Wow, Li'l Red for $50 less! (MR-8)

[junplugged]

on sale, or maybe price drop for good. $250 from 300.

It's a great deal, I'd still get one if I had no digital stuff, like I did a long time ago.

[abc123]

Sitting with open catalog showing the discounted MR-8. Your comment makes me more apt to place an order. I am a rank amateur who has been using a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder for some time and have urge to move on to digital. My uses are vocal/guitar usually alone and sometimes with another person. I am unsure tho of what moving on to digital will entail.

Especially, I want to know about mixing -- Can it be done within the MR-8 itself. And, how about copying to another type of media. That is, how complicated is it to transfer the end result to a CD? I presently have a laptop computer with very basic sound card (mic and ear jacks only).

(Btw, I did quick check of Home Recording tutorial re digital recording and did not spot anything dealing with my questions.)

[ZoSo58LP]

abc, do it up. i used to use the fostex analog 4 track too, then i got the MR8 when it came it..it's great

[junplugged]

Oh, discontin., I didn't realize that. Yea, that makes sense, they now have the HDD version.... Well, it has some reverb. And if you treat it like a 4-track w/ 2 stereo mixdown tracks, then it could be good for ya. But there's a lot that makes it a very short-term item. If you're really into recording and you've done a lot with 4-tracks, you might already be past it and you might want to skip over it and go with something better. It's still not free, and if you weren't sold on it for $300, then $50 shouldn't change your mind.

[pschaafs]

I moved up from the Fostex X-34 4-track to the MR-8HD, and I'm enjoying the difference. I love being able to get separate tracks into the computer via USB instead of thru the soundcard, the storage! and the 4-tracks at a time option. I may never use most of the effects, but some I've tried are effective. Seems like you get a lot for the $

[Dr.Cool]

i have a fostex four track too and im thinking about getting the mr8. Im still not sure though the memory thing with the 128 mb card is a little worrisome.

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by Dr.Cool

i have a fostex four track too and im thinking about getting the mr8. Im still not sure though the memory thing with the 128 mb card is a little worrisome.

I have a SanDisk 512 card that has been working flawlessly for over a year now. There is a thread on here that people who have used different cards have posted results to. Just check out the version of the MR-8 (if it's 1.0 then there are a couple upgrades available on the Fostex website). The latest upgrade makes any CF card usable with the MR-8.
I've had mine for almost a year and one half, and I've enjoyed it. I won't upgrade to anything else until the MR-8 dies on me. I record to the MR-8 and then transfer all my tracks to pc. Then I bounce down the tracks to tracks 7/8 and record more. Works good for what I do.

I wish the MR-8 was only $250 back then (mine was a gift, but I would have bought it for that price).

[treymonfauntre]

i have one for sale in the "for sale" forum!

[junplugged]

I've worked on mine everyday for over 2 years, made a slant board for it, I can't part with it, it's like a chunk of my life sitting there. I'm stuck with it

[cellardweller]

As most of you know, I've had the MR8 for a while.

With my disorderly setup, having nearfields on the computer side of the room, and only headphones on the MR8 side, it's been a slight pain-in-the-ass. Granted, my room is a cluster-phuck.

If my room were a little larger, I could incorporate it all into one nice little area. Such is not the case. I simply have too much stuff in a very limited amount of space.

Still to this day, I wish I would have bought a soundcard and some RAM (ended up buying the RAM anyway). In my situation, the consolidation would have served me well.

Once I win the lottery, I will buy an AP192 or a Delta 1010lt.

$.02.

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by cellardweller

As most of you know, I've had the MR8 for a while.

With my disorderly setup, having nearfields on the computer side of the room, and only headphones on the MR8 side, it's been a slight pain-in-the-ass. Granted, my room is a cluster-phuck.

If my room were a little larger, I could incorporate it all into one nice little area. Such is not the case. I simply have too much stuff in a very limited amount of space.

Still to this day, I wish I would have bought a soundcard and some RAM (ended up buying the RAM anyway). In my situation, the consolidation would have served me well.

Once I win the lottery, I will buy an AP192 or a Delta 1010lt.

$.02.

You'll get it someday! Besides, you aren't doing too bad with what you have, at any rate!

[daav]

I've had mine for over a year now, and pro's cons in my experience are as follows:

Pros:
A great practice tool for laying down tracks, and developing skills and ideas.

Compact, portable.

8 digital tracks, what more can you say for $250

With additional investment Pros:

When i started bought a small mixer for preamps and started xferring tracks recorded in the MR8 to the PC, it opened things up greatly. I never even tried to use any of the mixing and effects in the MR8, hated them all, but incorporated with the software mixing options, I use the MR8 as an interface essentially, and have learned a great deal about the whole recording process that way.

Cons:
the $250, $300 whatever is the BEGINNING of the investment. If you are looking to record some guitar and bass tracks, or scratch tracks to develop songs or the like, the MR8 can stand on its own, but if you really want to stretch to somehting that really sounds good, expect to buy a mixer and/or preamps, decent monitoring, and consider the whole software mixing option. This quickly adds up to the amount you would pay for a decent PC interface setup, which seems to be why so many consier the switch to striaght PC after the "gateway" recorder of the MR8.

16 bit/44.1 - a limitation, espeically for the purists who hate the digital sound. Better A/D converters allow you to capture more of the signal.

Effects, amp and mic modelling, etc - just about useless IMO.

CF card reliance - at this point not a huge deal, many affordable (< $50) card will expand your recording options, and ify ou are willing to do some legwork xferring fiiles back and forth to the PC, easy to work around, but count a bigger card into the expense of the purchase.

YMMV, but my summation is that the MR8 is a fantastic deal for the casual recordist, and works great as a "notepad" for practice and song develoepment. It is a great incremental step to get into the whole thing, especially if you cannot afford to drop thousands right away to get a whole home recording package at higher quality, but does not stand on it's own at this point. In my case it has been fine, because i have been able to learna loit at a lower into proce before investing more into things i want down the road-- I can upgrade mics, pres, monitors, mixing software, etc one at a time around the MR8 and then replace it with the PC/Interface of my dreams and still be working with the MR8 the whole time. Even when i do that, i dount if i will get rid of it, and will likely enjoy the fact that I can move it around fairly easily.

Daav

[ch2os7]

It didn't take very long before I realized its limitations. However, it did allow me to ease into digital recording a little at a time. After adding a mixer, bigger CF card, some good mics and computer software, it serves me well. I will use it until it dies and then consider my options. I've done 2 complete projects for others and one for myself with lil' red and have gotten acceptable results. I have found the track configuration limiting but I transfer to pc for editing, mixing, eq and effects anyhow so its not a major problem.
Long live the lil' red machine!

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by ch2os7

It didn't take very long before I realized its limitations. However, it did allow me to ease into digital recording a little at a time. After adding a mixer, bigger CF card, some good mics and computer software, it serves me well. I will use it until it dies and then consider my options. I've done 2 complete projects for others and one for myself with lil' red and have gotten acceptable results. I have found the track configuration limiting but I transfer to pc for editing, mixing, eq and effects anyhow so its not a major problem.
Long live the lil' red machine!

I am in the same boat, as far as how I do things! I have tried to do an entire song on the lil red and see how it would sound compared to mixing on pc. Not bad, but not great either.

My next upgrade will be an HD24, I think, as I will have a fully working studio by then.