Need recommendations for recording workstation

[cdc3jj]

So I've written a lot of tunes and need a reliable, user friendly, professional piece of recording equipment to get them laid out and ready to distribute.....
And just have some fun. Here's the wishlist...

18-24 tracks with the built in mastering and burning. I'd like the ability to sync the recorings with film, and an output of some sort where I could hook it up to a regular size monitor instead of using the tiny screen. Shouldn't need anymore than 4 mic inputs. Is there anything out there capable of this? I'm a novice with recording gear. Can any one make any suggestions? Thanks

[woodman]

you're talking about an all-in-one unit, right? what's your price range? "user-friendly" is a relative term with standalone units — usually there's a deep learning curve involving lots of key-command memorization and menu-diving. after you master all that, then you can have some fun.

this has been discussed here on the RIP forum a lot, so you might check some of the previous threads ... a reasonably powerful computer with a good software suite may take you further.

[cdc3jj]

I've got cubase 4 on my laptop but really have never been able to grasp it. Plus I don't have any mic preamps or any of the fancy stuff it takes to run that opperation. I've got a little tascam firefire interface thing but I haven't been able to figure anything out apart from converting cassette tapes to digital files.

I was thinking about a stand alone unit. I was checking out the roland 1680. I know I'd like to have more than 2 track I could recond on simultaneously. It's pretty reasonable. I've also got a tiny tascam DP-004 but it's just not enough. It's great for grabbing tunes ideas but not for a full out project.

How is rolands line of vs recorders? Is it overpriced for what it is? Can you get more features and better quality from a different brand? I'm kind of just in the first stages of research. Budget would be between 1 and 400, and could go up depending. The thing I like about the stand alones is there are actual buttons. If I could have a unit that had light up buttons to tell me what I'm doing, what track it recording, what efx are on during mastering, etc that would be ideal. I don't really like the computer based stuff because of that reason. Thanks for the reply woodman.