Opinions on the KORG D1200 & D12 please

cjacek

cjacek

Analogue Enthusiast
Hello,

I would like to get your opinions on the KORG D1200 and the KORG D12 I would like to get your opinions on the following:

(1) How does KORG (the manufacturer of pro-audio) fair when it comes to their quality, reputation and reliability especially in comparison to some well known ones like TASCAM ?

(2) What do YOU specifically think of the KORG D1200 and the KORG D12 as a TOTAL DAW especially in comparison to some models in this price range ? I currently own a TASCAM 414 Mk2 analog 4 track, a nanoverb, and couple other ones. I mostly do vocals to pre-arranged backing tracks (pop music) and would like an all-in-one answer to my recording needs. I would like this to be as painless as possible and get me to record the very first day without going through the manual for a month before turning the unit on :eek:

Anyway, I'm really interested in your input :)

Thanks,

Daniel
 
I have the D8. It is a very nice unit. Hasn't missed a lick since I've had it. 3-4 years. Very easy to use. Sounds great. Very stable. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a d1200 except that I am most likely going to upgrade to the d1600. If you're planning on recording several instruments and lead and backing vocals, you run out of tracks sooner than you think you would. For what you described, the d1200 should suit you just fine. I have no doubts that it is a fine unit. Korg's been around a long time; I imagine they've got it down pretty good by now.
 
StevenLindsey said:
I have the D8. It is a very nice unit. Hasn't missed a lick since I've had it. 3-4 years. Very easy to use. Sounds great. Very stable. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a d1200 except that I am most likely going to upgrade to the d1600. If you're planning on recording several instruments and lead and backing vocals, you run out of tracks sooner than you think you would. For what you described, the d1200 should suit you just fine. I have no doubts that it is a fine unit. Korg's been around a long time; I imagine they've got it down pretty good by now.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this info :) Yeah, I'm definitely leaning towards the D12 or D1200, although the D1200 is packed to the wall with features but is several hundred bucks more. Oh well .. ;) I hope others give their opinion as well ..

Daniel
 
funkoptimus said:
Im a legend all ready and it only took a few days!!
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch friend :) :) Yeah, you're right, there's stuff definitely happenin' there which is of great interest to me ! Thanks for pointing the thread out to me. I think I need new glasses :o ;) :)

Daniel
 
I have the Korg D16 (older model) with the touch screen, and it's really a fine and easy and good sounding unit.

My former drummer has his little homestudio based around a Yamaha MDX8 (8 track mini disc recorder) and he always had to struggle to get the sound 'passable' or 'above demo-tape quality'. I just record and play and it almost instantly sounds decent/good/nice.

I've fiddled around with some of the competition, and currently Korg and Akai are your best buys in the sub $1500 class (above it goes out to the Yamaha AW4416 or Akai DPS 24). Fostex and Roland both offer worse sound quality, lesser effects and have a not so friendly user interface. The Korg D1200 seems to shine in this department. Also, it seems to have upgraded its REMS mic and amp-modeling... Oh, the screen of the D1200 is tilteable, very handy.
If you only need 10 tracks tops, and record only 1 or 2 tracks at a time, check out the cheaper ZOOM MRS-1044 and the BOSS BR1180.

Otherwise, you'll do fine with the Korg. Very easy, very nice sound.
 
I had a Korg D8. It sounded great but i chose to upgrade to a 1680. The Korg machines have no upgrade options. I hated that because when I wanted to upgrade the mahince I was using really couldn't fit in with the upgrade. Now I have the same problem with my fully expanded 1680. No wave file support and only 2 racks of digital out.

If you get a machine I advise you get one with some kind of wave import/export function. With computers growing stronger and all those great software programs, I don't think anybody should be stuck in their little boxes.

I personally think Yamaha has the best thing going right now

Good luck.
 
Speeddemon said:
I have the Korg D16 (older model) with the touch screen, and it's really a fine and easy and good sounding unit.

My former drummer has his little homestudio based around a Yamaha MDX8 (8 track mini disc recorder) and he always had to struggle to get the sound 'passable' or 'above demo-tape quality'. I just record and play and it almost instantly sounds decent/good/nice.

I've fiddled around with some of the competition, and currently Korg and Akai are your best buys in the sub $1500 class (above it goes out to the Yamaha AW4416 or Akai DPS 24). Fostex and Roland both offer worse sound quality, lesser effects and have a not so friendly user interface. The Korg D1200 seems to shine in this department. Also, it seems to have upgraded its REMS mic and amp-modeling... Oh, the screen of the D1200 is tilteable, very handy.
If you only need 10 tracks tops, and record only 1 or 2 tracks at a time, check out the cheaper ZOOM MRS-1044 and the BOSS BR1180.

Otherwise, you'll do fine with the Korg. Very easy, very nice sound.
Click to expand...

