When did you first dip your toe into recording?

[Blooby]

Inspired by Kenny Mac's interesting post (here), I'm curious how the lot of you came into recording...more specifically, multitrack recording.

I know I dinkered around with merely recording with cassette and a crap microphone, but I eventually had two tape decks for dubbing, and my receiver had a mic mixer, meaning while I was dubbing, I could mix in another signal. I think my first "multitrack" on it was "Norwegian Wood."

I knew somebody who had one of the early Fostex or Tascam cassette recorders a bit after that, but I also have a vivid memory of hearing some guy's space music on a Yamaha cassette four-track, and I was stunned at the recording quality. That was the first time I realized you could actually produce something worthwhile at home. This would have been 1985 or so. I got a cassette Portastudio within a couple years and made a fair amount of rubbish (I have been converting the cassettes to digital recently, so I have proof of its putridity).

I am interested to hear others' stories.

Blooby

[Mike_S]

I think I was about 30 years of age. It was i guess when I was starting to read about people making their own music in Cubase and Logic amongst other programs. I had a Mac (still do). This is about 15/16 years ago and I just thought it sounded like an amazing thing to do. So i guess when i got a hold of some of the software and first gave it a go I was amazed really at what was possible. I actually have my first effort somewhere and all things considered it wasn't too bad!!

[Groundy]

My very first recording was about 1960, My cousin and I did some recordings on a Grundig Reel to Reel,
We were trying to get agents to get us some gigs.....
Just 2 acoustic guitars and 2 voices, 

[Hook]

This one is a little more detailed for me than the guitar one. As a Freshman in high school, some friends and I  formed a band called Sober People. We used guitars tuned DADADA and I played a tupperware /pot and pan drumset. We used a tape deck much like the one I bought for Old School Fest.

That led us to a few bands later band, The Falls Bricks, and a friend with a 4-track (cassette). We turned my church into a studio for 2 days and recorded 14 songs, I was 15. Our buddy had a gift for engineering and he did very impressive things with our recoding. That led to my other buddy getting a 4-track and us recording tons, I have none of the recordings.
As we graduated we started paying for time in local studios. I started paying for time...and paying for time....and paying for time.

Fast forward to 10 years ago, I had the idea for my now profitable alter ego. I convinced my wife to let me invest about $1500 into some gear, most importantly my BR900. With the help of the old Yahoo group, that was really absorbed by songcrafters, I learned to produce my own music for the 1st time. At least for the 1st time I (& my wife kinda) thought it sounded good.

Many...MANY! recorders later I'm finally jumping into my Tascam DP24 and am absolutely loving it!!!
Many thanks to the supportive and generous community here for assisting, inspiring & educating me to be able to follow my passion as both a career and as a hobby.
Rock on my friends!

[Johnny Robbo]

Interesting to hear other peoples' journeys. As for myself, it all began with a portable cassette recorder with a built in mic when I was about 12. I'd only been playing about a year, and I wanted to have some kind of "finished product" for all the work I'd put in learning to play. I would record a "backing track" by plugging my electric guitar into the mic socket of the stereo. Then I would play that back and play some kind of lead over the top. I'd be recording the whole thing with the portable cassette recorder's built in mic. This is how I learned which notes sounded best over which chords & began to figure out things like scales & how to improvise. It helped that there was a show on the BBC round about that time called Rock School which gave hints & tips for aspiring rock musicians on how to play.

I then got into playing in bands & had several studio experiences - some good, some not so good. As for recording in a professional studio, my abiding memories are of boredom... hours of hanging around whilst the engineer fiddles with settings, getting the drummer to hit the snare again & again while he twiddles knobs on the desk. Then we play through the song so the drummer can record his part. Then again so the bass player can do his... after first having to spend ages getting his sound, obviously. Then I can do my part, and finally the singer, who always wants to do it again at least once. Going into the studio? Take a good book to read, you'll have plenty of time to fill.

It wasn't until the 1990s when I got my first "proper" home studio set up. A Fostex cassette 4 track and a Boss DR5 drum machine/sequencer/synth (a great little unit with a guitar friendly interface and a range of bass & keyboard sounds as well as drums all bundled into a 4 track sequencer). With this I could record a "full band" sound without the time consuming experience of recording with a band. This lead to my first "solo album" that I managed to sell a few copies of on cassette.

Then in 2000, I got a PC and soon discovered Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. I still used the DR5 for drums, bass & other instruments, but not being limited to 4 tracks was like taking off a straight jacket. A few years later I upgraded to Cakewalk Music Creator with the Studio Instruments pack, and the sounds I get to this day were pretty much in place. I did dabble with SONAR for a while, but it was too demanding for my crap PC, so I went back to MC & haven't looked back.

[kenny mac]

Wow really interesting threads here,I'm loving it.
When I was about 18
I started doing the sound for a local band and the deal was my cousin (who did the lights and was a drummer) and I got to play the instruments once we had set up in the venue and the band gave us advice etc.
The bass player had a studio master 4 track (cassette) and he eventually sold me that and I was off.
I later joined a support group helping local bands that old Rottenhead was also in,in fact this is where we first met,doing a gig of various bands and helping with the sound etc.
This was called the band promotion group and it got funds to buy a p.A and an 8 Track reel to reel (Fostex) that we all borrowed in turns.
This was my 1st real audio recording experience that I was really happy with and I set it up in a spare room with wires and instruments everywhere.
You could hardly get in the door.
I practiced double tracking harmonys and tried to get that Jeff Lynne sound but never got there.
I started learning guitar bass and piano all at the same time so I could build up that band in my room.
I then got married and bought my 1st big purchase a brand new vs840 for £1000 ,A few months back I bought the higher end version of this on Ebay for £50 lol.
This has been my tool for recording,I don't mess with computer based as I like the hands on feel and analogue stuff.
Recording is a great past time and it's led me to this place and so many friends so here's to all of us and our little studio set ups.

[alfstone]

I was 16-17. In Italy there were those Geloso reel-to-reel recorders, rather popular.

I had one of these, but more to record all our family singing (awfully) the Italian hits of the moment.

Then, at mid-Eighties, my first *serious* trying to recorder something mine was with a X-18 Fostex 4-tracks cassette recorder:

I bought the BR-600 in 2007.

Alfredo

[bruno]

Wow - goes back a long way. Started when I was in primary school with a mono cassette recorder with my mate Andy, recording silly voices and laughing as the kids we were. That lead to to stereo cassette recorders, and bouncing between tracks in my teens, writing songs and stuff 
B