Boss BR600 Digital Multitrack Recorder

The BR-600 is a quite useful machine, the main problem is there are some limitations. There isn't really 8 tracks but in reality are 4 unique tracks and 2 stereo tracks. The limitation occurs when recording back up guitar, two drum tracks, bass and then, oops, out of tracks, have to mix down. The unit uses 1Gig Flash Memory or smaller. You can't use a larger capacity memory. 1G will fill up after 5 or 6 songs if you've recorded a few takes and mixed down a few times. The unit comes with a 256M chip that won't last long. At $50 - $60 each the 1G memory chips will eat up a lot of cash. Also, the 1Gig Flash chips are getting hard to find since most consumers want larger memory capacity for newer devices.

For about $50 more than the new BR-600 you can pick up the Fostex MR-16HD. This machine has a 40Gig hard drive. It also has 8 unique inputs, with 4 stereo tracks. A similar problem to the BR-600, but 8 tracks give you much more versatility than 4.