Naa, I would never go for the BOSS BR1180. I bought one and had to return it. First problem: very steep learning curve and it's not intuitive at all. Second problem: you can only record 2 tracks at once. Other than that, it was a very fine sounding unit. As for the ZOOM unit, I haven't looked and it and it really never held my interest. I am currently deciding between the KORG units (D12 or D1200) and a recently released Yamaha AW16G for the budget conscious. From what I hear the KORGs and Yamahas are really liked and get great reviews. The one thing I don't want is a steep learning curve. I also would like pre-programmed parameters. Does the KORG unit that you bought have pre-programmed EQ, reverb, comp etc .. as to avoid tweaking these for a week to get a good sound going ? I just want something that I can just set and record. Also, can I, for example, record my vocals using certain eq settings and reverb and mic modelling etc but not have it recorded ? I would just tweak the sound later on to my needs. Is this possible on the KORG ? Yeah, I'm definitely leaning towards the KORG units :)

Thanks.

Daniel
 
Daniel, I recently read that the newer Korg D1200 has this more intuitive pre-programmed stuff...
You can select from some menu if you need guitar, bass or mic modeling. This was possible too on the older Korgs, but it needed more handling from yourself. It seems that the new Korg D1200 does a lot work for you.
O.k., so the Zoom and Boss are out of the question...
Like I said before, the Roland and Fostex suck -use-wise and sound-wise- (if you thought the Boss had a steep learning curve, forget about any Roland machine then... ;) )

This leaves you to
-Korg D12
-Korg D1200 (more functions, nicer, REALLY big harddrive (40Gb)
-Korg D16 (if you can find one 2nd handed for less than $900, it's a very good deal)
-Korg D1600 (might be out of your budget)
-Akai DPS12 (nice, although if it were MY money, I'd go for the Korg D1200)
-Akai DPS16 (very nice, CAN record at 96kHz, unlike Korg. Both record UNCOMPRESSED, so no signal loss.) Sometimes can be found for around $900-1100. Usually they go for $1300.

From what I hear, the Akai has some more options (4 aux outputs, 96Khz recording) and the Korg has slightly better effects and an easier user interface (which you say is very important for yourself...)

I don't think you'll regret buying the Korg D1200. Do what I did; read all about it (i-net, magazines), try it in a store a couple of times, with connection a guitar or bassguitar. Try some effects and if you still like the sound, usefullness and to a lesser extent the looks (you guys gotta admit those Korg units look way cooler than those ugly Fostex VF80 and 160 :D ), go for it!
I recently downloaded a song (shiny metal) from the Korg site. It was recorded on a D16, it sounded TOTALLY professional. It was a kind of funky soul with lots of horns and Steely Dan progessions...

Good luck!
 
Speeddemon said:
Daniel, I recently read that the newer Korg D1200 has this more intuitive pre-programmed stuff...
You can select from some menu if you need guitar, bass or mic modeling. This was possible too on the older Korgs, but it needed more handling from yourself. It seems that the new Korg D1200 does a lot work for you.
O.k., so the Zoom and Boss are out of the question...
Like I said before, the Roland and Fostex suck -use-wise and sound-wise- (if you thought the Boss had a steep learning curve, forget about any Roland machine then... ;) )

This leaves you to
-Korg D12
-Korg D1200 (more functions, nicer, REALLY big harddrive (40Gb)
-Korg D16 (if you can find one 2nd handed for less than $900, it's a very good deal)
-Korg D1600 (might be out of your budget)
-Akai DPS12 (nice, although if it were MY money, I'd go for the Korg D1200)
-Akai DPS16 (very nice, CAN record at 96kHz, unlike Korg. Both record UNCOMPRESSED, so no signal loss.) Sometimes can be found for around $900-1100. Usually they go for $1300.

From what I hear, the Akai has some more options (4 aux outputs, 96Khz recording) and the Korg has slightly better effects and an easier user interface (which you say is very important for yourself...)

I don't think you'll regret buying the Korg D1200. Do what I did; read all about it (i-net, magazines), try it in a store a couple of times, with connection a guitar or bassguitar. Try some effects and if you still like the sound, usefullness and to a lesser extent the looks (you guys gotta admit those Korg units look way cooler than those ugly Fostex VF80 and 160 :D ), go for it!
I recently downloaded a song (shiny metal) from the Korg site. It was recorded on a D16, it sounded TOTALLY professional. It was a kind of funky soul with lots of horns and Steely Dan progessions...

