talk to me buck!

[drdrew]

hey!
where's that review on the pitch corrector? anybody play with this on the dps16 yet?

and by the way, you were right on with the mindprint envoice choice....it seems to be the best out there right now in that range...but unfortunately, that range is too rich for me right now, but i need SOMETHING ASAP.

so, any thoughts on mike pre's/compressors under 300?

which brings me to my next question, what's the difference in sound quality between the joe meek vc1 vs. the VC6? the features are similar...but price is not....

what scsi cdr units are people using with their dps16's?
my computer does not have a scsi, so it looks like i'll have to buy a cdr unit and buy the OS upgrades from akai...but ebay has many cdr's for CHEAP! i sent akai an email, because i can't seem to find a list of compatible units.....i'm done rambling...see ya guys!

check out my mp3... http://www.home.earthlink.net/~drewkari

[lazyboy]

drdrew,

Seems to me that I nosed around on the akaipro site and found a listing of compatible drives, though here's a listing of some drives that work with DPS 12. Its plenty outdated (and obviosly refers to the 12 and not the 16)but should provide some useful information. Hope it helps.
http://www.seriously-productions.fre...q/f_drives.htm

[Buck62]

drew...
I haven't even messed with the pitch corrector yet. We're too busy trying to write and record this second CD to get into it right now. But, I must say, the DPS-16 is an awesome machine! I LOVE this thing!!!
As for the preamp... I'd wait and get the Mindprint. It's totally worth it. It's makin my recordings sound like a million bucks. It doesn't add any noise whatsoever... zilch, zero, nada!! The cheaper units are gonna add some noise and you're not gonna have as much versatility as the Envoice.
No money???
Hey... that's what credit cards are for!!!

[snapper]

Im using the ricoh mp7060se for a cdrw back-up device. Its listed on the akaipro site as a compatable drive and I didnt want to screw around anymore. $255.00

[snapper]

Hey Buck since you have probobly gotten a little deeper
into this thing Im going to pose this question to you. When Im tracking I use a mackie 1604vlz and then go direct out into the akai. If I monitor out of the mackie everything sounds great.But if I monitor out of the akai something gets lost. Its not nearly as good. How do you monitor?? And have you noticed this as well? Any thoughts as to why this is happening???

[Buck62]

Have you checked the EQ settings on the specific track you are recording to?
If the settings are anything but flat, it's gonna sound different.
Also... What kind of cables are you using?
Obviously, the sound is going to be better when you monitor from the source than from the Akai if you record the track using inferior cables from the Mackie to the Akai.

[snapper]

Buck, All my track eq settings are flat. The cables from the mackie to the akai are 3 foot hosa t-r-s patch cables. Are these going to make that much of a difference.

[Buck62]

Bingo!
Using those Hosa cables is probably what's killing your sound.
When I switched to Monster Cables, I noticed a big difference right away... especially when doing 24-bit recording!
You really *do* get what you pay for when it comes to using quality cables in your recording chain.
Using Hosa cables is like pumping cheap gasoline into a Ferarri.

Just out of curiousity... Why don't you line straight into the Akai?

[snapper]

I use the mackie because I need 8 good preamps for tracking drums.I then just go direct out to the 8 inputs of the dps-16.
I purchased a monster cable studio link 500 patch cable tonight and am going to a-b it tonight. I should have some results in a few hours.I assume these are the cables you were refering to?

[Buck62]

Yep.
As long as you're happy with the sound that's going *into* the Mackie... using Monster cable from the Mackie to the Akai should do the trick.
(...using ALL Monster cables would really help!)

Let us know what happens.

[snapper]

Well here are the results of my comparison. I tracked a snare drum into the mackie and went direct out into input channel 2 of the dps-16. In the patch screen of the dps-16 I routed that signal to both record tracks 2 and 3. Then recording one record channel at a time I recorded track 2 with the hosa patch cable and then track 3 with the monster cable.Since I used the same input channel the only difference each record track saw was a different cable. Both myself and the other members of the band could hear absolutely no difference between tracks. So I am thinking of two other causes for the loss of quality. Maybe its just the output section of the (monitor out) that is just better in the mackie.Or maybe something is getting lost in the a-d conversion. Any thoughts there??

[Buck62]

geez....
That's somewhat strange, because the output signal SHOULD be exactly the same as what you hear while monitoring through the Mackie itself. Bad cables were the first (and most obvious) possible culprit in the degradation of the sound.
I don't use a mixer when I record, just a Mindprint Envoice (preamp) and my POD. My drums are e-drums (Yamaha DTX) so I don't need to run through a mixer. It sounds like it's a problem with the output of the Mackie, though. It's safe to say that the Akai is not the problem, since it give's you an honest reproduction of the signal that's being fed into it. I know there's some other Mackie users around here.
Maybe they can shed more light on the subject.