Zoom R8: A Recording Studio For The Travelling Minstrel

The Zoom R24 is well known as a sturdy and robust portable four-function music production system. The new R8 provides that same functionality in a form factor small enough to fit in a guitar case.

The R8 provides two-track simultaneous recording and eight-track playback. Connect it via USB and the R8 acts as both a two in/two out audio interface and DAW controller (because simultaneously fading multiple tracks is much easier with ten fingers than with one pointer). It also features a built-in sampler for looping audio onto tracks and a drum machine.

It supports up to a 32GB SDHC card and the included 2GB SD card contains 500MB of drum loops from Big Fish Audio. Powered by either USB, AC or 4 AAs; the only thing this thing doesn’t do is tune your instruments or act as a metronome. Wait, no nevermind, it does that too.

The R8 retails for $US525 and is available now. [via Zoom]