How much hardware you need depends on how clean you want the separate tracks to be. Three levels — from “costs nothing” to “actually good”:
Getting started: no new hardware at all
Record the rehearsal in stereo (phone, handheld recorder, camera) and split it afterward with an AI service (Moises, LALAL.ai). Costs nothing extra, but it’s the weakest separation — fine for getting a feel for it.
Recommended: a multitrack recorder
The sweet spot for bands: a standalone recorder that writes one file per channel to an SD card — no laptop needed. This records every instrument cleanly separated from the start.
- Zoom LiveTrak L-8 / L-12 — compact, 8 or 12 channels, popular in rehearsal rooms.
- Tascam Model 12 — mixer and multitrack recorder in one, 12 tracks.
Make sure you have enough inputs for your lineup: one channel per instrument, possibly several for drums.
Alternative: audio interface + laptop
If you already have a laptop, a multichannel audio interface (e.g. Focusrite Scarlett 18i8) with a DAW works too. You then export the stems from the software. More flexible, but more setup than a standalone recorder.
Once you have the hardware sorted, continue with recording the separate tracks.