range. Check it out.