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks very much for the REALLY helpful info and advice. I really appreciate the time you took to a help a fellow "recordist" out :) Yeah, based on the info I gathered so far from this group, reading up on the specs and from the reviews on zzounds.com and others such as "sound on sound" I came to the conclussion that I would be making a serious mistake not to take the KORG D12 or D1200 for a test drive :D The D16 seems too much machine for me but I'd take it if it were in the D1200 price range ;) The D1200 looks really tempting :D Thanks again for the helpful info :)

Daniel
 
Speeddemon said:
Daniel, I recently read that the newer Korg D1200 has this more intuitive pre-programmed stuff...
You can select from some menu if you need guitar, bass or mic modeling. This was possible too on the older Korgs, but it needed more handling from yourself. It seems that the new Korg D1200 does a lot work for you.
O.k., so the Zoom and Boss are out of the question...
Like I said before, the Roland and Fostex suck -use-wise and sound-wise- (if you thought the Boss had a steep learning curve, forget about any Roland machine then... ;) )

This leaves you to
-Korg D12
-Korg D1200 (more functions, nicer, REALLY big harddrive (40Gb)
-Korg D16 (if you can find one 2nd handed for less than $900, it's a very good deal)
-Korg D1600 (might be out of your budget)
-Akai DPS12 (nice, although if it were MY money, I'd go for the Korg D1200)
-Akai DPS16 (very nice, CAN record at 96kHz, unlike Korg. Both record UNCOMPRESSED, so no signal loss.) Sometimes can be found for around $900-1100. Usually they go for $1300.

From what I hear, the Akai has some more options (4 aux outputs, 96Khz recording) and the Korg has slightly better effects and an easier user interface (which you say is very important for yourself...)

I don't think you'll regret buying the Korg D1200. Do what I did; read all about it (i-net, magazines), try it in a store a couple of times, with connection a guitar or bassguitar. Try some effects and if you still like the sound, usefullness and to a lesser extent the looks (you guys gotta admit those Korg units look way cooler than those ugly Fostex VF80 and 160 :D ), go for it!
I recently downloaded a song (shiny metal) from the Korg site. It was recorded on a D16, it sounded TOTALLY professional. It was a kind of funky soul with lots of horns and Steely Dan progessions...

Good luck!
Click to expand...

One thing I would like to mention is the the demo tunes found on the KORG site are in mp3 and at 128 bitrate and at that bitrate the songs lose a significant amount of high end frequencies and so these demos, I believe, don't do the KORG justice. The sound is significantly better and fuller and richer uncompressed. I wonder why KORG would put up 128 bit samples (and not at least 192 or 256) in mp3 that won't accurately represent the actual sound of the unit :confused: The unit WILL sound alot better when you demo it yourself in person. The demos sound really good online but they will sound amazing in store :) Would you be able to post some of your songs in 320 bit as they were done on your KORG ? Anything .. they don't have to be polished or anything ..

Thanks,

Daniel
 
Daniel, just a note to mention that you should probably take the time to demo the new Yamaha aw16g: 16 tracks, 8 at a time, full effects, WAV import/export, and CD-burner. It's just hitting the stores now ($969 from musiciansbuy.com), and its early reviews
have been spectacular. Most of the unit is based on the pack-leading Yamaha aw4416 that even pros, like Jon Anderson of Yes, use for making their CDs. It's touting a very user-friendly interface (e.g., actual "knobs" for effects) although, as we all know, such claims are suspect until we get our hands on these units. Anyhow,I'm moving up from the same Tascam 414 that you have, and my $1k will probably go to the Yamaha. I will, though, wait until I can demo it alonside the Korg.

Such sweet decisions, eh?
J.
 
jeffree said:
Daniel, just a note to mention that you should probably take the time to demo the new Yamaha aw16g: 16 tracks, 8 at a time, full effects, WAV import/export, and CD-burner. It's just hitting the stores now ($969 from musiciansbuy.com), and its early reviews
have been spectacular. Most of the unit is based on the pack-leading Yamaha aw4416 that even pros, like Jon Anderson of Yes, use for making their CDs. It's touting a very user-friendly interface (e.g., actual "knobs" for effects) although, as we all know, such claims are suspect until we get our hands on these units. Anyhow,I'm moving up from the same Tascam 414 that you have, and my $1k will probably go to the Yamaha. I will, though, wait until I can demo it alonside the Korg.

Such sweet decisions, eh?
J.
Click to expand...

Hey, fellow 414! ;) :) Good to hear from you! Yeah, I was made aware of the AW16G a few weeks ago and that was my reason not to grab the KORG D12 or D1200 right away! But one thing is certain, that I've eliminated a lot of the multitrackers and was left with only 3 - the D12, D1200 and AW16G. Sweet decissions indeed but I'm glad it's only between those 3 :D The good news is that no matter which one I pick, I'll be "stuck" with a really good unit :D So the only *real* issue is budget and the Yamaha will cost me $1500 (Canadian) before taxes! Thats getting pretty close to 2K and I wanted to spend about half that and thats where the KORGs win out. But we'll see .. ;) Ya never know :D

Take care and let us know what you decide and your initial thoughts,

Daniel
 
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