getting back into recording + power conditioner question

[hangwire]

Life circumstances will be giving me a Thursday off from work every week for the foreseeable future, so I am thinking of having music time increase. To get back into playing form I always have found recording covers of songs has been the best way for me to go past "just messing around" with my guitar and gear.

So I have an older macbook and years ago I used an interface to run into that but wasn't gelling with it. I come from the cassette 4 track days, so I have my eyes on a Foster Mr8 mII which has a USB out at a local shop that I can trade some pedals for so no cash out of pocket. There was also a boss one with an integrated pad based drum machine, but it did not have XLR inputs. Any opinions on other possible cheap digital recorders that have 2 XLR inputs, USB out, and the kicker would be internal mic/battery power option for portable/reverb/drum machine pads. For $70 in value the Foster MR8 mkII looked decent.

also, I live in a house built in 1931. With my tube amp I can pick up radio stations which when just playing around I didn't care, but for recording this will bug me. I will start with trying to isolate the problem via cable, power outlet, pedals, etc and test the outlets themselves also... but if it is just the house I was thinking of getting a used power conditioner rack unit as i heard this is a good option, and used ones sit for $35-50 all the time locally at stores. Is getting a nice new $20 surge protector power strip just as good as getting a dinosaur 90s rack relic, or does a power conditioner always do more for radio interference of dirty mains power.

Thanks in advance for replies!

[somebodyelseuk]

No experience of your problem, but for what it's worth, I've been running a Furman PL8-E in my rack "dinosaur" for 20+ years. Never let me down, quiet as a mouse - I have valve pre-amp and power amp in there, too.
I've stuck with the rack, because no-one has come up with anything that does a better job.

[northern_dirt]

Life circumstances will be giving me a Thursday off from work every week for the foreseeable future, so I am thinking of having music time increase. To get back into playing form I always have found recording covers of songs has been the best way for me to go past "just messing around" with my guitar and gear.

So I have an older macbook and years ago I used an interface to run into that but wasn't gelling with it. I come from the cassette 4 track days, so I have my eyes on a Foster Mr8 mII which has a USB out at a local shop that I can trade some pedals for so no cash out of pocket. There was also a boss one with an integrated pad based drum machine, but it did not have XLR inputs. Any opinions on other possible cheap digital recorders that have 2 XLR inputs, USB out, and the kicker would be internal mic/battery power option for portable/reverb/drum machine pads. For $70 in value the Foster MR8 mkII looked decent.

also, I live in a house built in 1931. With my tube amp I can pick up radio stations which when just playing around I didn't care, but for recording this will bug me. I will start with trying to isolate the problem via cable, power outlet, pedals, etc and test the outlets themselves also... but if it is just the house I was thinking of getting a used power conditioner rack unit as i heard this is a good option, and used ones sit for $35-50 all the time locally at stores. Is getting a nice new $20 surge protector power strip just as good as getting a dinosaur 90s rack relic, or does a power conditioner always do more for radio interference of dirty mains power.

Thanks in advance for replies!

My old tube amps were doing this..
The power conditioners didn't help..
Switching to a George L patch cable as the first jack did..

Bullet cables and waves cables all made my old Oranges into radios..
I did put a ferrite isolator around one of my cables that did sorta work..
But the George Ls killed the radio..