I am very close to pulling the trigger on a purchase (it’s probably more accurate to say that I’m waiting to get the funds together) but I have a question: how useful and practical is this device as an in-the-box multi-track recorder and arranger? One of the things I hate setting up is recording through my laptop or desktop computer. My modular synth is portable and I really like to be all over the place. Unfortunately that leads to a lot of jams being lost because I’m too lazy to set up a recording situation every time I move my system. One of the things I hope to do with the ER-301 is just having my recorder with me always, inside the case. I know this is possible, but is it also practical? And how practical is it to listen back to a recording and overdub extra parts, things like that. Could it be sort of like a rudimentary DAW to produce tracks, and export them for mastering?
It can do multi-track recording. After the fact, the files sit on the memory card, and there’s no way of tweaking, modifying, trimming or normalising them. What you heard is what you have. I don’t know if there’s something in store in terms of upcoming features, but that’s what it’s now. Of course, you can apply effects to each track you record using all of ER-301’s units. That’s not a tiny amount of possibilities. EQ’s, filters, delays, convolution, limiter…
In any case, it’s still pretty much the closest you can get to a multi-track recorder in Euro, I think. Barring that DIY Tascam tape recorder module thingy
That’s pretty much what I thought. But if I get it right, after recording one piece, you can play it back as an audio file, sync it up to new parts, play with it, overdub, and record the two together in a new file, repeating this process until you have a potentially very complex composition. Would this be a practical way of going about it?
There is also a built in 6 track recorder that is super easy to set up and use, and you don’t have to specify any pre-determined buffer length prior to recording.
Those 6 tracks can record from any of the phyiscal inputs, but they could also record from the output of a channel or global chain that contains mixers with multiple signals. So there’s really a lot of recording flexibility here!
You can record 6 tracks on the fly, which is super handy. This can be done independently as you are using the ER-301 for processing, looping, etc.
It’s possible to then take the audio and rework it using sample players and slicing…but I personally wouldn’t advise trying to use it as a DAW.
This approach is different than a timeline DAW based thing, which could lead to some really creative uses, especially syncing it up with clock dividers, etc.
But yes, you could very easily record performances and then edit them later on your computer - it’s great for that too.
Yeah my multitracker thingy isn’t practical for DAW style work at all. But, kinda neat for synchronized loopers if making big washes with predictable behaviour send them all the same reset.
I tend to jack everything into 301 and use a stereo pair out for monitoring. This leaves a stereo out for sending select stuff L + R to Clouds for reverb. I have yet to figure out a dry/wet setting which makes sense. Since I started doing this I’ve also noticed I’m down to stereo recordings on the 301. Wetter sound and down to stereo recordings means less mixing in DAW and fewer completed songs somehow. Trying to change this around.
