D160 H/disc recorders

[ausrock]

Fostex D160 R/MOUNT h/DISCS Has anyone had any experience with these rack mount recorders.........if so, what are they like ?

[skippy]

I'll repost this here from another thread, because this info really belongs in this forum... I like my Fostex quite a bit, within reason. I'll explain that qualifier in a minute.

I have the D1624 standalone 16-track HDR (the 24/96 capable newer model of the D160). I got it because it was a good balance between performance and price, and because it was actually available at the time. Had it for a couple of months now. I chose it over the Tascam MX2424 because of price, availability, and the fact that they nickel and dime you to _death_ in putting together a usable configuration; and over the Mackie because I have exactly zero patience with vaporware. The Fostex arrived (well, arrived twice: the first one was DOA), got plugged in, andwas in use right out of the box within 2 hours. My kinda machine, once I got one that was alive.

I have an old-world view of what a studio should look like: the multitrack is a box here, the mixer is a box there, the mastering machine is another box over there, there are lots of wires, and no computers in the room. When one box melts down, I can still work with the other two... So I wanted the 1624 to simply replace the multitrack tape machine in that picture. It does that very well, and it does offer some useful editing features (cut/copy/paste) beyond what you could hope for with tape. To me, it's a tape machine with no razor blades needed, and that's exactly what I wanted. Other folks might well loathe it, because the manual is written in an amusing form of Jinglish, and if you expect it to be a DAW-in-a-box, you'll be *hideously* disappointed.

However, for what I needed, it was the perfect machine: cost effective, decent converters, adequate basic editing with a simple transport-control remote I can relocate anywhere in the room, and not one damned thing more.

Swapping tracks, copy/paste editing, erasing tracks, punching in, all work just the way I want them to. With the onboard converters, you can only record 8 tracks at a time, but that it not a critical limitation for me. The only operational thing that I really don't like is move/paste editing: the machine treats the whole disk as one linear recording area, so move/paste moves everything from your edit point to the end of the disk- which takes freakin' _forever_ if you get a big disk. You can achieve the same result with copy/paste, and that's much quicker. The unit is also a little noisy for control room use without a hush box.

Despite the last three items: two thumbs up.

[ausrock]

Hi Skippy and thanks.......I think you said it all, but one thing I have found out is that u can get add-on converters that will increase from 8 to 16 similtaneous analogue inputs. So that kind of puts these recorders right up there.

[skippy]

Yes, you can. The beast has 16 channels worth of ADAT lightpipe in (and out), so you can definitely stuff 8 more channels in if you need to. I didn't need to, so it was a nonissue.

I did get the balanced I/O option so that I can match the levels from the rest of my gear. Strictly speaking that's unnecessary, but I like minimizing hassles, and having single-ended _anything_ around gives me the hives...

Backup is also a little bit of a pain, but you do have the option of backing up via SCSI to a very limited set of CD-R drives, or to a regular SCSI disk or tape, or via lightpipe to whatever might be listening. I'm still working on the backup angle.

[ausrock]

Skippy.....hope u see this;

Do the D160 and D1624 allow you to "bounce" tracks down to one track? I havent been able to find this out locally as yet.

It looks as though we will buy the D160 though as I can get one of the last ones in the country, new, at a price to die for and for our purposes I dont think 24bit/96khz is really going to make much difference.

I will keep u updated here, as things progress.


Thanx for your replies.

[skippy]

Well, yes and no. You can definitely bounce tracks down through an external mixer- the thing is just a multitrack recorder, so you have full sync record capabilities, just like any other proper multitrack. However, you can't do it without the external mixer: it has no internal mixing or signal processing capabilities, other than the simple editing functions. It is _not_ a DAW-in-a-box. If you want to bounce 15 down to 1, it'll do it beautifully: playback 15, sync record 1, no sweat. But the signal munging is all up to you to do externally.

I like digital multitracks for many reasons, and the lack of a sync-playback-record-bleed annoyance is a big one!

My advice would be to dive on it, *if* it's a screamin' deal and you don't need 24bit. Another thing might be to keep an eye out for the 1624 at a much reduced price, now that they have the 2424 out. If you miss the D160, that's a fallback plan.

I like my 1624, anyway. Best of luck!

[ausrock]

Thanx skippy, we are looking at buying a Mackie 24 channel, 8 buss desk, so bouncing tracks shouldn't be a problem.

I would be interested to hear what equipment you are using in conjunction with your 1624 and how u have things set up.

BTW.......can I connect to my PC to let us burn cds?

thanx

[skippy]

I'm using mine with an Alesis Studio 32 and a Masterlink. There's a reasonable amount of outboard gear of various vintages, and a 208-point patch bay in the middle. I like the inline board- it just fits my old working style, and I seldom have to repatch anything other than to occasionally run a >8 direct out (or a submix out) to one of the 8 tape ins, and to play with different outboard gear on the inserts. I have a pretty simple rig, with all the tape outs, tape ins, direct outs, inserts, and so on normalled from the bay to the board.

The backup/interoperability capabilities of the Fostex are not the best, despite their glowing claims of using the SCSI port for this. You can't connect directly to a PC via any mechanism other than the ADAT lightpipe connectors (or AES/EBU if you get that option). The box is a SCSI master, and so is your PC- so there's no way to use the SCSI connection between the two, other than sneakernet (plug a drive into the Fostex, dump data, unplug the drive from the Fostex, carry it across the room and replug into the PC, retrieve data). I'm still actively investigating 16-ch lightpipe interfaces for efficiently getting data onto a PC: I'm pretty settled on the Sonorus StudI/O card for this, but have not made the purchases yet.

I don't know anything about burning CDs on a PC, so I can't help you there (unless you slurp the stereo bitstream in from the board during mixdown). That's why I went with the Masterlink: I can convince myself that it's just a simple old 2-track with balanced analog ins, and not have to have a 'pooter in the loop at all...