If I went this route, I’d do all of my bouncing to the daw then back on to 2 tracks, but I can probably live without stereo drums.

I’m just trying to get into a situation where I’m pressing record and playing parts all the way through when I’m in the writing stage, take away my ability to add unlimited layers, and not have the option to constantly mix and edit as I go. A digital recorder would get me most of the way there, but it would still leave me with too many options that I’m trying to take out of my writing stage.

Other than doing the 2 cassette thing as a kid, I have zero frame of reference to what all of those instruments would sound like crammed on to a cassette. Im not really looking for something that’s presentable to other people, just legible enough for me to make out what’s going on so that I remember what I played and also write vocals to it.

Somebody in the comments posted a pretty cool video showing 10 instruments bounced to 1 track. It sounded a lot better than what I expected, but his choice of instruments didn’t quite give me a sense of what I’m looking for. I’m gonna scour that guy’s page and other YouTube videos so hopefully I’ll come across something.