Question- Akai Dps16 and Burning CD's

[SN115]

I am leaning towards purchasing the DPS16 for the multitrack recording for our live band.....

Can users of this system please explain two things I can't seem to get the answer to at the music stores in my area.

1. Is there more than enough Hard Drive Room to record our practices....?We might do 15 songs per night, 5 minutes each, with anywhere from 4 - 8 tracks depending how I set up sub assigns and inserts on the mixer....

2. If there is enough room to record all these songs, and also mix them in some fashion after the fact, what is the proceedure to burn CD's?

Is it as simple as assigning each completed mixdown song a name, and then highlighting any and all of these, and then burning your CD, which in my case may have 15 tracks, all at the 8x speed I work with now?

(****note-- what I do now is record all our practice songs through a external mic into my MD player...I then go home and record each of these songs on Cool Edit and save each as a .wav file.....I then use standard CD burner software to drag all 15 wav files into place, and burn a CD with with 15 tracks or so, at 8x speed)

Im just trying to determine if burning CD's with Akai DPS16 will be this easy as well...week after week?.....(Is there enough room to save these songs week after week in DPS 16......If not how do you best recommend storing them for future use if necessary?)

Also, is it easy to link up DPS 16 to the CD burner I currently have in my computer to do all this, or will it be easier to attach some stand alone unit?

Thx for any and all input)))

[ffmada]

1. You should have enough room to record 4-8 tracks of a full practice, unless you run it at 24/96.

2. You will be able to mix and edit the songs as much as you want once they are recorded. The procedure for recording a CD is different depending on what type of burner you are using. I mix down to my computer from the digital outs on my akai. Once I record the stereo track I usualy use a little limiting/compression to bring the volume up a tad. Then I dither and burn audio cd's from the internal burner in my computer. Before I got my soundcard with digital in's I mixed down using the line in. I got decent results, but the soundblaster converter's aren't exactly great.

I have an external burner that I use to back up all of my projects(songs). If you want to record your practices week after week you will have to back up each song after you mix/edit on the akai. CDR's are cheap so I decided to back up with another burner, but there are other options. If you decide to use your computer to burn cd's you may not want/need an external burner. I think it offers the best bang for your buck when backing up though.

Did I answer everything?

Feel free to ask any more questions you may have

[SN115]

Thx for reply...just leads me to a few more quick questions:

1. You mention 24/16 as a recording option which appears to limit room...For live band recordings from my Mackie CFX-20 mixer what recording levels do you recommend and what will be differences in quality of sound?

2. Heres a stupid question: You mention you mix down to your computer to limit/compress, dither, etc....Is this done through another software programs you have, or though exteranl hardware of some sort?...Also (and this is the real stupid part) what are the main mix/edit functions you use the DSP 16 for then??? Can you apply any of these effects and functions using the DSP 16 machine?

3. I have some sort of basic sound card with line in jack..Can you recommend a good sound card to upgrade to with 1/4 jack input......Does this significantly improve sound quality as you transfer back and forth?

4. Finally, I also want to back up all materials, and probabaly as you suggest on CD's...Just didnt understand the logic of the external burner to do this when you have an internal burner.?.....however, if it makes things easier, please let me know how, and I will definetly pursue this route....

Thx again!!))