07/06/2026
Latest acquisition.
(Alternative heading: The Lost Note Studio; A Short History)
.. the Lost Note story began around 1979 when Richard and I (The Dexter Radley Set) got an import license to bring in the second Teac Portastudio into Aotearoa. (Tama Renata got the first one).
Our plan was simple - world domination as a duo featuring self recorded backing tracks with ourselves and friends providing the tracks - this was years before Milli Vanilli, but we were always years a head of out time anyway.
From then on it was serious attempts at home recording in lounges, kitchens bedrooms and anywhere we could set up a drumkit and some mics and find out what the limits were.
It turned out there were none.
We had just spent a sh*t-ton of money recording tracks for Radio Hauraki's first Homegrown album.
Recording back then was kind of limited to people who had a record contract. We helped change that.
I had bought my very own 4 Track, a Fostex X-26 which I duly added a high quality NiCam VHS to so I could record my 4 tracks, mix down the NiCam stereo which I would dub back into the X26 and have a 6 track mix. I would then live record down to NiCam again with vocals and any other live tracking I needed to finish off.
So while there were limits, I always found a way to kick them into touch.
4 tracks changed that forever, and also began the demise of record companies telling you what when and how to make records.
I stuck with the 4 track until I got my first hard drive digital recorder , a Zoom MR-8. This limited me to two tracks maximum at a time with a total of 8 tracks all up.
Then came the Korg 1600, 16 tracks and a really great machine.
After that it was the Korg D32XD, the absolute Cadillac of Hard Disk recorders.
I've still got the Zoom and The Korg D32XD, I sold the Korg 1600 and wish I hadn't, but the D32XD was able to load all my 1600 backups and offered so much more.
Fast forward to now and the D32XD sits on a shelf and I'm using a Behringer XR18 as my main recording device and I'm really happy with the mobility of it.
It's a quick and not-so-dirty way of getting performances down and into my Digital Audio Workstation - Reaper - and then doing to deeds on the tracks in a decent and dedicated laptop.
The D32XD is also a good live mixer but there's a bit of a learning curve to access all the goodness out of it due to the small LCD screen and you really need someone who is fairly familiar with it to quickly access auxiliary and effects sends and returns so that means it's only good for when I'm Johnny-On-The-Spot, which works as long as I don't have a spot on stage during a concert of festival.
The recent Muso's Tribute Extravaganza series held here exposed the lack of good live mixing in Whakatāne since the Sound Project shut it's doors.
We held a concert at our regular venue, Mata Beer, and I ended up having to pull out my old live mixer, an Allen & Heath GL2200. It's a fantastic option to have but way more mixer than we need really.
But it got me looking for a smaller mixer of equal or better quality for live work.
I found the answer in an Allen & Heath Zed R16, a full 16 channel analog mixer with built in audio interface with a firewire/midi section that gives me 18 digital tracks into Reaper on my PC.
I'd love to suggest this is where the story ends, but we all know that there is no end to the musicians story.
So until the next story, I give you The Lost Note Studio update - The Allen & Heath Zed R16 firewire chapter.
