Fostex R8 Question

[Ben Logan]

What are the monitoring options for this machine? There's one button I see on pictures that says "input monitoring."

On my little Akai deck I can select either "tape" or "source." Selecting tape is neat, because I can play guitar into the unit (for example) and hear the note echoed back to me a second later, only in tape form. Can you do this on the R8?

I know it's a weird question, but I want something that will allow me to run vocals through it on the way to hard disk (despite the latency introduced).

Thanks.

[The Ghost of FM]

The R-8 is a two head recorder so you will not be able to do with it what you did with your other machine.

You need a three head machine so that you can monitor the tape off the repro head as you're recording which is placed further to the right of the record head that is printing the sound onto the tape. The physical distance between the two heads is what gives you that echo effect you were talking about.

On a two head deck the monitoring options are input, which is the same as source and sync which is a combination of whatever recorded tracks you have coming off the sync head and which ever tracks are armed to record as the input for monitoring during an overdub.

A TASCAM 38, 48, 58, ATR60-8 would all be proper 3 head decks and give you the feature you were wanting as well as them all being thicker 1/2" tape machines so the sound will be fuller/bigger/better.

Cheers!

[Ben Logan]

Thanks so much ghost. That was the info I needed. Up til now I've been looking at pictures of various machines, trying to puzzle this out. Always great to hear from someone with experience. No substitute for that. I appreciate it.