So, the MR8 is worth $300?

[97reb]

Okay, I have seen it at the store and on Musician's Friend. It seems good to me for $300. The reviews on MF give it a high 7 to low 8. The guy at the local music store said recording time is limited. I want some feed back here. Is it a really good digital starter recorder? Should I hold out $500 more? I think at this point I prefer a stand alone recorder due to the cost factors (computer recording would require a new computer, IMO). What is the general opinion? Thanks, people.

[bsr2002]

I own one and have no problems with it. I bought the bundle at Musician's Friend website and got the mic, gig bag and headphones. Yes it is worth the money, you have to upgrade the memory though. I upgraded mine to 512MB and it works for me. I also transer to the PC so I can have more tracks.

[billisa]

$300 more will get you the Fostex VF80CDR -- very good, very stable standalone with a 20gig HD, and better effects than the MR8. Built-in phantom power for two XLR inputs. If you want to stay entirely out of the PC, then this would be the way to go. With a PC, the MR8 is fine.

The MR8 is the only machine in its price class that gives you full 16bit/44khz recording. Others in that area are compressed data machines.

[kdgospel]

Yep.

[Ricklh]

So, the MR8 is worth $300?

I think it would be worth it if it was just a 4-tracker. I love the thing!

[pjh6467]

The 128 card is the only set back with the original unit. But if you shop around you could get up to a 512MB card and stay around $500.00. And with the copy/paste tracks feature you can do a lot of internal bouncing. But it is most effective importing tracks to pc mixing software giving however many tracks the software allows. I love mine. Good for writing songs. Has an internal mic,helps get ideas down quickly,takes batteries making it portable. Yep worth the money

[dyuob]

Well worth the investment.

[Tubedriver]

Originally posted by 97reb
I think at this point I prefer a stand alone recorder due to the cost factors (computer recording would require a new computer, .

uummm.....dont buy the MR8 unless you plan on using it in conjunction with a computer. That's the whole idea of this machine, it has limited memory but enables you to transfer files to a computer for further editing and CD burning etc.

Buy the VF80 instead. Personally, nothing against Fostex, but if you want something with built in drum machine, I'd get the Zoom MRS802. It has a built in CDRW......plus you can get an optional USB interface.
24bit A/D converters too.....

anyway - for starters the vf80 should be fine!

[PeteHalo]

As mr. tubedriver said without a computer the MR8 is pretty much useless and for the same money you could buy one of those USB sound cards (Tascam US-122 $199) and a copy of n-Tracks Studio and record directly to computer. If portability is an issue a couple of years old laptop and the USB sound card would make a pretty portable rig and would make much more sense than the MR8.

[dave in toledo]

lots of people love to record right through a sound card, i hate dealing with the latency issues and all, too complicated for me, i got the mr 8 and n track for 40.00, and have 88 thracks of recording(depends on your pc).

so with the mr 8 and ntrack its way cheaper then many other options which was a big concern for me.

the other recorders mentioned here are all fine machines just beyound my budget at the time, i love mine, although there have been some technical difficulties

[mrx]

Originally posted by PeteHalo
As mr. tubedriver said without a computer the MR8 is pretty much useless and for the same money you could buy one of those USB sound cards (Tascam US-122 $199) and a copy of n-Tracks Studio and record directly to computer. If portability is an issue a couple of years old laptop and the USB sound card would make a pretty portable rig and would make much more sense than the MR8.

I have a "couple of years old laptop" and it's no substitute for an MR-8.

Tracking on an MR-8 and mixing on a computer works great. We put together a great sounding 3 song demo with layered guitars and tons of vocal takes painlessly using the included 128MB card - just create a good stereo or mono "bed" track to dub against, use the tempo map, and copy off unlimited tracks for later mixing.

If the MR-8's not enough, checkout some of the new 16 - 24 track "studio in a box" units introduced at NAMM by Boss, Tascam, and Korg - full studio production centers for under $1500.

[billisa]

Originally posted by mrx
IIf the MR-8's not enough, checkout some of the new 16 - 24 track "studio in a box" units introduced at NAMM by Boss, Tascam, and Korg - full studio production centers for under $1500.

Or check out the Fostex VF160 for under $900. ;-)

[mrx]

Originally posted by billisa
Or check out the Fostex VF160 for under $900. ;-)

Knowing Fostex, they're letting Korg/Tascam/Roland beat each other up, and will release some kind of next-generation VF160 (with USB) for 750 bucks...

[a12stringer]

And probably drop the prices of the MR-8 and the VF-80 proportionately.

[97reb]

All I want now is something relatively cheap, but effective enough for a 3-4 song demo. The MR8 in conjunction with the Dell computer I have and some additional mixing software sounds good to me. That could get me in the $400 - $500 price range. For $1500 I could buy a whole new computer built specifically for recording and get great software and great interface. Maybe later this year (November), I can afford over a $1000, but for now, I'll be lucky to be in the $500 range, if we get our bonus at work in early March. Thanks for all the input folks.

[junplugged]

it only takes about ten seconds to boot up. not as much noise as a pc. definitly works together w/ pc. easy to use. good if you already have some recording stuff like mics, preamps, fx. the lowest cost of any of my portastudio type stuff. i wouldn't produce anything serious w/ it, very few errors on your actual tracks, for processing all that digital data. small, truly portable - uses batteries, very good for recording in stereo since it's 8 tracks and is really geared to stereo since tracks 5/6 and 7/8 are tied together that way already. it's red. it depends on what you need/want or if you know what you need/want, then it's a cheap way to find out, even if you decide you need/want more, you'll have a start. there are 4 tk cassette now for even cheaper, but not sure the quality. everything we get is taking a chance anyway, so I like to go cheap and learn and save up for more if i need it even if it takes longer....

[gatorhaus]

Well here's my .02$.

I have an MR8 and by the time I get a 512M card for it I would've spent $450 total.

I could've got a VF80 for $499, with a ton more features/tracks/recording time.

Which I am probably going to do. Sell my MR8 and buy a VF80.

larry