This is it. This was my big step forward some (*cough* *cough*) years ago:

The Vesta Fire MR-10B was about as entry-level as it got in the multitrack recording business. It was, if I recall correctly, only a few hundred dollars. But that figure was anywhere from one-half to one-tenth of the price of real gear at the time. Yet it still allowed me to make true, honest-to-goodness, multitrack recordings.

“Multi,” in this particular device, meant “four.” It used a standard, compact cassette tape:

This was a great choice. They were cheap. They were plentiful. And they already supported four discrete audio tracks. For most use cases this meant a stereo track on Side A and another stereo track on Side B. However, if one recorded to both “sides” of the tape simultaneously, one could record four monophonic tracks.

After wanting this type of audio capability for years, you could imagine how fired up I was to finally unleash my full recording studio potential. I ripped open the packaging (some two decades too early to upload an unboxing video to YouTube), plugged in all the wires, and . . .

“Hmmm,” I thought to myself. “What should I record?”

This “Hmmm” phenomenon would prove to be a repeating pattern in my life. Before purchasing a new piece of audio anything, I always think, “Oh man! I NEED that thing! If I just had that thing, I could record all the things!” And then after I obtain the desired piece of gear, I realize that the equipment itself doesn’t magically bestow creativity upon me.

I can’t recall what I recorded first. But I can tell you it likely involved a kazoo or a bongo or perhaps just me “singing” four parts of The Oak Ridge Boys’ Elvira. Rest assured, whatever it was, it was worth the expenditure.

I really didn’t come into my own until 1988 and 1989. At this point I was young, out of college, had my own one-bedroom apartment, and a real job. My home recording studio peaked with the following gear:

• The Vesta Fire multitrack recorder
• Yamaha pf85 digital piano (this post’s featured image)
• Roland D-10 synthesizer
• My mom’s old classical guitar (let me know if you still need that back)
• Westone Spectrum bass guitar
• The crappiest drum machine in the world

Apart from the piano, which was a real splurge at $1700 or so, everything was bottom-of-the-line. But it didn’t matter, because it was mine, and I’d gathered it all in one room, and since I was young, single, and basically had all the time in the world, it actually got used.

The following is the title track from my second Continuum release entitled Interactions. Like the first release, this meant copying all the songs to a single master cassette, then making a copy of that cassette, and hand-drawing the artwork right on the paper insert. Here is the original track listing in all its glory:

And without any further ado, I present the title track. It’s seven minutes long, so your options right now are:

• Close your browser
• Leave the browser open, but go see what’s happening on Twitter instead
• Grab a drink, click play, and sit back:

See you back here next week for the next exciting development in this long and self-deprecating story! Maybe. Looks like I have a pretty busy week or two coming up, so I can’t make any guarantees.