Recommendations for mt dig recorder

[EveningSky]

I am shopping for a multitract digital recorder. I am looking in the price range of $1-2,000. I have the specs on the Yamaha AW2816, Korg D1600 and D16, Akai DPS16 and Fostex V16.

I am interested in making CDs and like effects.

I am a newbe, but an empassioned musician.

What would the readers buy if they had up to $2k to spend on a set up, and why?

Do you get what you pay for, or are there best buy secrets to be shared?

[MISTERQCUE]

You will recieve load's of suuggestions, tips, ideas etc.
My advice is if you live near a music store, take a day off from work or school,and go over each recording format the store has to offer. Read up, ask questions and give each piece of equipment the full "ONCE-OVER". Then determine your musical needs for recording and re-post again if you have narrowed down your decision to 2 or 3! That's when all the members here will give a shout-out to respective recording medium.

But since I answered 1st, I will gve a shout-out to Alesis Adat's
(I use 4 of them) Why!!?? ADAT's RUUUUUUULLEE!!!!



Good Luck!
Peace
Mr.Q

[PapaJack]

I just purchased a Fostex VF16 from ZZounds. Good price and lots of features. I am new to all of this and have found out even though it is feature laden it still has shortcomings, like only being able to back up via SCSI, poor low EQ capabilities but it still fits my needs and was only $799. My biggest complaint is, whoever translated the Japanese manual to English needs to be tarred and feathered. It is the most confusing, hard to understand document I have ever read.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo PapaJack: [you don't sell pizzas too do you?]

You will find brother that most Japanese products' manuals are poorly organized, illogical, and written by techies who don't understand the people who buy most of the products.

When I got my Yamaha DX-7 keyboard, it took four manuals, a set of cassettes, and I bought two other "easy to understand" explanatory books and three YEARS before I got to understand the real insides of that marvelous keyboard which is still in my studio.

As to digital recorders, I guess the Adat is a good box but I just got the Yam 2816 [with its terrible manuals] and this box looks good.

When I registered the box on the Yamaha site, they said they would send me video to explain more about the box for free. I'm sure the video will help. I've been reading the manual and the tutorial manual for a week. I've got a grasp on how the box works but I'm taking my time and I haven't unplugged my MD8 by Yamaha.

I'm taking my time because buried on page 12 of the manual is a CLEAR statement that says the box must be shut down in a prescribed sequence. I'm glad I'm taking the time to read and re-read.

But, all of my research and input about the DAW2816 says the box has EXCELLENT SOUND. And, it burns to its own CD built in.

The street price is 2k for the unit but I did better than that with my vendor.

But as suggested by the astute Mr. QQ -- check things out, research, read this site and other sites and go directly to a big store to hear and view what you want to buy.


Cheers,
Green Hornet

[EveningSky]

What features are important to you in your use of this equipment?

What does 16 internal busses do for you over 4?

What do 2 internal effects processors do for you over 1?

How much better is a 20 bit A/D converter over a 24 bit converter, or do other factors matter?

Is there a noticable difference between 32 bit internal signal manipulation and 20 or 24 bit signal processing, or is the effect negligable?

How easy of difficult is it with the FOSTeX to make digital recordings, or is there a lot to tweek and a lot to go wrong?

What is your experience?

[Gargamel]

Build a DAW.

[EveningSky]

Dear Gargamel: have you had good success with this. I am concerned that a computer based unit will become too complicated and that I will have situations where I forgot to set some parameter and the recording seccession was suboptimal or unsuccessful. I desire simplicity and reliability.